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Why Telstra’s not getting the iPhone

June 17th, 2008

The Australian Financial Review’s Tracy Lee reported yesterday in an article on page 15 titled: Biggest telco loses grip on iPhone“, that the reason Telstra isn’t going with the iPhone is because it wanted a Telstra branded version that displayed on it’s default screen Whereis rather than Google Maps, and Bigpond Music rather than iTunes.

It’s a disagreement over of content, not technology. Apple supported international content verses Telstra’s home-grown content.

Telstra has been desperately trying to get into the content market for years. Remember the pre-Internet Telecom Discovery and Viatel? Telstra knows that the rivers of gold from plain old telephone lines and data pipes are being squeezed by new technologies like VOIP. In 1995 it cost $1.05 per minute to call the USA. In 2008 with VOIP it’s not unusual to pay 5 cents per minute, and you don’t need a $30 per month phone line to do it.

Unfortunately their big-iron telco cultural heritage makes it very difficult for them to react quickly. They have carrier blood and DNA notwithstanding multiple management changes at the top over the last few years and content provider purchases like the Trading Post. Once a carrier always a carrier.

It will be interesting to see if Telstra start to change their tune once Vodafone and Optus start eating into their profitable business segment. The rumour is that Optus will launch with an $80 and $100 plan that bundles in generous data limits with a voice cap. This offer is designed to churn Telstra’s profitable mobile business segment.

I’ve used a Blackberry and I’ve used an iPhone and I know what I’d rather have for both business and personal use.

The SMS user interface on the iPhone makes SMS my preferred method of text communication.

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Categories: Opinion |