An American in London

A tourist’s impressions of the wireless industry, May – June 2007

Version 1.01

By John K. Lin

© John K. Lin, 2007

Notice
• The contents of this presentation are the sole creation of
the author, John K. Lin, and does not represent the
views of any past, current or future employers. Feedback
welcomed at john@digitalmbas.org
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© John K. Lin, 2007

Overall thoughts & impressions
• I was amazed at the overall advertising, promotion and
retail presence of Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG.

• From an American perspective, Sony Ericsson’s

distribution within U.S. is quite limited. Samsung and LG
are primarily distributed through CDMA-based carriers
like Verizon and Sprint.

• Calling the United States from a UK-based mobile phone

from London is relatively inexpensive, from 5 pence to
20 pence/minute (Orange; Virgin Mobile)

• Pre-paid calling plans are quite popular in Europe,

especially for the youth market.

© John K. Lin, 2007

Overall thoughts & impressions (cont.)
• U.S. impressions prior to visit was that mobile phones in
the European market was a less operator subsidized
than in the U.S. However, with increasingly more
upscale mobile phones entering the European market, it
appears that more higher-end phones are being
subsized.

• Although many tourists were found to take photos with

their camera phones, the predominant majority did
continue to use their Digital Still Cameras (DSC’s)

© John K. Lin, 2007

London
A tourist’s impressions of the wireless industry

May – June 2006

© John K. Lin, 2007

UK/London overview
• The United Kingdom is the most advance
wireless market in Western Europe
• The leading wireless operators are O2,
Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile.
• Popular Mobile Virtual Operator Networks
(MVNOs) include Virgin Mobile.
• Popular mobile phone manufacturers include
Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and
LG, as well as Blackberry for the mobile
enterprise.

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: O2
• Over 17.8M subscribers in
the UK. (March 2007)
• O2 UK is part of the wider
O2 group which is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of
Telefónica S.A. O2. (HQ in
Slough, UK)
• O2 was formed in 2001
following the demerger
from British Telecom of its
former mobile business,
BT Wireless.
• www.o2.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: O2 (cont.)

(Pirates of the Caribbean

Promotion)

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: O2 June 2007 catalog

front cover back cover

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: O2 music sponsorship

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Vodafone
• Vodafone has over 17.4 subscribers in
the UK. (June 2007)
• “Vodafone Group Plc is the world's
leading mobile telecommunications
company, with a significant presence
in Europe, the Middle East, Africa,
Asia Pacific and the United States
through the Company's subsidiary
undertakings, joint ventures,
associated undertakings and
investments.”
• Vodafone Group Plc has over 198.6
million customers worldwide
(calculated on a proportionate basis in
accordance with the Company's
percentage interest in these ventures.
Dec 2006)
• Vodafone owns 45% of U.S. wireless
operator Verizon Wireless
• www.vodafone.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Vodafone (cont)

The Sony Ericsson W880i is The Nokia N95 is one of the

incredibly thin and very most advance “N-Series”
popular mobile phone in phones offered, which
London. includes a 5-megapixel
camera.

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Vodafone summer catalog

front cover back cover

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Vodafone flyer

front of flyer back of flyer

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Vodafone: advertising

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Orange
• Orange UK has over 15
million users (2006)
• “Orange is the key brand of
France Telecom, one of the
world's leading
telecommunications operators
with more than 161 million
customers on five continents.”
• The manager of this Orange
retail location expressed that
the digital photo frame
promotion had been received
very well.
• www.orange.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Orange

Pay Monthly Plans: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/pay_monthly/all/all

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Orange

Pay As You Go Plans GSM Pay As You Go Plans:

SIM cards with various
pre-paid amounts. http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/pay_as_you_go/all/all

© John K. Lin, 2007

 London: Orange: Music promotion with Sony Ericsson:
“Best of Festival”

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/offer/free_track_offer?WT.mc_id=ConMayHoFre_1318 Sony Ericsson retail promotion.

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Orange May 2007 catalog

front cover back cover

© John K. Lin, 2007
London: Orange

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: T-Mobile
• “T-Mobile is one of the world’s
largest mobile operators with
more than 109 million customers
worldwide and in the UK it is the
network of choice for approaching
17 million customers, making it
one of the largest networks.”
• “T-Mobile International is one of
the world’s leading companies in
mobile communications. As one
of Deutsche Telekom’s three
strategic business units, T-Mobile
concentrates on the most
dynamic markets in Europe and
the United States.”

• www.t-mobile.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: T-Mobile

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: 3

• “3 has over 3.9 million

customers in the UK and over
14.7 million worldwide (March
2007 figures)”
• “3, a mobile media company,
launched the UK's first 3G
network”
• 3 UK is 100% owned by Hong
Kong-based Hutchison
Whampoa (HWL)… “HWL
owns 3G licences in 11
markets: Australia, Austria,
Denmark, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Norway, Sweden and
the United Kingdom.”
• www.three.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: 3

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: (cont)

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Virgin Mobile (MVNO)
• “Virgin Mobile is the UK’s
largest mobile virtual network
operator (MVNO) and uses T-
Mobile's network. Since its
launch in November 1999,
Virgin Mobile has attracted
more than 4 million
customers.”
• “Virgin Mobile is part of Virgin
Media. The group is the first
to be able to offer “quadruple
play” to customers: mobile
and fixed line telephony,
broadband internet and
television.”
• www.virginmobile.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Virgin Mobile (cont.)

© John K. Lin, 2007

 London: Virgin Mobile – pre-paid account
Front: GSM SIM card with phone number, default
security PIN, and personal unblocking key.

Back:

Pre-paid accounts sold at retail,

includes (1) SIM card & (1) “Top-
Up” card.

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Virgin Mobile – pre-paid (cont) :
“top-up” card
Front: phone number and top-up
expiration date.

Back: Instructions to “top-up” (add)

more minutes to the pre-paid plan.

www.virginmobile.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: pre-paid infrastructure: “top up”
locations at ubiquitous retail locations, ATM
By handing over your “top
up” card or swiping the
card at a self-serve kiosk
or ATM machine, a pre-
paid subscriber can add
additional amounts of
money to their existing
pre-paid calling plan.

By entering a voucher
number into mobile
phone after “top up”
payment by dialing “789”
activates the additional
money to the phone and
the phone is “top up”

© John K. Lin, 2007

 London: The Carphone Warehouse

• The Carephone Warehouse is the largest independent retailer of mobile phones in

Europe, with over 2,000 retail locations in 10 countries.
• The company is based in London, and is known as “The Phone Store” outside of the
United Kingdom.
•www.carphonewarehouse.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: The Carphone Warehouse May 2007 catalog

front cover back cover

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Nokia
• 35.5% Global market share
(IDC: Q1 2007) – #1 in the
world.
• Virtually no outdoor
advertising within London.
Promotions primarily appear
in-retail store and carrier
promotions.
• N-Series phones heavily
High-end N-Series promoted, especially for their
multi-media functionality
(N73 & N95)
• Nokia E61 /E61i appears to
be a very popular alternative
for an enterprise phone
alternative to the Blackberry
(includes WiFi support – U.S.
versions do not have such
support)
E61i N73 N95 • www.nokia.co.uk

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Sony-Ericsson
• 8.5% Global market share (Q1
2007) – 4th behind Nokia,
Motorola and Samsung.
• “Sony Ericsson, a 50:50 joint
venture of Sony Corporation and
Ericsson AB, was established in
October 2001. Our mission is to
establish Sony Ericsson as the
most attractive and innovative
global brand in the mobile
handset industry.”
• 74.8 million mobile phones
shipped worldwide (ending Jan
2007 – FY 2006)
• www.sonyericsson.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Sony Ericsson: Kensington retail store

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Sony Ericsson
Underground advertising

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Samsung
• 13.6% Global market share
(Q1 2007) – 3rd behind Nokia
& Motorola.
• “Samsung Electronics (UK)
Ltd (SEUK) entered the UK
market in 1984 and has since
seen explosive growth and
success, especially within the
mobile phone market, with
projected revenues of £995
million in 2005.”
• http://www.samsung.com/uk/

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Samsung & O2 flyer

front of flyer back of flyer

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Taxi cab: LG
• 6.2% Global market share (IDC:
Q1 2007) – 5th behind Nokia,
Motorola, Samsung, and Sony
Ericsson.
• The Shine and Prada phone are
two high-end and very, very high
profile phones by LG and heavily
displayed and promoted at major
operator and handset retail
locations.
• “Established in 1958, LG
Electronics, Inc. (LG) is a global
leader and technology innovator
in consumer electronics, home
appliances and mobile
communications, employing more
than 82,000 people working in
over 110 operations including 81
subsidiaries around the world.”
Based out of Seoul, Korea.
• http://uk.lge.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Motorola
• 17.7% Global market share
(IDC: Q1 2007) – 2nd behind
Nokia.

• Virtually no outdoor
advertising within London.
Promotions primarily appear
in-retail store and carrier
promotions, and even with
that, presence is poor.

• The Motorola RAZR is fairly

popular and can be seen
used throughout London

• http://www.motorola.com/uk/

© John K. Lin, 2007

 Blackberry
• Everywhere you look in London, there are business professionals
with Blackberries.
• “Research in Motion (RIM)is a leader in wireless communications.
Products include the BlackBerry™ wireless email solution, wireless
handhelds and wireless modems.”
• Worldwide: “The total number of BlackBerry subscriber accounts in
the quarter increased by approximately 1.2 million to over 9 million
total subscriber accounts.” (June 2007)
• Blackberry offered by all major wireless operators within the UK for
enterprises.
• www.blackberry.com
• www.rim.net

www.my-blackberryfromo2.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Microsoft Windows Mobile
• Numerous models of Microsoft
Windows Mobile devices across
mobile handset manufactures (HP,
HTC, and ODM) and wireless
operators are available in London.

• www.microsoft.com/uk/windowsmobile

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Palm
• “Palm is a market leader in
smartphones, handhelds, software and
accessory solutions. Create a mobile
lifestyle with your Palm Treo
smartphone powered by the Palm
OS® or Windows Mobile® platform or
a Palm handheld, powered by Palm
OS.”
• Palm Treo’s were available at retail,
but the overall promotions appeared
limited.
• Did not see the ubiquity of Treo’s in
Europe as did with Blackberry.
• Palm’s primary and strongest market
is in North America.
• There has been considerable takeover
rumors of Palm in 2007, with a recent
$325 million private equity investment
by Elevation Partners (June 2007)

• www.palm.com

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Apple: iPod

There are plenty of Apple iPod advertisements thought London and

plenty of Londoners listening to their iPods during their Underground
commutes.

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Snappy Snaps

Traditional print retailers and wireless operator retailers seemed to

emphasize prints from camera phones more so than their U.S. counterparts
(most likely due to the longer availability and higher megapixel of camera
phones).

© John K. Lin, 2007

London: Police public notice in Hyde Park

© John K. Lin, 2007

Tourists in London: Buckingham Palace

© John K. Lin, 2007

London Tourist: Tower of London

© John K. Lin, 2007

Tourists in London - Tower Bridge

This tourist was taking a video clip of Tower Bridge being drawn up.

© John K. Lin, 2007

Appendix

© John K. Lin, 2007

Overall thoughts & impressions of Europe (cont.)

© John K. Lin, 2007

 Paris: Tourist: Eiffel Tower

This tourist from the Middle East was

taking a photo of his friend with his
friend’s Nokia camera phone. Later, I
took a photo of him with his Sony Tourist taking a scenic photo
Ericsson camera phone (UI was in
with LG Shine.
Arabic)

© John K. Lin, 2007

Paris: Tourist: Inside the Palace of Versailles

© John K. Lin, 2007

Paris: Tourists along the Champs-Elysees
taking photos of the Arc de Triomphe

Tourist with a Motorola RAZR. Tourists with Digital Still Cameras,

Cameraphones

© John K. Lin, 2007