The market for new cellular devices and innovative mobile services is constantly evolving. New consumer devices and features that were unthinkable years ago are now part of our everyday reality.
Take the example of video calling: it had been the preserve of corporate boardrooms and the like, making its way in the early part of this century to desktops via third-party apps that required installation, infrastructure (such as webcams), and payment. At the time, on-demand video calling on your mobile phone was the sort of thing that had hitherto been the stuff of science fiction – like the communicators in the Star Trek universe – of a piece with light-speed travel to distant galaxies. Now, it is a commonplace, even mundane, part of our daily lives. It isn’t a plus point that a mobile manufacturer offers, or an extra service that a mobile network operator (MNO) provides. It is just par for the course.
There are two things we can take from this. One, when new use cases present themselves, industry must adapt itself to make the most of them. And two, mobile subscribers get used to new features very quickly, so providing a smooth user experience is crucial to any operator’s continuing success.