Business Systems in Use by Mobile Operators Outside Europe Have Leapfrogged Those Relied Upon by European Counterparts Say Mobile Content Providers

Inadequate business systems are holding back the development of mobile commerce amongst mobile phone users in Europe. This is the key finding of the Qpass Mobile Content Providers Confidence Study, which examined the views of Europe's leading content providers, on how the business systems relied upon by mobile network operators (MNOs) support mobile commerce in Europe.

The study found that 85 per cent of mobile content providers believe that European MNOs are constrained by poor or inadequate systems for mobile commerce. Additionally, 70 per cent of mobile content providers reported that they deemed this situation unacceptable and reported that European MNOs have inadequate business systems compared to MNOs in other geographical regions.

Mobile commerce content providers jointly ranked time to market for new content and the inability to link seamlessly into MNO billing systems as the key issues holding back consumer adoption of m-commerce and future revenue growth.

An inability to support a flexible pricing model and a lack of real-time sales analysis data from MNOs were jointly ranked as the second issue holding back consumer adoption and revenue growth.

"The problems stifling European m-commerce such as poor time-to-market for new content, inflexible pricing and an inability to market products are all caused by outdated systems for managing mobile commerce business," said Ken Parkinson, sales and business development director, Europe, Qpass.

"European mobile content providers are clearly struggling to work within the confines of first generation m-commerce platforms. They need to develop and promote products in real time, rather than taking months as is currently the case, and extract sales information in real time, rather than being tied to a billing cycle. If MNOs are not provided solutions to these problems they will continue to haemorrhage revenues," added Parkinson.

More than two-thirds of mobile content providers reported that it typically took longer than a month to release new content products once a distribution agreement had been signed with a MNO; 40 per cent reported that it took more than two months; and 25 per cent more than three months. The majority of content providers reported that the time taken to release new content products was unacceptable.

Qpass interviewed 20 European mobile content providers between 23 August and 6 September whose offerings included ring tones, images, messaging, games and information services.

Qpass undertook the study of mobile content providers as part of a broader study of the European market in conjunction with the launch of the Qpass Prosperity Series Software. This is a flexible and secure mobile commerce solution already deployed by seven of the leading operators in the US, including two of global top ten. The platform enables MNOs to extend their current mobile commerce infrastructure which is largely based on Premium Rate SMS in Europe, beyond just payment processing to manage subscriber and content partner relationships and service bundles, including multimedia content packages.

About Qpass
Qpass, headquartered in the US and with offices in Europe, is the proven and preferred provider of mobile commerce software for leading mobile operators. Qpass customers collectively reach more than 70 million subscribers today. These operators, including Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Alltel and Dobson, use the Qpass Prosperity Series Software as an overlay to existing business systems. The software efficiently manages mobile commerce payment and settlement, content partner relationships, service bundle creation and customer care in mobile or Wi-Fi networks. Today more than 150 content partners and aggregators are integrated with Qpass software, delivering over 10,000 applications to mobile users. For more information, visit www.qpass.com.