What caught my attention most about this article was the dominance of mobile operators (Verizon, AT&T, etc) in the U.S.A. versus the rest of the world. As we are all aware: “In the U.S. most customers get their handsets through their mobile operator”…”but in the rest of the world it is common to buy handsets from independent retailers and sign up for service separately.”
The article also estimates that these mobile operators serve as a portal for 70-80% of the mobile content in North America compared to only about 30% in Europe. This of course gives the operator both more control of the actual content as well as control of the revenue streams. I’m certainly not and expert on the mobile world nor the health industry, but I can’t help but wonder if some of the too-numerous-to list flaws inherent in the U.S. health care system already exist or may trickle into the mobile communication arena??? Hence,
What does the American consumer gain from the dominance of a few major mobile companies?
On a somewhat similar topic, the article discusses the five key actors in mobile value chain: Content owners, designers and developer, publishers and aggregators, provisioning and hosting providers, and market and delivery agents. That seems like a lot of words and a lot of middle men who all want a cut of revenue…
As technologies improve and communication forms evolve, which of these players will gain strength and which will be marginalized?
