Mobile Solution Providers must take note of convergence trends in order to remain competitive and serve the changing market

“We are seeing several trends of convergence when it comes to mobility. Devices themselves are converging, as are the mobility needs of corporates and employees who are increasingly using a single and shared device for both business and private purposes” says PwC Southern Africa’s Communication leader, Johan van Huyssteen.

In a converged world, a single device allows consumers to talk, listen to music, send text messages, take pictures, play games, receive directions, read the news and shop. It enables them to access their home or office remotely, manage their money, access e-mail and manage time, thus converging both personal and business use. The advantages of device convergence are clear – it makes people constantly and immediately accessible. They also carry the risks of removing personal interaction and choosing the wrong medium to communicate messages.

As business and personal uses converge, accelerated by flexible corporate policies, these dynamics must now be serviced by the same devices and applications. Van Huyssteen says suppliers must and are responding to this trend. “For example, all of Apple’s iconic devices, including the iPhone, were initially targeted at private consumers. More recently, Apple has announced its intention to move into the corporate market and compete directly with the likes of RIM’s BlackBerry – and in contrast, RIM has started to make a push into the consumer market with its BlackBerry Pearl.”

Van Huyssteen says that pricing is no longer the silver bullet to customer acquisition and retention. “Suppliers will need to adjust their offerings to accommodate these convergence trends and devices must now seamlessly integrate voice and data functionalities, making instant access possible anywhere and any time.”

Technological innovation is definitely making this convergence possible. Service providers are rolling out progressively more advanced mobile networks with the bandwidth necessary to expeditiously handle vast amounts of data traffic. Mobile handsets are becoming increasingly sophisticated, designed to meet diverse user needs.

But van Huyssteen says there remain some bottlenecks and true mobility is still some way off. “The quality and maturity of mobile services as well as network infrastructure are not uniform worldwide. Concerns about privacy and security must still be resolved. Mobile Internet pricing models vary from country to country and subscribers must still be enticed to pay for advanced services. And service providers, device manufacturers and software developers continue to grapple with the division of the value chain. These challenges present risks, certainly - but also opportunities for those suppliers that commit to understanding the voice of their consumers.”

Van Huyssteen points out that mobile technology was originally developed with one purpose in mind – voice communications. “However, over the years it has now transformed itself into a comprehensive user experience and previously add-on functions are now core offerings.”

Despite such progress, challenges to transforming complete mobility from a dream into reality do remain. These challenges touch on all aspects of technology: the mobile device itself, applications and the various entertainment and productivity enhancing options available to users; and infrastructure, which determines coverage and speed of access, and thus affects the ability to use a device or service.

Communications companies are racing to address convergence trends and how they do this will define how successful they are in attracting and retaining customers, enticing them to use the advanced devices and value-added services.

Van Huyssteen says that mobile service providers should be helping to move their customers up the technology curve by increasing their offerings of business-friendly applications, whether their own or those provided by third-party vendors. “But this change will not occur if the user experience is a poor one. Often-cited inhibitors to the adoption of advanced services include inadequate interfaces, unsatisfactory quality, difficulty in setting up applications, difficulty in use and lack of value for money. These factors point to the irrefutable need for all participants in the mobile communications value chain to focus on providing subscribers with an irresistible inducement to move from being a potential to being an actual user.”

All participants in the value chain – service providers, application developers and device manufacturers – need to determine how they are to best access these potential revenue streams and close collaboration is required. More than ever, there is now a compelling case to make consumer devices compatible with company applications and all participants need to rethink how they will share in this trend.

Van Huyssteen says that successful mobile solution providers will be those that effectively leverage the increasingly converging business and personal link, and establish synergistic relationship and alliances with other parties in the value chain.