Amdocs: Differing views of service provider role in developing, developed markets

Amdocs today released the results of a study, "Connected World 2010: A Survey of Emerging Markets," which explores how service providers in developing markets view their roles, as a follow-up to the previously released “Amdocs Connected World Survey,” which covers mature markets.

After talking to approximately 25 service providers in emerging markets and approximately 50 in mature markets, Frost & Sullivan, which conducted the studies on behalf of Amdocs, detected a difference in perception around the role telcos will play.

“Service providers in the emerging markets felt they played and would continue to play a central and leading role in innovating and driving new services through a ‘supermarket-type’ of strategy, where people go to their operator as a one-stop-shop for devices, applications and services,” said Jennifer Bates, director on consulting with Frost & Sullivan.

That’s not to say the service providers in emerging markets feel they will provide all the pieces, but that they will be the central point through which users get their personalized “goods.”

“Unlike the mature markets, for example, where someone goes to an Amazon or Barnes & Noble for their e-reader, in emerging markets, these [service providers] felt they’d be the central point and enabler for other stakeholders in the connected world,” said Nancy Weber, senior ICT consultant with Frost & Sullivan.

Conversely, the researchers felt that an “uncertainty” about the level of competition that would come from others in the value chain was a factor in the mature markets. “[Service providers] in North America and Western Europe are not clear about what their roles will be; they see applications and content developers driving innovation right now because of the entrepreneurial nature that gets things to market faster than has been possible in a ‘clogged’ telecom world,” Weber said.

In other words, service providers in emerging markets see themselves as more of an “end-all” or “critical destination” for the services that consumers want mashed up into personalized bundles, whereas service providers in mature markets currently view themselves as perhaps equal partners in an evolving ecosystem.

Another finding was that the different markets viewed “devices” in different ways. In emerging markets, “device” was almost synonymous with “smartphone,” while in mature markets the “device” focus went beyond smartphones and into other devices, such as machine-to-machine (M2M) readers, netbooks, e-readers and tablets.

Also, the focus in emerging markets was more on services and what they can do for the consumer, while mature markets focused more on the device itself. “In North America, for example, operators seem to think more about the device as a tool, whereas in emerging markets, [service providers] focus more on consumers and the applications and services they want,” Bates said.

In developing markets the applications, content and devices were more tightly integrated at the moment. Respondents stated that smartphone adoption and advanced services will remain a growth driver for the next five years, as networks and infrastructure evolve. That finding contrasted with Amdocs' survey in developed regions, where emerging devices (again, M2M, netbooks, e-readers and tablets) were capturing the focus.