Billing & Payments for Online Content – Realising the Mobile Operator Opportunity |
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by Innovation Observatory (sponsored by Aepona and Bango) | October 2011 The market for digital content delivered to SIM-enabled devices is very large and growing fast, driven by a combination of factors that has resulted in a compelling consumer offer and the extension of existing online commercial models to the mobile market. We estimate the market for mobile content will reach up to USD100bn by 2015. Though content, including apps, is delivered via mobile networks, much of the value currently passes through a number of third parties and the mobile operator is largely cut out of the value chain. However, mobile operators now have an opportunity to claim a significant role in the value chain, and earn revenues from the billing and payments processes for mobile and online content. The convenience of direct carrier billing – where the price of the content is added to the mobile bill through a “frictionless” buying process for the user – and the establishment of payment mechanisms that are simple to implement for app developers, content creators and app stores, mean operators are set to play a more central role in creating a “virtuous circle” driving the online content market. To maximise their opportunity, operators should be aware of the features and functionality needed of their internal platforms: this doesn’t mean replacing existing billing systems, but rather addressing the requirements of the front-end platforms that put the charge on to the bill. They must also understand the benefits that flow from opening up their systems to third parties, bringing relevant partners into their ecosystem. If they get these two aspects of mobile billing and payment right, they position themselves to earn revenue from the continuing growth in the online content market, both for content designed for consumption on a mobile device, and with other types of digital content too.
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White Papers
The Mobile Cloud: Unlocking New Profits |
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by Brian Partridge | February 2011 Numerous Possibilities and Challenges for the Mobile Cloud Is the sky falling or is the sky the limit? The entire mobile ecosystem faces limitless possibilities and challenges now and into the near future. Incredibly fast mobile networks giving us ubiquitous connectivity, iconic mobile devices enabling stunning yet simple user experiences, and unprecedented innovations created on the Internet have simultaneously coalesced. Mobility is essential to daily life; users are now demanding access to the Internet everywhere. The growing thirst for mobility impacts mobile network operators (MNOs), brands, advertisers, content owners and enterprises in fundamental ways. Download The Mobile Cloud: Unlocking New Profits |
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Solution Brief: Mobile Cloud Computing |
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With the proliferation of Cloud Based services, allowing enterprise and consumer services to obtain access to computing, storage and network facilities on a “pay as you grow” model, it becomes clear that Mobile Operators and Mobile Cloud Providers can extend beyond selling infrastructure and open the door to intelligent communication services. This white paper explores the possibilities for using communications & mobility features to enhance the value of cloud services, driving significant revenue opportunities for Service Providers, and introducing new Super-Apps. |
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Network as a Service And Mobile Cloud Computing |
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One of the most exciting and potentially profitable developments in computing and the Internet is the emergence of “Cloud Computing”. With their valuable communications assets and massive subscriber base, the global (mobile) telecom network can tap this market and provide valuable, revenue generating cloud computing capabilities in the form of Network as a Service (NaaS). Cloud computing is essentially the evolution of computing in which processing and data storage move away from desktop and laptop computers and back into large data centres. Cloud Services are applications, products, and services that take advantage of Cloud Computing by hosting the primary processing or data storage in the Cloud and making them available, on demand. Cloud Services require real-time access to the Internet, interworking with low footprint applications on users’ devices (such as browsers, email clients, widgets, etc). The high access bandwidth that is now available within both wireline and wireless domains is one of the key enablers driving the adoption of Cloud Computing across many industry sectors. |
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