Vodafone Spain Launches Smartphone Pricing Program

Vodafone Spain launched a new smartphone program that enables subscribers to acquire handsets with interest-free payments over 24 months and comes with 10 GB of data during the first year of ownership. The program, called Lo Tenemos (“we have it”), also offers phones with no minimum contract period, a five-day repair service, insurance and a trade-in offer worth up to €450.00 off the price of a new model.
 
The company currently sells the Huawei P20 and Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 without tying the client to a contract period and plans to offer other smartphones in this way. With the repair service, Vodafone expects to return around 60 percent of phones within 48 hours and offers a loan unit as a replacement during that time.
 
It is almost always in a mobile operator’s interest to get full-featured smartphones into the hands of as many customers as possible. The more of their subscriber that have these devices, the more data gets consumed, and the more revenue the operator earns. The model of installment-plan payment for devices, with zero down and no long-term commitment to a particular plan, is calculated to appeal to budget-minded customers (as well as to customers in general) and therefore makes sense in terms of increasing the volume of data-enabled devices connected to an operator’s network. These arrangements are prevalent in the U.S. market, and Vodafone’s adoption of it in Spain may signal a trend toward the approach in Europe.
 
Spreading the payment for the device over 24 months keeps the monthly payments low, and de-linking this arrangement from any 24-month subscription plan obligation will satisfy the preference of many of today’s users for maximum flexibility and freedom, while still keeping the users within Vodafone’s ecosystem.
 
Furthermore, the free-data offer should be very effective in encouraging participants in the device offering to use those devices to or near their maximum capacity and thus help to form usage patterns that will remunerate the operator in the long run. We should note that 10 GB per year is quite generous in terms of monthly data allotment and should more than suffice for a great number of users.
 
The repair and trade-up provisions of the program are also quite attractive in terms of increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. The latter in particular speaks to the operator’s desire to retain customers as smart-device users and to upsell them over time. It is more affordable for the operator to offer budget smartphones by Huawei, but it might be a good idea to extend the program in the future to higher-end devices from major Western brands.

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 

Xiaomi to Launch first Android One Smartphone in India

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has unveiled a new flagship device for the Indian market, its first smartphone running the Android One OS developed by Google for emerging markets. The new phone, called Mi A1, will be offered with 200 GB free data from Airtel and will sell for INR 14,999.00 (US $234.00) starting on 12 September via Xiaomi’s website and the local e-commerce site Flipkart. Available in a choice of pink, gold or black metal finish, the Mi A1 runs the basic version of Android, with few pre-loaded apps (similar to Google’s own devices), but will get an update to the new Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of 2017. Xiaomi said it will also be among the first phones to get Android P next year.
 
With dual 12-megapixel back cameras, the Mi A1 comes with Xiaomi’s camera app as well as Google Photos with unlimited storage. Other features include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. In addition, the phone will get the latest Google software, such as Google Assistant.
 
The Mi A1 will be available in other markets including Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and Taiwan, according to Google. The company first launched Android One in India in 2014 to bring affordable smartphones to new market. Phones running the software are also available in markets ranging from Japan to Turkey.
 
This new phone marks a serious improvement in power for Android One devices, and it demonstrates the extent to which Google intends to dominate emerging markets such as India, where many users are new to mobile data but eager to plunge in.
 
Android One is a basic system, appropriately enough for developing economies, but nonetheless powerful—and now even more so, given the new device’s capacities. The price point is still relatively affordable but is still about US $50 more than other Android One devices. Google and Xiaomi (which has made a specialty of providing budget-oriented but sophisticated mobile devices to the developing world) are calculating that the Indian market has matured to the point that enough consumers will be willing to spend a little extra to get a better, more durable device. The promised OS updates should further incentivize Indian customers who anticipate extending themselves further in the use of mobile data.
 
From an MNO point of view, the participation of Airtel is significant. The operator has clearly made a good strategic move in entering into a partnership to become the sole provider of the Mi A1, and we believe that such exclusive deals are on general principles worth pursuing. With their ability to draw in new customers who want the new devices, they have the potential to take subscribers away from competing operators, and can burnish the brand of the operator.
 
Beyond that, we note that the Xiaomi–Airtel deal comes with a free data offer of 200 GB. While this is apparently a one-time-only, non-renewable offer, it is still a generous amount of data with which to get started and put the Mi A1 through its paces. We consider it a savvy move that will help the operator get its customers used to consuming more and more data and therefore become, in the long run, better sources of revenue for the operator.

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 

Xiaomi Launches Its Own Mobile Service in China

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has launched its own mobile service in China. The service, called MiMobile, offers a SIM that works over China Telecom’s 2G/3G/4G network. The prepaid service charges CNY 0.10 (US $0.016) per minute, text or MB, and customers can also subscribe to a bundle of 3 GB data for CNY 59.00 (US $9.25) per month. Users also receive free roaming across China and free incoming calls. Xiaomi announced the new service at the presentation of its latest smartphone for the Chinese market, the Mi 4c, which will be priced at CNY 1299.00 (US $203.64) for 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage or CNY 1499.00 (US $234.99) with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. The Mi 4c also supports infrared technology to replace common remote controls, such as for a TV or air conditioner, and Xiaomi’s EdgeTap technology to perform common functions with a simple tap of the phone. Xiaomi has been making worldwide waves with its smartphones, in overseas markets such as India, where expanding demand for data has driven demand for budget-priced devices. Now the aggressive manufacturer is expanding in a different direction by offering mobile service of its own as an MVNO, running on the network of China Telecom. Competing in China’s mobile market seems like a logical next step for Xiaomi. Offering the service via SIM will make it available as widely as possible, but MiMobile can also be seen as a way to drive device sales within China, where they have lately been doing less well than abroad. Users who do not have a 4G/LTE handset may be motivated by Xiaomi’s generous prepaid MVNO offer to upgrade to the new Mi 4c. Looking further ahead, the offer—even though it is on an MVNO basis—can be seen in the wider context of new challenges to the MNOs’ traditional offerings. Another handset manufacturer, Ericsson, recently announced that it will be offering voice calling via its own Wi-Fi-only devices. While we are not privy to Xiaomi’s future plans, offering OTT voice services tied to their devices would be an even more decisive end run around the MNOs.

Tarifica has been the leading provider of telecom pricing information for close to four decades. It maintains the most robust, in-depth and up-to-date pricing database in the industry, which includes mobile and fixed line rates from over 400 operators in 85 countries, as well as historical data going back to 1997. Tarifica also produces reports, surveys, publications and custom analyses.Its clients include carriers, regulators, enterprises and consultants in every region of the globe.For more information, please visit www.tarifica.com. Tarifica also maintains a presence on the following social media platforms: