Gusto Telecom managing director Jolyon Bennett tells Mobile News his thoughts on what might happen this year, including movements by the networks and the decline of the iPhone
The UK telecoms market is set to further mature over the course of this year. Mobile network operators (MNO) will continue to dominate the retail market and we will likely see some sales or stock market listings of the key players.
All of the MNOs will be looking to increase their offerings to their customer base by providing more service based products (music streaming, insurance and the like) while the smart will continue to grow the hardware accessories business in the knowledge that this drives use/spend.
The ever hardy independent B2B channel will continue to fend off the networks and prosper in an environment where personal relationships mean more than brand and often pricing.
Demand for Apple’s iPhone will continue to decrease but more slowly than many predict, the slack will be picked up by the smaller players such as LG and Google (smaller in share of hardware devices sold) which will have a great year both in volume and share.
The accessories market will once again see 30+ per cent growth in value which will prompt the larger distributors and retailers to acquire some of the smaller market leaders in a land grab exercise. Average selling price (ASP) will continue to rise and the discount brands will continue to struggle; we will see some leave the market.