A Gartner analyst painted a rather gloomy picture of the prospects for traditional telecom carriers as content enablers Nov. 6 at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Cannes, France.
In an effort to compete with non-traditional telecom players, such as Apple, Google and Nokia, telecom companies will attempt to transform themselves primarily by exploiting content, but more than 80 percent will fail, according to Gartner.
Those that succeed will find ways to offer “a consumer-centric experience,” by means such as interactive TV that allows users to chat online while watching TV shows, said Martin Gutberlet, research vice president.
To remain competitive, the 20 percent of traditional telecoms that succeed will have to embrace “three new attributes,” he said. Those include earning the trust of customers so “they are willing to grant you access to their personal life; usability that gives control back to customers; and creating an exciting customer experience,” said Gutberlet.
According to Gartner, three business models are emerging that will help carriers remain competitive through 2012. They include content innovators that produce and own their own content, aggregators that source and package the content of others and bit pipe carriers, which build their business on connectivity as a utility.
For more information, visit: www.gartner.com.
