Mobile appstores for telecom operators
Pierre Péladeau Roman Friedrich Mohssen Toumi Olaf Acker
Mobile App Stores for Telecom Operators The Next Battlefield
Contact Information Beirut Bahjat El-Darwiche Partner +961-1-336433 bahjat.el-darwiche@booz.com Hilal Halaoui Principal +961-1-336433 hilal.halaoui@booz.com Dubai Karim Sabbagh Partner +971-4-390-0260 karim.sabbagh@booz.com Düsseldorf Roman Friedrich Partner +49-211-3890-165 roman.friedrich@booz.com Düsseldorf/London Dr. Michael Peterson Partner +49-211-3890-140 michael.peterson@booz.com Frankfurt Olaf Acker Principal +49-69-97167-453 olaf.acker@booz.com Mumbai Jai Sinha Partner +91-22-2287-2001 jai.sinha@booz.com Munich Gregor Harter Partner +49-89-54525-554 gregor.harter@booz.com Martin Reitenspiess Partner +49-89-54525-522 martin.reitenspiess@booz.com New York Christopher Vollmer Partner +1-212-551-6794 christopher.vollmer@booz.com Paris Pierre Péladeau Partner +33-1-44-34-3074 pierre.peladeau@booz.com Mohssen Toumi Senior Associate +33-1-44-34-3131 mohssen.toumi@booz.com San Francisco Karla Martin Partner +1-415-263-3712 karla.martin@booz.com Shanghai Edward Tse Senior Partner +852-3650-6100 edward.tse@booz.com Sydney Simon Gillies Partner +61-3-9221-1903 simon.gillies@booz.com Tokyo Paul Duerloo Partner +81-3-6757-8615 paul.duerloo@booz.com
Booz & Company
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The mobile applications business has grown exponentially in just the past three years. On the back of the hugely popular iPhone, Apple’s App Store has quickly come to dominate the market, but rivals such as Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) are betting billions that they can catch up. So far, telecom operators have been late to the game. If they want to avoid the fate of becoming mere pipes for the ever more popular app stores, they must devise and implement strategies that take advantage of the very real assets they possess.
Because of their limited customer bases relative to the massive numbers being put up by Apple