3GScottishUser
3rd April 2005, 11:10 AM
From The Independent (03/04/2005):
Highlights from a profile about Tom Alexander CEO Virgin Mobile. (Full article available from link at the bottom of this page).
[...]
He dismisses the launch of easyMobile and the mini price war it is waging with Carphone Warehouse as of little relevance to Virgin Mobile. "I don't think it's an obvious threat. Easy is selling a SIM card over the internet. This will appeal to the value hunters but it's not really the same market for us. Our customers are youth oriented and the young at heart. They want the latest fashionable phone - that what's really important to them. They can go into a Virgin Megastore and see all 26 phones lined up. And - I would say this, wouldn't I? - but the easy brand is nothing like as powerful as the Virgin brand."
Of greater threat to Virgin Mobile, admits Alexander, is "3", the mobile phone company owned by Hutchison Whampoa. The company, which was the first to launch high-speed 3G internet services, now has three million customers in the UK after aggressively undercutting its main rivals' call charges. On Thursday Hutchison admitted that it had spent an average of £186 to attract each new customer in the second half of its financial year.
"I think '3' is a much more serious contender. It has a network to fill so it is subsidising bigger, uglier, more expensive phones to get customers to buy them," says Alexander, who describes some of the "3" phones as "horrible bricks".
Alexander says that a dinner party he and his wife went to recently has reinforced his views on 3G. "The conversation got on to mobile phones. The perception was that the industry, having paid all that money for the 3G licences, was coming up with all these nasty little services as way of conning kids into spending more money on stuff they didn't want."
Despite this, Virgin Mobile will in the next few weeks launch its own 3G services. Rather than have a great fanfare, Virgin will quietly introduce the new handsets into its range. But Alexander predicts that the extra bulk and weight of 3G phones will stop them becoming top sellers.
"It isn't going to be the massive revolution people have predicted. 3G phones are not as good as [the standard] 2G ones. They'll get better."
Full Story here: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=625784
Highlights from a profile about Tom Alexander CEO Virgin Mobile. (Full article available from link at the bottom of this page).
[...]
He dismisses the launch of easyMobile and the mini price war it is waging with Carphone Warehouse as of little relevance to Virgin Mobile. "I don't think it's an obvious threat. Easy is selling a SIM card over the internet. This will appeal to the value hunters but it's not really the same market for us. Our customers are youth oriented and the young at heart. They want the latest fashionable phone - that what's really important to them. They can go into a Virgin Megastore and see all 26 phones lined up. And - I would say this, wouldn't I? - but the easy brand is nothing like as powerful as the Virgin brand."
Of greater threat to Virgin Mobile, admits Alexander, is "3", the mobile phone company owned by Hutchison Whampoa. The company, which was the first to launch high-speed 3G internet services, now has three million customers in the UK after aggressively undercutting its main rivals' call charges. On Thursday Hutchison admitted that it had spent an average of £186 to attract each new customer in the second half of its financial year.
"I think '3' is a much more serious contender. It has a network to fill so it is subsidising bigger, uglier, more expensive phones to get customers to buy them," says Alexander, who describes some of the "3" phones as "horrible bricks".
Alexander says that a dinner party he and his wife went to recently has reinforced his views on 3G. "The conversation got on to mobile phones. The perception was that the industry, having paid all that money for the 3G licences, was coming up with all these nasty little services as way of conning kids into spending more money on stuff they didn't want."
Despite this, Virgin Mobile will in the next few weeks launch its own 3G services. Rather than have a great fanfare, Virgin will quietly introduce the new handsets into its range. But Alexander predicts that the extra bulk and weight of 3G phones will stop them becoming top sellers.
"It isn't going to be the massive revolution people have predicted. 3G phones are not as good as [the standard] 2G ones. They'll get better."
Full Story here: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=625784