European mobile revenue growth improved by 0.8ppts in Q3 to reach -0.3%, but all of this improvement and more was due to easing regulatory pressures, with underlying growth actually declining marginally

GDP growth continues to improve year-on-year, but in the current low confidence environment underlying mobile revenue growth is not (yet) responding. Smartphone sales are surging, but their net impact on revenue is hard to discern

Looking forward, the regulatory impact is likely to turn negative again for the next few quarters, so some underlying growth catch-up is required for revenue growth to stay at around zero

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system is launching with a big bang: ten handsets, eighteen operators, and a massive marketing campaign

The OS itself is positioned firmly in between iPhone and Android in terms of ease-of-use and customisability; it is as fast as the best-in-class but no faster; and its interface is bold but will not be to everybody’s taste

A lack of apps, limited distribution, and expensive handsets will likely limit sales in the short term. Longer term, being late in the game with no truly compelling unique feature will make building a major position very challenging, but not impossible

The Apple ‘antennagate scandal’ has received massive press attention, reflecting perhaps more the extent of Apple’s smartphone incumbency than the extent of the reception issues with the iPhone 4

The problem may be greater than Apple publicly admits to, but it is less than it first appeared to be. The resulting consumer confusion will not help unit sales, but we still expect them to grow, supported by a number of feature set advances in the iPhone 4

Android handset sales are growing very rapidly, and are in a sense ‘catching up’ with the iPhone; while Android may end up dominating the mid-range, the iPhone can still enjoy an (enlarged) position at the top end, provided it can maintain a premium price justification

In June, Apple’s new ‘iAd’ unit will begin serving ads within iPhone apps. iAd will compete with Google’s AdMob, paralleling Google Android’s competition with the iPhone, as the two companies contend to shape how people will use the mobile internet

The iPhone’s success is underpinned by apps, which draw in both consumers and publishers in a virtuous circle, but undercut Google’s search model. With iAd, Apple seeks to make sure iPhone apps remain the most profitable place for publishers

Steve Jobs has suggested a multi-billion dollar revenue potential – the true figure could be a tenth of that, but the real value of iAd will be in defending and supporting the iPhone

Mobile content is moving to the centre of strategies for online
media. At MWC, the world’s biggest mobile conference, Google announced it now develops
all products ‘mobile first’ and Facebook reported a quarter of its 400m users access
the service through mobile

Three years after the iPhone 
launched, the handset industry is catching up, adding decent user interfaces
and mobile apps to colour touch screens and taking easy access to mobile content
beyond the iPhone

Beyond the self-selecting early adopter iPhone base, we found
real evidence of companies already successfully providing mobile content to much
wider segments of the population

Google this week launched the Nexus One, a high spec handset equipped with the latest Android software, customised by Google, branded with Google and sold exclusively through Google (but made by HTC)

In contrast to its usual cooperative self as regards mobile, the Google go-it-alone approach of the Nexus One is likely to irritate handset manufacturers, handset distributers and mobile operators alike

The very limited distribution and limited marketing is likely to limit Nexus One sales, despite the strong hardware and software. The prospects for the Android platform in general remain strong, particularly in mid-range handsets, especially if Google maintains a more cooperative approach than the Nexus One launch has signified