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The Egyptian forum |
mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
If it were up to them, they wouldn’t advertise low end sets at all since they yield so little profit, but as mentioned before, it’s a new tendency on the part of  international, they want to grow bigger 
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[ This Message was edited by: mahora on 2005-07-04 08:27 ] |
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mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
But according to your logic they'd want to advertise the phones that are a little more expensive because they'll have a better profit margin. Notice I'm mostly complaining about the absence of J200, J300 and K300 which are the lowest priced phones in the lineup. I'd think the J200 would go for LE550-600, J300 to be around LE700+ and the K300 at no more than LE900 because of the F500. Also usually you advertise your expensive products more to show off you technology and convince people to buy your brand.
I never was quite convinced on your argument on when prices go down. You said that the price goes down once it covers it expences and starts to become profitable. Your argument was about why GPRS doesn't get cheaper but phone calls do. My point is, why has the price of SMSs gone down? SMS must've been the cheapest technology to implement and they should've made millions by now. The price for calls go down and SMS don't? |
mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
Simple. It’s the economics of poor and emerging markets. To clarify the concept, I’ll give you two examples. One is that of Western Europe. In this 500- million user "mature" market, voice calls and sms have acquired a flat rate for so long now. The companies have stopped relying on them for a source of profit for quite a long time. Companies are shift vigorously for data services to make their profit, and therefore pushing customers to use those services extensively in order for the cycle of ROI to be swiftly completed, and hence also come the push and rush towards 3G.
The other example is that of China. The Chinese market (350 million users) is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, BUT it cannot be described as being a rich one. The nature of the users is mainly comprised of prepaid services (same as Egypt). This market depends mainly on such means as sms to make communications, and therefore the companies would not let sms sending fees go down since the demand is so huge in spite of the comparatively high prices. That’s a typical case of poor and emerging telecom economics.
As for the Egyptian case, you can draw an obvious conclusion as to which example can be applied. If Egyptian mobile telecom companies would lower sms prices, everybody would be lured to send sms instead of making calls, where the true profit lies for the time being, especially if you look at the nature of the Egyptian society where more than half of the population is categorized as young people (the opposite of Western Europe). And since young people don’t have those big budgets for mobiles and companies know that, so the price of sms has to be kept frozen, while you try to tempt people to make calls, again where the true profit lies.
The conditions of the Chinese market will still dominate the Egyptian market for quite a long time to come. We have a long way until we reach the case of Western Europe.
[ This Message was edited by: mahora on 2005-07-04 12:34 ] |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
1. SMS aren't as appealling anymore. People now prefer to try to make 20sec. call which is cheaper.
2. China might seem a good fit for comparisson but I don't really think so. China has only one opperator, whereas we supposedly have competition. I think in China they keep the price of SMS the way they are to keep there investments at a certain level. If they were to drop the price of SMS try and picture what kind of upgrade their message centers will need to cope with the average usage of SMS not to mention peek usage. Here in Egypt we only have around 9 million subscribers and as you said mostly prepaid. Talking about profit doesn't work because the telecom already got their money, its just a matter of how many messages or minutes they want us to have in return for the money we already paid. |
mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
It’s not that simple. Let me remind you that the offers on calls were introduced only a short while ago. And it’s just an attempt on the part of companies to try to lure the users out of the rules and conditions of the economics of poor and emerging markets that govern their behavior. Let alone the fact that in reality you cannot confine a call to 20 secs, unless you’re holding a watch in you hand, and just keeps urging your called party to finish before the 20 secs are up 
As for our so-called competition, let me remind you that we have one company that bears 2 names  . Just check the newest prepaid offer from voda. It’s called “the magician”, in mimic of the competitor’s offer of the “magical”. The 2 offers are exactly identical; they weren’t even creative enough to come up with a new brand name, so much for competition huh?
Marketing governs all the activities of telecom companies, and as far as Marketing is concerned, you need to constantly seek where your true profit really lies. If you understand this concept, then you’ll understand almost all the tricks of the companies.
Oh, one more thing, China has been having TWO mobile operators since 1995 
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[ This Message was edited by: mahora on 2005-07-05 06:55 ] |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
Ok you can't always do 20 sec. but I see people rushing the call and are happy to say" Yes, I did it in 19 sec."
Well although I don't think it justiffies anything but Mobinil started the mimmicking trend with Life.
I always thought that china had one government owned network, I could be wrong.
I still think they could come up with an offer which offers cheap messages instead of slightly lower call rates.
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mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
Join the great race: do it in 19 secs, and win the next 20 half price 
So sms is still popular after all, I'd call it the "China syndrome" (after the 1979 movie starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon & Michael Douglas)
What you always think is not always right 
[ This Message was edited by: mahora on 2005-07-06 08:40 ] |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
Yeah SMS are popular when you talk about sending them to TV and radio shows. As for comunicating I don't think they're as hot a they used to be.
The funny thing is voda has a promotion giving you the second minute for free but that's a little silly seeing that people try ro do 19sec  |
mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
See what I mean
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mahora
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 11
From: Egypt
PM |
@mustafabay
I want to use your technical expertise, however immature they may be for the time being  to get info on something. Both mobile COs. in Egypt use GSM900, yet they acquired the right to use 1800 band. Now what I need to know is this: how is the 1800 band usage implemented within the network stucture of GSM 900 from a technical standpoint, i.e., equipment modifications or alterations, s/w modifcation, etc. And what are the real benefits of such usage, again from an in-depth technical view. Thanks in advance. |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
You know, Alo else7ri looks great and they say there is no inna. Well there is, no matter what card you use to charge it only lasts 1 month and your credit also lasts only one month. What makes it worse is you can't charge to add credit only.
That's going to be a tough one. I haven't actually studied anything about mobile networks but I'll see what I can dig up. To be honest though, I doubt they ever plan to use the 1800 band. I think it was just paying off TE( now I know, not ET ) so they wouldn't have to worry about competition or price wars. |
kmas116
Joined: May 18, 2005
Posts: 1
PM |
hi ya ged3an 2ana khaled men Egypt ,i was hoping law 2ay 7ad ye2dar yesa3edni bcuz 2ana me7tar 2ageeb Samsung E720 or Nokia 6670.
balash 7'ena2 3ala vodafone & mobinil both r the same.
salam
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mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
Inta 3ayiz eeh fil telphone bita3ak?
English. E720 has a slightly better camera. 6670 is a smartphone. If you don't know what a smartphone is then you don't really need one and the E720 is good enough. E720 has a better screen and you get more memory altough it can't be upgraded. 6670 has less memory but you could buy a bigger card. Don't forget E720 is a lot smaller. |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
Saw k300 today. More expensive than f500.
This message was posted from a T630 |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
That was yesterday. K300=LE1038 if I'm not mistaken. Today Al ahram has an add of K300 for 999. Maybe J300 will follow soon. |
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Posted: 2005-07-04 09:26
