Case study

Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica has outperformed Vodafone in the UK and Spanish mobile phone markets, confirming its British rival’s relatively poor first-quarter performance there. Telefonica, the parent company of O2, reported 11pc UK revenue growth in the three months to June 30 as it added 275,000 new customers. In contrast, Vodafone last week reported revenue growth of just 2.1pc in the UK as it shed 27,000 customers. Matthew Key, chief executive of Telefonica Europe, said: “We have been taking market share from Vodafone in the UK. That is clear from the numbers.”

In Spain, where Vodafone saw revenues tumble 2.5pc - ending a sustained period of growth - Telefonica’s mobile arm managed to eke out growth of 0.2pc despite the tougher economic climate. O2 UK’s quarterly figures did not include sales of the iPhone 3G which went on sale in July 11 and has become the company’s fastest-selling phone ever. Mr Key admitted the company had experienced a shortage of the new device, leaving disappointing many customers. However, he said the company was hoping that within a month it would have enough stock to allow any customer to walk into any store a buy an iPhone off the shelf. He added that half of customers were buying the phone on a tariff of £45 or £75 a month, with iPhone customers still spending 30pc more on average per month than standard customers. Shares in Telefonica rose 21c to €16.66, while Vodafone edged 1.1 higher at 136.05p. Shares in Orange’s parent France Telecom rose 59c to €20.37 as it said it would pay an interim dividend for the first time ever. Orange added just 1,000 new UK customers in the three months to June 30 but saw revenues rise 9.7pc in the first half as it attracted higher spending contract customers. Tom Alexander, chief executive of Orange UK, said: “While we’re mindful of the economic climate in the UK, this is a damn good time to expand - that’s why we’re pushing harder on the high street with new retail stores, while simultaneously growing our mobile network. “We’re seeing that mobile is relatively resilient to economic change. Mobile is embedded in people’s lives and they’re spending more than they did last year on Orange.”

With the demand for the latest 3g iPhone in the USA high RDA Global have done a survey that found that 15% of a sample of mobile workers would like an iPhone.By taking into account the total number of mobile workers in the States (50 million), they calculate that iPhone sales could surpass 7 million units.

 

Among the polled workers, younger consumers, who currently use Apple computers and iPods, don’t mind paying the premium and are most likely to buy an iPhone. Though with business penetration of apple computers outside of some smaller media industry sectors (music and video production especially) lower this may not be true across the whole mobile worker population.

Furthermore, according to RDA Global, Apple will also find its customers among the Blackberry, Treo and other high-end phone users.

Finally, it’s interesting to add that potential iPhone purchasers spend almost twice the amount of time on their mobile device than is the case with those not interested in the iPhone.

More information as well as the full RDA iPhone Study is available on RDA Global’s site.