3 pushes out again
3, here in the UK, is constantly pushing the boundaries of the market. A lot of their disruption is around pushing new revenue models (or dropping prices), but they also push new services into the market at a fair clip. As an aside, they’re able and willing to push prices and services in this way, because, I guess, as the smallest provider, they’ve got nothing to lose.
3 are continuining their mix of price pressure and innovation with the today’s announcement of another potential market disruptor, the 3 SkypePhone, a prepay mobile with Skype capability.
As I’ve argued in the past , I think 3 is the most innovative mobile telco in the UK; e.g. their user generated content reselling, providing customers a claw-back from interconnect charges and skype on their monthly phones, to name a few of their recent product/service rollouts.
So, back to the SkypePhone.
It’s £50 for the device, and you need to keep a £10 monthly topup, to keep it active.
But, it won’t do SkypeOut (to call regular numbers), just Skype to Skype - their FAQ reveals the blended revenue model:
“Can you use SkypeOut? If not, Why?
bq. The 3 Skypephone does not support Skype Out, as 3 already provides you with great value calling to normal phone numbers around the world.”
So, this can really only be positioned for the ‘value’ end of their customer base? Cost conscious prepay customers who see an ability to save call costs?
I think there’s another user-base, at the other end of the ‘value’ chain - peripatetic business users, who have crippled (either by software/fair use restrictions) high end handsets, but would carry this around in their bag to whip out at airports/coffee shops instead of a PC.
And it’s a 3G device, but I can’t see if it’s able to be used as a 3G bluetooth modem for a laptop; which would make it the perfect business travelling device.
Usual disclaimer, when I talk about the UK mobile market - T-Mobile and Vodafone are clients.
