I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Apple’s iPhone to be offered in NZ
Well that happened faster that expected.
If you think the iPhone is a break through device, like I do, then this is a very significant announcement for the local mobile industry.
Previously the Vodafone Global CEO has ruled out the Apple dance. So it appeared that Telecom NZ had a great chance to scoop an exclusive iPhone deal.
The first wave of the carrier deals done by Apple favoured the challenger carrier that did not have an investment in content. Locally Vodafone is doing a roaring trade here on music downloads so getting the iPhone would mean some complex business issues.
In contrast Telecom had everything to gain.
As the mobile challenger launching a new, non differentiated, network the iPhone would have given Telecom a big leg up, made it instantly cool, and provided instant content. Having iPhone pricing in the product line up would have been useful alongside expensive world mode phones. Telecom would have had an easier job rebuilding their brand around an exclusive iPhone deal.
While a positive step for Vodafone the marginal benefit to them is much less than the marginal loss to Telecom.
So Vodafone needs to work out what iPhone/iTunes means to it’s current services. Telecom missed an awesome opportunity. It would be interesting to know how far into it they got. Would be tough being a single carrier from NZ competing against a multi-country Vodafone group.
For content developers I hope we see a Vodafone partnering program that provides an opportunity to develop here and use the Vodafone global network as a channel to market.
This is a significant event for the industry.
blog
Wow, that is definitely not how I called it. I think I even owe people money!
Vodafone giving up control of the handset, or Apple allowing someone else’s brand on their phone?
Wow, just wow.
My bet was on TNZ in NZ, and AAPT in AUS. Oops.
My sources have said that Telecom is getting it as well, though probably not immediately (these sources also told me about the vodafone deal 2 months ago)…. It’d be interesting to see if we have the same here as whats happened in Australia. Everyone and there dog who runs a Telco seems to have it over there?
I’ll extend that cause it doesn’t seem to be clear, over in Australia, Vodafone is definately not the only one getting the iPhone.
> Vodafone giving up control of the handset, or Apple allowing someone else’s
> brand on their phone?
I’ll be surprised if you see the (ghastly) Vodafone brand on the iPhone. At least not on the casing. Here in the UK, O2 doesn’t appear on the exterior… in fact, looking over the shoulder of my colleagues who have the iPhone, I’m hard pressed to recall seeing any branding at all (other than Apple).
> If you think the iPhone is a break through device, like I do
Rod, “break through device” doesn’t seem like a strong-enough term. I’m rather bitter about the fact that I signed up to a 2-year plan for a free Nokia phone, only to have the iPhone drop in price by almost 100 quid about 2 or 3 weeks later. That said, it has afforded me the opportunity to compare the iPhone with what is supposedly the best that Nokia has to offer. The iPhone is such an order-of-magnitude better it is frankly like comparing a hammer, chisel and tablet of stone, with the fountain pen and writing paper.
Telecom is continuing to suffer from legacy thinking are really really bad PR.
how on earth did they let the NZ consumer get the opinion that they were the big boy on the block and that the 12th largest company in the world was the ‘little battler’
As for the iPhone, you would have to see the benefits of content and given that Telecom are practically the only Telco in the world not doing IPTV then you would have to deduce that they don’t get it. Also if you did a little digging and found out who is the head of mobile in the company you’d understand their core issue…
Here’s the official statement from Vodafone on the matter. Beyond this, I know nothing.
Cheers
Paul
VODAFONE TO OFFER APPLE’S IPHONE IN TEN MARKETS
Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.
People keep talking about a battle between N.Z. Vodafone and Telecom, but I’m not sure if that’s really what’s happened here. Isn’t the decision of Vodafone N.Z. gaining the iPhone really much more to do with the global Vodafone player negotiating with Apple? I’d assume the global entity would have asked all of the countries that it operates in whether they wished to be a part of the deal. So N.Z. would have probably just nodded, imagining it helps fend off Telecom, rather than N.Z. Vodafone alone going on a crusade to strike a deal with Apple. I doubt when the business deals between Apple and Vodafone were occuring that New Zealand would have featured high on any agenda.
There’s absolutely no way Apple will allow Vodafone branding on the iPhone - Apple control the branding and user experience. If VF want to add any extras, such as the useless VF Live, then it will have to come through the AppStore when Firmware v2.0 is released.
Also, it looks like the deal is a VF global deal - not local.
@DW, not sure why you think Vodafone live! doesn’t work… we have the country’s number one music store, we do social media sites like Bebo and Facebook for free and we offer Sky Mobile TV - live on your handset.
Hundreds of thousands of customers a month can’t be wrong ;-)
cheers
Paul
Sorry, but IMHO Vodafone live is a horrible, horrible, expensive, clumsy walled garden of a user experience - why else are Nokia doing Ovi? (which is just another slightly larger walled garden…)
Steve Job’s original statement about the browser being the new platform was more about opening up content and functionality and breaking the telco’s walled gardens and less about stopping people running native apps on their phone. Thus anyone with an iPhone on a Vodafone contract in NZ are *never* going to use Live when they have a proper browser and rich, direct and fantastic user experience at the touch of a button.
The only way for Vodafone to stop this is to a) keep data prices sky high, and b) make Live free on the iphone and develop a native app for it… but I still doubt it will get used much unless Live re-invents itself totally in terms of content, interface and overall experience, and even then why bother when I have the *real* internet and rich apps right there - again data charges will be the tool of choice I suspect ;)
Wait and see eh…
Having the Vodafone Live branding on the phone would be a reason not to get an iPhone, but I can’t see how Vodafone would be able to brand the iPhone as the firmware is centrally rolled out from Apple. And that’s a good thing - otherwise we would have to wait months/years for Vodafone to get their ass into gear and roll out the latest firmware with their branding on it (just like with current Nokia phones.)
I also don’t think Vodafone will have any say on the pricing of the iPhone (as discussed here: How much will the iPhone cost in NZ) but I’m interested in knowing whether they will offer an unlimited data plan with the iPhone?
Ross, I think you are missing an important point here. If you think Vodafone in the red corner is Atilla the Hun and wants to screw the user then look over to the black corner (wearing the black polo neck, styled by Ellison - Larry that is) and see Steve Jobs.
Apple are just as much a walled garden as anyone else and worse than most!
@Paul Brislen - DW didn’t say VF Live doesn’t work, he said it’s useless. And as discussed previously, “the country’s number one music store” needs a bit of small print to clarify exactly how you come to that conclusion.
Rumours of non-exclusivity for this deal - yet to be substantiated and I genuinely don’t know any different.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18075/1023/
Stuart, are you saying that “doesn’t work” and “useless” aren’t the same thing? And as I’ve said before, the number one seller of music singles. It’s not an attempt to confuse you, it is what it is. We sell music singles and we’re the number one seller of them. We also sell music albums and we’re not number one. Nobody’s trying to pull the wool over your eyes on this.
Hundreds of thousands of people a month use Vodafone live! and hundreds of thousands of people come back time and again to access the services. That you don’t like it and don’t want to use it is immaterial. It’s used by enough people to make it highly profitable and I can’t see that changing. The reason customers use a walled garden in the first place is because going out onto the WWW without such protection can be fruitless and expensive. The front page of Stuff alone would cost a fortune to open and consists of a series of links to stuff you don’t want on most mobile browsers. You can access the news stories directly for free inside our walled garden and I don’t see that as a bad thing.
Should the walled garden be the only place you can access information? No, it should not and on Vodafone it isn’t. We even give you a little warning saying once you click that link you’re out in the wide world and may incur extra charges beyond Vodafone’s control. That’s what it’s all about.
Cheers
Paul
@Paul Brislen - yes, “doesnt work” and “useless” are two different things. And you originally said: “the country’s number one music store,” not the number one seller of singles - that’s misleading.
I didn’t realise that you could read Stuff news stories on Vodafone Live for free. I thought that cost money. If you’re telling the truth, then that’s definitely a good use for Vodafone Live.
Almost everything on Vodafone Live is free at the moment. We do charge for Sky Mobile TV ($2.50 a week for eight channels) but by far the majority of the content is free to browse/pay to download if you pay at all.
We are the number one music retailer for singles. My apologies if that isn’t what I said. Must have edited as I went.
Paul, to clarify my comment, VFLive certainly ‘works’, but I said it was ‘useless’. As the early history of ISP’s and the Internet has shown (see AOL for historical comparison), such walled gardens don’t last long when users are given the choice. The impediments to date holding this change in the mobile space have always been 1) the carriers, who want to monopolise and monetise their captive customers, and 2) device limitations, preventing devices from accessing general web resources.
The iPhone business model has been challenging 1) and the form factor, usability and programming model comprehensively overcome 2).
By way of example, I’ve been using my iPhone since September 07 and would never consider using a service live VFLive. Instead, Safari on the iPhone is so incredibly usable as a browser it functions as my browser when not in front of my Mac or PC. Anything else I’ll either use my notebook (e.g. Music downloads) or via Installer (soon to be the AppStore).
It cannot be stated enough how the development model for the iPhone will completely change the mobile device application landscape - an incredibly simple distribution mechanism with a full-featured device is a winning combination. Users will simply not tolerate limited walled garden type services once they have a device like the iPhone.
Re comments about Apple being a walled garden: read the EULA and docs around the SDK - this is simply not the case. Apps have to meet some minimal restrictions which are designed to preserve device stability and functionality, and that’s it. It’s the most open mobile-device development model available. In contrast to VFLive etc, Apple don’t restrict what a user can do or the sites they can visit with their iPhone. No comparison.
Paul, its time to move beyond just selling bundled minutes and dead end WAP retreads like VFLive, you guys should start developing compelling network- based solutions that utilise advanced features of devices like the iPhone or Series 60.
“The front page of Stuff alone would cost a fortune to open and consists of a series of links to stuff you don’t want on most mobile browsers.”
You are right that the mobile experience is different to a desktop, but I’m not convinced live is doing a great job of servicing this, plus I had to chuckle at the first note though - who is charging us this “fortune”? ;)
It appears my assumption that inflated data charges vs subsidised live access is going to be Vodafone’s tactic? for shame! ;)
I’ve got Viigo on my (vodafone) Blackberry for rss news and its a far better experience than Live and cheap/free.
I’m no apple fanboy (in fact I’m frequently accused as a hater), but in case you missed the SDK keynote, it would be worth pointing out that the iPhone only makes up only 28% of the smartphone market, yet it accounts for over 71% of mobile browser usage. The experience is key, and this is why walled gardens always eventually fail.
Without music, live is a wasteland for both the user (and vodafone revenue-wise). But I understand the predicament, both telco’s and now phone manufacturers want to control content access and clip the ticket as they struggle with flat growth - the iphone further relegates telcos to being wireless ISPs which is a tougher market to be in.
Keep up the good fight ;)
This Vodafone announcement is just another indication that Apple are abandoning their original model of tieing themselves to one mobile operator and clipping the ticket on the call revenues.
It looks like they’re going to just sell handsets openly to all comers, so I expect Telecom NZ will have their own iPhone announcement in due course.
The interesting thing will be whether the operators still have the same incentive to adapt their back-end systems to support iPhone features like visual voicemail, SMS threading etc etc.
Looks like it’ll be late-June or early-July for the 3G iPhone v2.0. I’ll definitely be a customer.
Telecom will get it to.
Watch this space.
They have made MAJOR blunders in the past .. but they are seeing the light.
ie .. getting GSM, seeing DATA speed as important … ra ra
Watch this space.
Anyone wanna place bets on this ?
Btw .. I have both a voda and telecom fone - so not biased.
I also have an ifone (running fine on the Voda network).
[...] a mostly fluff post over at Rod Drury’s blog about VF getting the iPhone - probably not exclusively now all the [...]
virtualmark - Carriers don’t need to support the threaded SMS feature of the iPhone - it’s an application level feature on the phone
Just paid a visit to vodafone lambton quay in wellington and queried about data plans for the iphone. Response: “there are no plans for the iphone, its just a handset”…. “Are you sure?” I asked “absolutely, its just a phone” was the response.
Some evolution huh…data prices will stay the highest in the world? yawn…
If that is the case, then just get it off ebay, it will be cheaper than vodafone, who will probably price it at 1k or something ridiculous.
@Tim D: the only statement we can make on the iPhone is the one I posted above. The stores are not going to be able to tell you anything at all about the iPhone beyond their own personal wishes in the matter. We haven’t announced timing, dates, places or plans yet. That’s to follow.
@Ross: I think you’re underestimating the usage of Live! Sky Mobile TV is a wildly popular service, as is the music store and then there’s the social media access to sites like Facebook and Bebo. We offer You Tube clips as well - all free to access.
Agree with you 100% about user experience. The current generation of mobile browsers (and I’m talking about phones rather than smartphones) just isn’t up to it. The result is poor for customers who expect the same experience they’d get on the PC but get a series of links they can’t open and the odd bit of Flash that doesn’t render.
Cheers
Paul
The big unanswered question at present is what the technical specs are on the 3G iPhone.
If it is infact a 900MHz UMTS device then Telecom are going to gain nothing from having the iPhone - would you buy an iPhone from a network that’s going to give you 3G coverage only in the cities and GSM/EDGE elsewhere or a network that will give you 3G coverage across large % of their existing GSM coverage?
We all know the iPhone loves bandwidth and high data caps!
@Paul - I’ll have to take your word on it, everyone I know is on Vodafone, and one had that Sky thing etc - and no-one uses live. Are there any publically available stats for live/sky usage? It seems you are bundling all sorts of services under the live brand now - certainly if it wasn’t free the usage would be different, but we’ve covered all that before ;)
Actually, I don’t think consumers expect the same experience as desktop, they may expect the same *level* of experience - and that is a different beast. Smart-phones suck too btw :-) As I said before, I’m a VF customer with a Pearl, and I’m not panting for an iPhone, but I know where the future is at, and its the mobile web…
Examples of badly rendered sites from crappy browsers like Nokia (which usefully reports itself as a desktop computer via CSS Media descriptor making it hard to deliver a decent mobile experience) and lack of flash support are unfortunate, but don’t really relate to Live! problems. Those issues go away on the iPhone (putting flash aside for a sec) and my perception is that iPhone usage of live will be negligible, yours is that it won’t be (and it appears Vodafone has some arguably unfun tricks up its sleeve to attempt this).
Guess the future will tell - but I am seeing live! dying as iPhone type devices become wider spread, and sadly vodafone propping it up at the expense and frustration of their customers as they attempt to wrestle the beast that shall not be tamed.
If VF was being honest and transparent it would make Live a web experience that competes on its own two feet in terms of data and engagement. Clearly the historical independence of a sand-boxed experienced didn’t really result in beauty worth preserving for next-gen handsets.
I think if you look at live! today (today being Tuesday 13 May) you’ll see a vastly different live! than the one you’re talking about. The days of live! being a walled garden with no gate to the world are long gone - now we’re offering the wider world as the first port of call with a walled garden for those that want it…
quite a different proposition.
Cheers
Paul
Question to Paul Brislen and many thanks for being up front and commenting on subjects like this Paul..
The question is how do we know you are the number one music seller when places like iTunes do not publish purchasing data? Is their a third party that publishes a list of who sold the most music?
We get our data from the Recording Industry Association of NZ (RIANZ) which puts together the charts and has begun monitoring digital music sales.
I don’t know if they publish the results but I certainly do ;-)
Cheers
Paul
Thanks Paul, I take it you are unable to publish the complete list of who sells what….
Not my list to sell, or even to publish for that matter, so no… but RIANZ is the home of all things musical (well, the accounting side of it at any rate) so I’d hope they will one day soon. They tell us we’re number one. Hopefully they’re not telling everyone the same thing…
Guys? Right?
Cheers
Paul
Well, back to the more interesting topic of the 3G iPhone coming out, check out this logical-sounding rumour:
http://gizmodo.com/391960/iphone-3g-launch-date-confirmed
“We all suspected it, but now it is confirmed: someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch has told me that Apple will announce their new model at the WWDC Keynote on June 9th. The second-generation iPhone will be available worldwide right after the launch, and not at year’s end, as previously thought. The new model will also herald new sales policies in some countries.
In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.
According to another source involved in the launch, the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries, and its launch will also bring new sales policies, although these have not been completely specified yet.
The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during the last 12 months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively.
This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers and other service-based subvention packages.”
@Paul I hate to have to point this out but Vodafone Live according the number you gave (100,000 - 900,000) then this is used by less than 10% of Vodafone customers i would not call that a very large amount of customers
My own personal option is that Vodafone live is useless is because the last time i used it it takes a large number of clicks to get any where there are sub folders within sub folders it takes forever to get anywhere
Secondly the Vodafone music store is useless i can keep the tracks on my phone but what if i don’t want to listen through the crummy speakers on my phone well i am screwed so that’s why i use iTunes i can have my songs on my desktop and my ipod and 5 other computers as many CD’s as i want and the tracks are cheap and in some cases DRM free which is what i love about it, sorry Vodafone you are not getting any of my money for your songs
Any idea when the Appstore will be up?
Any idea how long it will take them to approve software for sale?
@Geoff, not sure where those numbers come from…
Vodafone’s music store is the number one in the country for a simple reason: you can buy the song on your mobile using the mobile device while you’re away from your keyboard. Every other online music store requires you to go back to your PC and download the song there first. We offer both - each song is dual delivered to both PC and handset so you can manage your library from the desktop and still have the music you want on your handset (which I’m guessing will have a smaller hard drive than your PC).
And if your mobile’s speaker is “crummy” I think you need to upgrade or, at the least, get a headset that allows for better listening. They’re available. In the meantime you can listen to the songs you’ve downloaded on either your handset or your desktop or anywhere else you like without any trouble whatsoever.
Cheers
Paul
@Paul
I am one of those people who have there laptop with them all the time and have wireless where ever i go so don’t have a need to buy on my cellphone and even if i did i would not as it schemes to me that the songs that you buy over your cellphones are just impulse buy’s which i have no need for if i want a song i can just jot it down and wait to get to my computer (Which is a mac) and launch itunes to buy the song then just sync it up to my iPod and i am able to take it with me
Also why should i buy a new phone just to listen to songs it does what i need at the moment which is make calls and text and the only reason why i have not upgraded is because all other phone’s are C*** and i have been waiting for the iPhone to come out which will offer a much better over all solution to my needs but only if i can buy it with pre pay included as i do not want to steep up to a plan and then linking it to the song thing most phones have very little storage in most cases the ones that are any good cost a lot and still don’t come with it built in so you have to buy cards for it
And again on the Vodafone live service i would like to know how many of those hundreds of thousands of users are in the bounce rate because when i use my phone to go onto the web i hit the vodafone live button to open the web browser secondly i would like to know the percentage of users that do use Vodafone live
But overall i have had really bad experience with Vodafone over there billing service. we moved into a new place and the previous owner had forgotten to tell Vodafone so we kept getting his bills we rang and returned the mail with no success then when i finally got on the phone with someone who said that they would sort it out we thought that would be it but we still received the bill’s and i know that i am not the only one who has had this problem
So basically i have had really bad experience with vodafone which currently is the only reasonable service in New Zealand compared to telecom which is even worse but i hope that the iPhone will change this situation in New Zealand where the telco companies have just been ripping us off
@Paul
At the risk of starting a Telco p!ss!ing contest when I am only employed by one for another 2 weeks, I would like to point out a couple of facts
1. There is another online music store where you can purchase music from your mobile - its the Telecom Music Store
2. And in a self-serving additional point, the Telecom music store had dual delivery first (I know - I built it)
@Geoff
You may find this bizarre but there are a *heap* of customers who use these services both in NZ and globally. There are a lot of customers who appreciate using their mobile to do stuff other than just talk and text - not everyone has a laptop and wireless access everywhere.Common practice when I was responsible for this division for Telecom was that an ‘active’ customer needed to be at least 3 clicks in, removing the accidental accesses from the stats. Doesn’t do anyone any favours to be overcounting customers.
Some services were running happily at 15% usage across the entire customer base. Before you say ‘that’s not very much’ just consider for a moment what you could do with monetising your online service at those rate.
@Miki ;-)
I am in PR. Get the Telecom lot to promote their wares…
Excellent. If you two are going to have a pissing contest I’m so glad it’s here.
Oh happy days.
We must find a way for you to monetise this site Rod…..
@Paul
I was not wanting to get into the telco’s screwing with us as well it just get’s me that both companies do not get that there is a silver lining to providing the best dam service at cheap prices $49 for one GB of data is just stupid. but like i have been saying i hope the iPhone will just change the market like it already has with the cellphone industry it’s self and i hope that vodafone get’s that when it is released but i will not hold my hopes up as we have already seen Vodafone get rid of ihugs unlimited data plan
I am glad to hear however that those stats that you did provide where not just users who click on vodafone live just to use the web browser which lead me to believe that the stats would be lower
any way i am a vodafone user and am much happier with them than i would be with Telecom but in both cases it just costs way to much for many services such as data, as i know due to the fact that i use a data card at home in GPRS coverage because i can not get broadband and dial up is only 28Kbs
Unfortunately my lack of PR hackness means its probably an uneven fight on the pissing contest
also i would like to point out that i am a Mac user so vodafone music store is useless to me because of the DRM which is the main reason for using iTunes