Justin Pearse (whos byline normally graces NewMediaAge) has written for TheFeature on mobile portals and their imminent demise. He points to a number of factors (including the recent revelation that 70% of Vodafone’s mobile content revenue came from off portal) to bolster the argument that the days of the dominance of operator portals are at an end — the question is whether they survive at all. Personally I think they will…portals will always offer a far easier way to get content than independent WAP sites, and their only drawback (which is a killer) is that the content they offer is so limited.
However, Pearse writes: One growing issue here is pricing. Operators such as Vodafone have removed data traffic charging on their portals in an attempt to drive usage. This is starting to raise concerns for content providers as it means a piece of content on an operator portal, all other things equal, is automatically cheaper than off-portal. Some are already talking about the need for fair trade investigations. One senior music industry source even suggests the issue may be used “as an excuse to help shut down the portal.”
Internet ISPs often exclude content on their portal from the download calculations, especially for things like online games, and it hasn’t done anything to restrict the growth of content on the web or internet commerce, and I don’t think free downloads on the mobile portal will be any different…
Related stories:
Bubble Era Portal Obsessions Move To A Mobile Age
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