What baffles me the most when I read mobile opinions from North American and European journalists is how clueless they are regarding the situation in the rest of the world, and how can they deem a product a success or a failure while limiting themselves to their region and without considering its impact on the worldwide market. Let’s face it, when Olli Pekka Kallasvuo decided to focus his presentation on emerging markets in the most developed of all markets at the Consumer’s Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the beginning of this month, he definitely wasn’t joking about the impact of such regions on Nokia’s growth and the future of mobile. As a matter of fact, Nokia and their converged Symbian devices are one clear example of how you can have breathtaking worldwide growth (Q4 2009 being a proof) while achieving almost non-existent presence in North America and static results in Europe.
I don’t claim to have a perspective large and educated enough to encompass the whole Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America regions, but I have the experience of someone who grew up in Lebanon, moved to Paris, enjoyed HSDPA and unlimited data plans, then came back to Lebanon, and who hence understands how the grass is greener on the other side. When North American / European journalists and tech bloggers marvel at the full-web and always-connected features of recent smartphones in the likes of Android and the iPhone, I can’t help but choke a little bit inside. If they have the blessing of enjoying Gigabytes or Unlimited data plans monthly for basic costs and if they have the wide availability of HSDPA connectivity speeds, they forget that many emerging markets are still stuck with EDGE and hugely cramped bandwidth and prices. I mean it’s a bit funny when you think your country symbolizes the whole planet, but it’s downright annoying when you’re convinced you know the ins-and-outs of a worldwide industry without having stepped a foot outside your front door.
Let me take Lebanon for example where we were very recently blessed with “GPRS” data plans (which are actually EDGE in some regions). Our choices are pretty much tied to the following options no matter the operator (MTC vs Alfa), and being recent, these surely aren’t going to change anytime soon:
- Prepaid: 5$ for 25Mb/month, non renewable in less than 30 days.
- Postpaid: 10$ for 50Mb/month, 0.1$ per additional Mb.
- Postpaid: 15$ for 120Mb/month, 0.1$ per additional Mb.
- Postpaid: 25$ for 250Mb/month, 0.1$ per additional Mb
- Blackberry Service, postpaid: 40$ for unlimited data, fair usage policy at 500Mb.
If you think this is specific to one country, my friends Apurva and Vikas from India confirmed to me that the situation isn’t much better there. Apparently, 3G is limited to a few operators and regions, the country-wide auction for the frequencies has not taken place yet. EDGE plans usually range from 200INR (4.33$) for 200Mb to 900INR (19.5$) for Unlimited (of course you have to take these numbers in light of the purchasing power of the Indian Rupee). There was a very recent breakthrough with one operator offering 2Gb for 98INR (2.12$). That’s as good as it gets in one of the largest and most important worldwide mobile markets.
When you look at it from this perspective, it’s pretty easy to understand how always-connected handsets that provide a full-web experience are struggling to take off in emerging markets, and why Opera Mini has 46.3 Million users worldwide. Honestly, what good is a full-web experience when I can only open 10 full websites a month without going over my monthly allowance, and when I have to stare at my screen for 15 minutes before one page completely loads on my snail-speed connection?
Now let’s get back to my subjective experience. When I came back to Lebanon after having enjoyed the bliss of unlimited HSDPA data in Paris, I suspected I was going to struggle to adapt to the local data limitations. 3 months later, I am surprised to say that I’m even more connected than I was in Paris. That’s all thanks to Symbian and the 3rd-party applications available on Symbian. Here’s my daily data usage:
- Nokia Messaging push email running 24/7, no weekend and no night pauses. HTML is disabled. I also deal with email by replying, deleting, forwarding and everything.
- Synble running 24/7, no weekend and no night pauses, notifying me of new Symbian-Guru posts and constantly monitoring specific Twitter friends.
- Gravity with images disabled, 3 Twitter accounts (auto-updating every 10 minutes for one of them and less frequently for the others), running at the very least 5 or 6 hours a day, 7 days a week. I preview many twitpics, I also upload a few of them every week.
- Nimbuzz with active IM conversations for at least 3 or 4 hours daily, 7 days a week.
- Opera Mobile: opening minimum 10-15 web pages every day.
- Psiloc World Traveler: daily weather and currency update.
- Google Reader (through gReader or Gravity), file downloads, Google Maps, Shazam, other applications: random.
How much data do I use every month? 130-140Mb. Seriously. I have the 120Mb plan for 15$ and I pay an additional 1-2$ for getting over that. I’m even more connected than I was in Paris, and the limitations I had to put were to disable HTML emails and contact images in Gravity, and to switch from the built-in Web Browser in S60 to Opera Mini.
I would defy anyone with an iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry or Maemo device to stay connected as much as I do and consume this little bandwidth. Seriously, I’m launching a challenge to anyone who can do this. iPhone and Android?! Don’t get me started on how much opening Symbian-Guru’s homepage alone consumes on these two. Windows Mobile and Blackberry may have Opera Mini, but they lack the amazing gzip compression of Gravity for Twitter which is a god-sent. Maemo?! I got an N900 to trial for a month, I used it for as much as 3 days and consumed over 30Mb while limiting drastically my usage so I had to remove my SIM card, presto.
I would love it if bloggers in North America or Europe picked up this article to show the other side of the story about Symbian. Yes, the UI needs a huge overhaul and S60 5th Edition is a huge PIA to use sometimes. Yes, it doesn’t have any of the bling or the ease of use of many recent platforms. But when it comes to getting things done for a good chunk of the world’s population without creating a humongous hole in their pocket, Symbian still has *it*, and no one can beat that for now.
Actually Jonathan, I had 3G in Paris and I didn't use it all that much because it consumed battery power a bit too fast for my liking. I used to force edge-only most of the time, then switch to 3g when i had a big download or wanted to watch tv over 3g. So there are definitely things I would do that I don't dare doing now, like downloading files or maybe browsing on Opera Mobile instead of Opera Mini, or streaming youtube, if I knew I had 3G and a better bandwidth. Meanwhile, I've learned to live with the limitation and to make the most of what I have.
Always an honor to hear your good words Antoine. I'm looking forward to what you have to say about it on MMM.
And i live in the midle of europe in switzerland, without any dataplan. It doesnt cost too much, but i prefer do my job and not to surf in internet :-)
Actually I would better replace that last question with “does Nokia's success in emerging markets stem from their understanding and adapting to the state of the carrier service providers?”
Actually, the N900 does have an “always ask” option for connecting to the internet. Though I use it more for saving battery life than limiting data :). I agree you can't really use the N900 without a limited data plan though.
Also please all keep in mind that in emerging markets the minimun wage is WAY below what people get paid in first world countries. For example $15 is three times what most people earn a full day of hard work in mexico (you get that in 2 hours of work in the US), most people do not earn more than $150 a month, and moreover they have to pay more important stuff like water, electricity, rent, food, schools and other basic stuff for the whole family which is large most of time, and if that's not enough, mexico is known for having some of the most expensive basic services in the world, being cellular service one of them.
That's why Nokia is a big winner in emerging markets, they give basic phones to the masses who cannot even think of having a data plan, they just buy prepaid, which is also very popular here with the low class people which accounts for 50% of the population.
On the other hand the medium class which is like 40% of the population can pay some services like wifi, and then buy some phones that may be able to connect to it, the 5530 comes to mind here: cheap, and very well equiped. Still data plans are out of reach for most of this class.
Either, Nokia phones are the best option always, they are cheap and most important, there are many choices that can please almost anybody. If you want a cheap touchscreen, but have no wifi, there's the 5230, or if you want something cheap but very well equiped theres the 5800. Or if you want the most basic, the 1100 is for you!
If you want everything, you have the high end phones like the N900, N97, N86 and so on… Americans and europeans tend to forget that the wifi isnt as ubiquitious on other countries like in theirs, and that their cheap plans can be very expensive and out of reach for most people on other countries, even when some data services are from the stone age.
Cheers
i think that in many occasions people have to travel and live in other countries to really understand the differences that can exist. Its a fundamental part of life and life experiences.
when 90% of the world doesnt have the infrastructure or resources to support the “full web experience” of the top end smartphones, it makes the international strategies of smartphone manufacturers like iphone and htc look rather introverted and insular.
just recently, nokia announced a new cheap range of smartphones which will do very well in the emerging markets. These markets will shape the world in this coming century… if you do not accept this, then focussing on providing the “full web experience” will see you feeling left out at the end of it all.
It is not about dumbing down your work, its about making it more efficient. In countries where they have less resources than the US, they just make the most out of the little they have. In the US its much easier to just use/buy more bandwith or powerful equipment as its all readily available. There is not such a need for effeciency and there is less of a need to achieve it.
However, with the growth in the emerging markets you will actually end up at a disadvantge when compared to your third world counterparts as they will be more effecient than you, achieving much more, with much less.
Using heavy data networks and paying extra for new and powerful equipment is not actually innovative. Using limited euipment and resources to achieve the same thing however, is.
Great article