NEWS ANALYSIS

mike.hibberd@informa.com

Of all the new contract customers to join T-Mobile

in the second half of 2009, 28 per cent joined from Vodafone, 5.9 per cent from the carrier’s prepaid base and 22.1 per cent from its postpaid. Second hardest hit was O2, which accounted for 24 per cent, 6.8 per cent prepaid and 17.2 per cent postpaid. E-plus accounted for 9.8 per cent, all of which were contract customers and T-Mobile’s own prepaid base represented another 18.4 per cent. In terms of handset brand churn, Apple’s popu-

larity hit Nokia and Motorola the hardest. 39.1 per cent of T-Mobile’s new iPhone subscribers in the second half of last year were previously Nokia owners, while 37.3 per cent discarded a Motorola handset for the Apple product. Uptake of smartphones in Germany has

lagged other leading European markets, Moore told MCI, but the correlation between

iPhone ownership and higher ARPU spend seen elsewhere is reflected in T-Mobile’s domestic market. Vodafone leads the German market in ARPU, with the highest proportion of customers spending more than €50/month, but T-Mobile is still outperforming the market. And German Apple users have a significantly higher monthly spend than owners of other handsets, he said. But, said Moore, T-Mobile’s Apple-induced

gains might not be an exclusively positive development. “It does raise alarm bells about the potential future in terms of exclusivity,” he said. “Will T-Mobile’s current success be affected when and if the iPhone becomes non-exclusive in Germany? An interesting parallel is O2 in the UK. Volumes for the iPhone took off there in July 2008 so there will be a big bulk of customers

What did current iPhone owners previously own?

The majority of new T-Mobile contract iPhone owners previously owned a Nokia device

Nokia 39.1

T-Mobile

Motorola 37.3

Vodafone

Sony Ericsson 7.9

O2 E-Plus

HTC 3.8

Klarmobil.de

Siemens 1.9

Simply

Samsung 1.3

Source: ComTech DE Purchasing data to w/e 27th December 2009

Which manufacturers are new T-Mobile customers choosing?

44.4% of customers who have churned to T-Mobile contract over the last 6 months have chosen the iPhone. What did they previously own?

Apple Nokia

17.9

Sony Ericsson

7.1

Samsung Blackberry

5.1 2.2

LG 0.7

Source: ComTech DE Purchasing data to w/e 29th December 2009

44.4

We will be working with Kantar Worldpanel on an ongoing basis to bring our readers exclusive data on user behaviour in the markets where the ComTech survey is carried out

(see panel above).

While we do not have the space to display the data in its entirety in our print edition, it will be available on www.telecoms.com for all of our readers to browse.

chatback@telecoms.com.

All Other 3.1 2.8 10.2

Source: ComTech DE Purchasing data to w/e 29th December 2009

3.6 This does not factor in

customers who have remained on T-Mobile contract

5.9 6.8 9.8

T-Mobile contract new customers = 100%

17.2 22.1

Prepay Contract

18.4

coming up for renewal around now. O2 have released a lot of high-value SIM only deals to try and keep hold of all of those customers. T-Mobile might find itself with the same problem.” n

Kantar Worldpanel

ComTech is the largest continuous research consumer mobile phone tracking panel of its kind in the world, conducting over one million interviews per year in Europe alone. The study has now been expanded to Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Australia and the US , bringing the total number of annual interviews to over two million. Worldpanel ComTech tracks mobile phone behaviour, including purchasing of phones, mobile phone bills/ airtime, source of purchase, phone usage and handset features and delivers beyond market share tracking to understand drivers of share changes, market dynamics through consumer insight - the data included in this story is excluding enterprise sales.

Where are T-Mobile contract customers coming from?

18.4% of custromers who have joined T-Mobile contract over the last 6 months are customers who were previously on T-Mobile prepay. There is also a significant churn form Vodafone contract and O2 contract

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