The beers are on OZ Communications.
Big time.
They’ve just been acquired by The Big N.
Congratulations to all.
This is a move that is sure to get tongues wagging some more — Nokia, becoming an internet company? Oh aye. There are a heck of a lot of benefits to Nokia acquiring OZ, not least the existing carrier partnerships:
Leading companies that are Powered by OZâ„¢ include: 3 Scandinavia, Alltel, AOL®, Bell Mobility, Boost Mobile, AT&T, Dobson, ICQ, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Pantech & Curitel, Rogers Wireless, Samsung, SonyEricsson, Sprint, TCL & Alcatel Mobile Phones, Telefónica Móviles España, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telus Mobility, T-Mobile USA®, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile USA and Yahoo!®.
A chap close to the deal tells me that we’ll shortly see an IM client of sorts integrated on to Nokia phones out of the box. I really wonder at that. I’m not too sure how many operators will react to that, even in today’s changed environment.
The acquisition is subject to ‘customary closing conditions’ — and should be complete in Q1 this year. At which point, OZ will become a unit of Nokia’s Services & Software division. Nice.
Why would carriers *not* want to have a full-featured IM client installed out of the box? Most of them already have that, as evidenced by OZ’s currently partnerships. If nothing else, this will benefit consumers and carriers, because consumers with unbranded devices will now have an easily-justified reason to spring for that higher data package – out of the box.
why not jabber? too late Nokia, again…
The important thing about Oz not to overlook is that the Oz client is embedded into a lot of S40 phones already. This makes it possible to extend their service offerings into the S40 handsets, which is where the volume is.
Most operators aren't that enlightened.
IM eats text revenue — that's the classic viewpoint.
Most operators aren't that enlightened.
IM eats text revenue — that's the classic viewpoint.
The important thing about Oz not to overlook is that the Oz client is embedded into a lot of S40 phones already. This makes it possible to extend their service offerings into the S40 handsets, which is where the volume is.
Most operators aren't that enlightened.
IM eats text revenue — that's the classic viewpoint.