Case study

Orange is first UK retailer to take BlackBerry Bold and Samsung Omnia handsets Orange has scored a smartphone double over rival mobile retailers as the first to range the much-anticipated BlackBerry 900 Bold and Samsung’s 16GB Omnia handsets.

Orange launched the Bold, by Research in Motion (RIM), earlier this month, ahead of T-Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone. 3 said in April at the Hugh Symons Unity seminar it will also take the handset. O2 has confirmed they too will stock the handset before Christmas.

Orange has also taken delivery of early stock of the 16GB version of Samsung’s Omnia phone, its first Windows Mobile device, which comes with a 5 migapixel camera. Orange has a six-week exclusive on the 16GB version. Other retailers will range the 8GB version in the meantime.

The Blackberry Bold is already available ‘free’ on £40 deals from all Orange’s direct channels. It will be available from Carphone at the end of the month on Orange, on the same price plans. A £2.50 charge for unlimited data is also available. T-Mobile customers signing to the Business One plan can take the Bold from September, with free access to T-Mobile’s 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. Vodafone said it will be selling the device in the coming weeks on 18 month deals, although tariff details were unavailable as Mobile News went to press.

The Blackberry Bold is HSDPA-enabled. It is the first RIM BlackBerry handset to allow customers to open, edit and send Microsoft Word and Excel documents.  An Orange spokesperson said: “Some people are calling it a genuine rival to the iPhone, so for us to be the first to launch the handset is great news.” T-Mobile head of business marketing Oliver Chivers said: “The BlackBerry Bold offers all the features our customers expect, as well as a range of advanced functionality that enhance its business benefits. “We are sure it will prove a popular choice with both SME and enterprise customers.”

The new Samsung i900 Omnia touch screen handset, uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The handset strikes many similarities to Apples iPhone not only in looks, but by being sold in two different versions 8GB and 16GB. However, unlike the iPhone, this device has expandable memory capabilities, and features a 5 megapixel camera, including a feature called face and smile detection. Other features include GPS, FM radio, Wi-Fi and HSDPA, and will be boxed with a spare stylus and leather carrying case.

Details on pricing have yet to be confirmed.

Orange will be the first carrier to offer the upcoming Blackberry Bold.  The France Télécom UK outfit confirmed it will be the very first carrier with Bold. This beats T-Mobile by weeks, despite that firm being the first to announce. Initially, a source at the Carphone Warehouse informed us they’ll be trumping Deutsche Telekom September arrival of the phone, by stocking the Bold on Orange from the 21st of this month. A follow-up call to Orange surprised the bejesus out of them as no one was supposed to know any of this, A spokesperson at Orange said the firm will even be beating Carphone Warehouse to the shelves. Orange will be taking stock on the 14th and will have them in its shops by the Saturday 16th, along with online ordering.  The tariffs start at £45 a month, with the phone free. We understand the Warehouse folk will be offering deals on gratis handsets from just £40, with an unlimited data allowance. Normally the latter’s priced at £2.50 per month, but will be refunded every quarter. Not a peep still from O2 or Vodafone on arrival dates, despite attempts at cajoling information out of them. The relationship with O2 is usually quite strong, as they were the first out the starting gates with the likes of the Curve.

A spokesO2 said: “the Blackberry Bold is still undergoing product testing. We will only launch a device when we are confident it will deliver a great customer experience.” This is an odd response, seeing as they know full well we recently toyed with the O2 version of the phone for sometime at the Wireless Festival in London, with no problems whatsoever. What’s even odder than that is the press samples of the handset sent out by RIM for review carry a Vodafone SIM card.

Just in case you need a refresher as to what the Bold is all about, it’s the first Blackberry phone to support tri-band HSDPA networks, with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and a new full-QWERTY keyboard. Here’s a picture of the phone on an Orange network, the very first image to be seen anywhere on the very first network to support it.

A third of mobile phones bought last year were purchased online, it has been claimed. Consumer trends research company Global Reviews asked over 1,000 mobile phone buyers what they look for when buying a mobile and found 31% bought their phone online last year.  The survey also found that customers are increasingly going online to manage their mobile account. Some 83% have visited their provider’s website, 44% have viewed their balance online, 23% have viewed their call history online and 14% have paid their bill online. The research also tried to assess which of the leading provider websites is the most consumer friendly. T-Mobile topped the league with 67% of its users who were surveyed rating it favourably, followed by Vodafone with 60%, Orange, 56%, and O2 with 54%. Global Reviews director, Adam Goodvach said: ‘It is crucial that providers take advantage of the increasingly important role of the website to maximise their potential sales. ‘Unfortunately, consumers’ online experience varies dramatically depending on the site they are visiting.’

Following the news leak of a new deal between UK operators, Vodafone and Orange, the pair have finally admitted that their proposed joint venture is dead. It’s believed that France Telecom, Orange’s parent, got cold feet about shoving the assets involved in operating its network into a shared venture. So instead, the two operators have struck a much simpler deal – they’ll just share the same physical cell sites. Even this is expected to result in the need for 15 per cent fewer sites, which over two years will mean 3,000 less sites. Given the public’s attitude towards cellular masts, that’s something of a PR coup. The new deal is rumoured to have been pushed through by the new head of Orange UK, Tom Alexander, who was previously head of Virgin Mobile. Come to think of it, he was once head of Virgin Games, too. Although the announcement was very watered down from the original objectives, there was still some hint that the running of physical network might still be outsourced. A memo sent round to Vodafone’s engineers – after the news had already been leaked – by Vodafone UK CEO, Nick Read, still says, “We remain committed to exploring the outsourcing of our field operations and maintenance teams.” The INQ isn’t sure whether this would let Ericsson – which already runs the network for 3 UK – to pitch for the business. What it does mean is that O2 is looking increasingly isolated, given that T-Mobile and 3 have come to a more far-reaching agreement on the network sharing front. Ironically, it is O2 which has been slowest in rolling out its 3G network and would have most benefitted from coming to a deal with the likes of 3 or Vodafone.

Phones 4U have bought online retailer Dial-a-Phone for the knockdown price of £9m, a snip on the £60m valuation a couple of years ago. Phones 4U have taken advantage of the situation at the ailing Dial-a-Phone in order to increase their share in websales, having been watching the business for some time. Carphone Warehouse were also said to be looking at purchasing the internet dealer, but were repeatedly put off by unrealistic valuations. Carphone eventually moved to buying smaller web-retailers e2Save and OneStopPhoneShop. Dial-a-Phone have been suffering the past couple of years following the pull out of T-Mobile, 3, and Vodafone, who all had issues with the quality of customers. This lead to a sharp decrease in contract volumes, from 40,000 to 10,000. Nick Fisher, Dial-a-Phone sales boss will take over the day to day operations as joint owners Richard Frank and Jonathan Beck have left the business. Fisher will now report to Brendan Sweeney, 4U’s distribution head. Phones 4U will continue to run the site as a separate operation under the Dial-a-Phone brand. “Dial-a- Phone’s strong brand and high level of expertise in the direct market are a perfect complement to Phones 4u’s brand and strength on the High Street.” Said 4u Group CEO Tim Whiting. “Combining the Dial-a-Phone business with the Phones 4u direct operation will significantly increase our share of the direct mobile phone market.  We are looking forward to welcoming Dial-a-Phone to the 4u Group and believe it will play a significant part in the continued expansion of our mobile phone distribution business.”

Vodafone is launching advanced customer services directly on the handset to give its customers customer care and billing information in real-time. The service will not only provide a self care facility but also gives an added opportunity to provide interactive promos and tutorials. Simple tutorials would include such as step by step guides on how to use the mobile internet to download music or how to send an MMS. Following a successful trial with more than 3000 customers in the UK and Spain using SNAPin SelfService, Vodafone will begin a phased roll out of the on device self care service from this year. The service will be available on open OS handsets, including S60, UIQ and Microsoft Windows Mobile, to begin with, with the aim to extend to the majority of handsets on offer from Vodafone over time. The  self-service lets customers navigate an on-screen visual menu of options to answer questions or solve their problems right on the handset. Customers also have the option to connect through to the call centre, bypassing traditional IVR menus, or to get an automatic response directly on their phone. The trial showed that customers want to have self help facilities on the phone. In more mature markets in Europe quickly solving problems in this way is highly desirable and often considered more convenient for solving routine queries such as current billing information. In emerging markets such as India, self help on the device empowers customers who are using mobiles for the first time and helps them to quickly and easily get the most out of a new phone and the services on offer. “We have conducted thorough trials over the last three months with customers. The trials have confirmed that on device self help, when simple and quick to use, is very desirable for customers as it gives them control of how and when they deal with us and makes the most of their time. It also greatly adds to their experience of dealing with Vodafone and improves overall satisfaction.” said Paul de Laat, Global Director of Customer Value Management at Vodafone.  “Many customers particularly liked the ability to answer set up questions themselves when trying out new services, like MMS, or the mobile internet. Customers were also more willing to try new services after receiving targeted interactive promotions. We believe that rolling out self care services could help us to grow loyalty and stimulate revenue, especially as customers become more confident to try new services.” Rolling out user-friendly self care services will not replace current customer care channels, but merely provide the customer with more choice over when, where and how they obtain information on Vodafone’s products and services as well as their own personal account information.