Vodafone has long insisted that its size provides huge economies of scale when buying handsets, network equipment and software.
Of course, depending on your handset, network, and so on, your mileage (so to speak) may vary.
"December has been a blowout month for both handsets and networks," Marko Alaraatikka, a money manager in Helsinki, told Bloomberg News.
DoCoMo controls every aspect of its handsets and networks, whereas operators in other countries use technology built on industry standards.
This means that new services require broad industry support, which can take years to organise, before they can be incorporated into handsets and networks.
The banning of stolen handsets from networks has been around for 20 years, but remains little used internationally.
There, they will have content developed and have people tweaking the software so that games will work on a variety of handsets and networks.
But AOL's agreement with AT&T is more of a foot-in-the-door deal than a strategic contract, according to Bryan Prohm, senior analyst at GartnerGroup, Stamford, Conn ."The handsets and networks being used still can't support some of the more exciting applications, like Instant Messenger," he says.
But a piece of news today points to how it is also exploring low-end channels as part of a more global push outside of its home market of the U.S. Myriad Group says it will now start to push Yahoo News content over USSD — a GSM data channel that can be accessed by even the most rudimentary handsets and networks.
Network optimization, handset usability, network platform integration, content optimization, etc. contribute to transforming the desktop experience for a mobile user.
