Orange Makes Exclusive Offer of New Apple Watch in France

Orange France has begun accepting pre-orders for the LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 3. According to the operator’s website, the device will be available exclusively on its network starting on 22 September 2017. Eligible customers—meaning those with unlimited calling plans with Orange or its budget brand Sosh—will have access to a voice and data add-on, called Multi-SIM, with which they can share their allowances with the watch.
 
This deal is being offered free of charge for the first six months, to customers who make their purchases between 22 September and 3 October. After that, the subscription for the add-on will cost €5.00 (US $5.97) per month. Customers must have a compatible handset (iPhone 6S or later model) in order to make use of the Apple Watch Series 3.
 
With all the fanfare surrounding Apple’s announcement last week of its iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, the new Apple Watch seems to have gotten a little less attention. However, while the improvements to the company’s flagship handsets are more or less incremental, the wrist-based unit comes with a quantum leap (albeit one already made by Samsung and LG)—cellular connectivity, and LTE at that.
 
Now that the Apple Watch no longer needs to be tethered to a nearby iPhone, users have greater freedom to access voice and data services at times when they may not have the ability or desire to have their handsets with them. And Orange is well positioned to benefit from this situation by achieving (for the time being) market exclusivity in its home base, France. While we of course cannot be sure at the moment what the level of demand and uptake there will be for the LTE-enabled watch, Orange’s first-mover status will allow it to garner all the revenue in this sector for a while and possibly to keep ahead of its competitors even after they enter.
 
According to a report, Orange’s exclusivity is due to technical reasons rather than to a privileged deal inked with Apple: Currently in France, only Orange’s network is capable of supporting e-SIMS, which is the system used by the Apple Watch Series 3. This circumstance could cause the period of exclusivity to last longer than it would otherwise.
 
Adding a free six-month promotional period to the offer is a savvy move, although the future cost of the Multi-SIM add-on is certainly not onerous. While the operator will make money from this surcharge, we expect that if the Apple Watch Series 3 catches on among French users, it will create a serious revenue opportunity in the form of increased data consumption. 

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. 

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Apple Revenue Growth Slows to 2 Percent

Apple reported revenues for its fiscal first quarter (to December 2015) up just 2 percent year-over-year to US $75.9 billion. The sales were at the low end of its forecast of US $75.5–77.5 billion and include US $548 million from the company’s patent settlement with Samsung. Apple blamed the slower growth on the strong U.S. dollar, saying revenues would have risen 8 percent at constant exchange rates. At constant rates, revenues were up 18 percent in Europe and 17 percent in greater China, while falling 1 percent in the Americas and 4 percent in Japan. The company’s net profit rose to US $18.4 billion or US $3.28 per share, from US $18.0 billion or US $3.06 per share a year earlier, and Apple maintained its quarterly dividend at 52 cents a share. While Apple said it set a new record for iPhone sales in the quarter (the iPhone 6s was launched in September) unit sales of the smartphone were unchanged year-over-year at 74.78 million and iPhone revenues were up just 1 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier. iPad sales fell 25 percent year-over-year to 16.12 million, and sales of Mac computers were down 3 percent over the same period to 5.31 million units. Apple highlighted the growing contribution from its services business, which grew revenues by 15.5 percent year-on-year to US $5.5 billion in the quarter. Apple said it recently passed the milestone of an installed base of 1 billion devices accessing its services, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TV, iPod touch and Apple Watch. For fiscal Q2, Apple forecast a sharp slowdown in sales to US $50–53 billion and a gross margin of 39.0–39.5 percent compared to 40.1 percent in Q1. Questions of the exchange rate aside, these results make it clear that Apple’s growth, particularly of its flagship iPhone, is slowing. Not only that, but there is no upturn in sight—the U.S. technology giant predicts a continuation of the trend, with an actual decline in revenue impending. This situation should come as no genuine surprise; growth, and especially steep growth, cannot go on forever, and Apple’s slowdown can be considered as a sign of maturity. And it is not just Apple that has matured; the global smartphone market has. With iPhones in the hands of a huge range of users in developed and developing countries, saturation has set in. What is more, as manufacturers of budget devices (especially in China) include more and more advanced features and capabilities in their low- to medium-priced smartphones, they are closing the gap with Apple’s high-priced phone. And finally, Apple has not, to date, expanded into the very fast-growing new sector of connected cars and other IoT applications.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile, fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.