Vodafone under the Microscope and Finds Diversity, a Strong Brand and Innovation

US : Vodafone will hold its 2005 annual general meeting. It has been an eventful twelve months for the innovative global mobile operator, and shareholders will have lots to talk about.

Many of the topics that may be discussed there are also explored in a new ABI Research study, "Vodafone Group: Key Operational Dynamics and Markets," which provides a roundup of Vodafone's licensing and competitive landscape. It contains insights not only on its financial performance and investment decisions, but also on its applications, servicing and pricing strategy, as well as key handset, network and applications vendor relationships.

"To its competitors and emulators, Vodafone is both a hard-hitting competitor and a market innovator," notes Jake Saunders, ABI Research's Director of Research, Europe. "Often Vodafone has taken a lead in introducing new services and in coming out with new applications and solutions that keep everyone on their toes."

So it is with 3G. In Europe, 3G is really gaining ground in 2005. "In Italy, 3G is up to about 9% penetration, which is pretty remarkable considering that it was less than 1% just over a year ago," says Saunders.

While there is still inexperience and hesitation among end-users about using the value-added services built into their handsets, Saunders believes that a large operator such as Vodafone "has never had so much opportunity to differentiate their applications, services, handsets and mobile experience." In the '90s, he says, mobile operators all had generally similar handsets, and there wasn't much they could do to stand out from the crowd. Today, an operator like Vodafone has a wide variety of applications and services they can put in front of the customer.

Educating the customer will take some time, however; margins are being squeezed, and competitors are multiplying. But as the exhaustive analysis contained in the report reveals, Vodafone appears well-positioned to meet threats and exploit new markets.