With the likes of Apple and Google making huge headway in the areas of mobile marketing and app distribution via app stores, wireless carriers have been forced to play catch up. New research suggests carriers are planning to invest heavily in “service delivery platform software and services,” or in other words internal means for self-serve mobile marketing and app distribution.
Market research firm Infonetics released its latest “2009 Service Delivery Platform Software and Services” report that indicates mobile marketing and app store development are the two leading drivers behind carrier’s renewed interest in internal “Service Delivery Platforms,” due in large part to the revenue potential both concepts provide.
The report found that Service carriers are executing mobile advertising solutions which comprise location-based advertising and SMS-based marketing, while other service providers are considering the viability of having their own app store- along with a service delivery network which can prop up the new revenue source.
Even though several service providers have adopted a closed approach for content delivery, many of them are open to providing more innovative services in order to provide more value to its clients and improve their revenue realizations. By working with third party developers and developing solutions, carriers can extract more money from consumers.
Carriers are finally realizing that they can’t take a closed approach anymore, especially now that the big players (Google and Apple) are taking over. They’re realizing that utilizing third-party Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) could not only provide new streams of revenue, but also help them create Web applications and mashups to better compete with the likes of Google and Apple. SDPs can also help streamline the delivery of things like VoIP, ringtones and video streaming.
In the end, carriers will have to realize that consumers are not as tied to their wireless networks as they once were. With things like Google Voice and mobile applications that can do just about anything, consumers have more options than ever before. With those options comes competition from not only other wireless providers but Web and hardware companies as well. Finally, wireless carriers are being forced to put their game faces on.
