News from Hannover

News from Hannover - I have momentarily given up on keeping with the massive numbers of product releases at CeBit this year. Espcially in the mobile handset area, there have been incredible numbers of product releases. Some, such as Motorola's and Sony Ericsson's newest , we have seen before, others, including Nokia, Samsung, NEC, Alcatel and Siemens are shown for the first time at the CeBit show.
Most have launched phones with similar technologies, and the most often quoted features include colour screens, GPRS support, EMS and MMS, J2ME and various extras such as MP3 players and Video Cameras. I think it's safe to say that every handset manufacturer now has colour phones with EMS and GPRS in their product line, as well as J2ME phones, and most have an offering with a camera and/or an MP3 player.

The most significant item in all this could be the fact that there seems to be a massive shift in the industry. Just a year ago, each manufacturer had a clear market profile (at least in my eyes). With Nokia producing lifestyle phones for the youth segment, Alcatel producing cheaper phones, Ericsson and Motorola, the choice for business and so on. Now, with new entrants from the Asian market's and massive rebrandings from traditional companies like Motorola and Ericsson, every manufacturer seems intetn on having a phone for every segment of the market. In other words, competition in each segment is increasing at incredible speed. Should be a boon for innovation in the field.

That in itself is not a problem. The problem lies in the duality between handset manufacurers and Operators. Because as competiion and the rate of innovation increases in handsets, so innovation and competition is decreasing amongst European operators. The massive sums payes for 3G licenses, and perhaps the slightly nervous feeling left from the dismally failed WAP hype, has left us with a bunch of cowering, investment-scared operators. For the first time, that I remember we now have several market-ready phones with EMS, MMS and J2ME, and even a few 3G handsets on the way, and we still don't have a clue as to when operators will seriously support these technologies. Compared to the "Where Are the Phones" of the WAP era, this is a significant change in mobile business.