It’s the walk-up to the CTIA show in San Francisco, and Mark Collins, VP Consumer Data, AT&T Wireless (T), is on stage talking about Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and other developments that are changing the wireless game.
The conversation has begun.
Mark took his post in the spring. He’s been in the business for 21 years.
AT&T had announcement with Napster this morning. Collins says it’s the latest piece of the mobile music strategy, to enable broad choice. Napster has the largest over-the-air mobile music offering, he says.
He’s being asked how data has been a driver of growth. Collins says the data business is driving the wireless business right now. All of the carriers are reporting double-digit data gains, and data represents a double digit percentage of overall revenue.
CTIA is seeing incredible growth in plain-old text messaging. The U.S. is no longer lagging Europe, says Mark Desautels, VP of Wireless Internet Development for CTIA.
What are some of the things driving adoption of data? Personalization, Collins says. It’s all about what it means to you. Premium content is a great business — music, graphics, ringtones. Internet-on-the-go is a good business also.
Collins says the mobile browser experience has a long way to go. “We’ve got to make things easy for customers or they won’t adopt the product, and we know that many times over.”
Now, on to the iPhone.
A couple of analysts estimate that the iPhone is poised to be the largest-selling mobile device in the industry, Desautels says. What it’s telling AT&T is that the user experience and ease of use are very important to the customer. “This experience is raising the bar for all the other providers,” Collins says. There’s more competition coming, Collins says, still — “I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t bet against Mr. Jobs.”
What’s the future of converged devices? Collins says AT&T will just make sure to have plenty of offerings. “Integrated devices are hot,” he says. “The iPhone will drive lots more innovation in that space as well …. We’re just seeing the first of this wave.”
What’s next for phones? The phone is the most personal device that most people carry with them, Collins says. Mobile financial services and entertainment television are among the things AT&T is looking at closely, because those are things that people might be interested in. Most of all, AT&T is trying to track customer interest to see what they want.
(All of this makes one wonder what carriers are the gatekeepers deciding what applications are available to most consumers. In the broader Internet, the companies that provide the pipe don’t dictate what applications are available. Why should it be different on the phone?)
Will AT&T be participating in the 700MHz auction in June? “I would think that a company of our size … would at least be thinking about it,” Collins says. (Wow. Talk about a non-answer.)
Customers haven’t shown a willingness to pay for video yet, Collins says. AT&T has launched some services, and hasn’t seen the kind of penetration it has seen with messaging. Having a model where customers are paying for that content, where you’re selling the content to the carrier, supporting it through advertising — all of that will have to be part of the solution.
What is the importance of having a three-screen strategy for a company like AT&T, Collins is asked. (The three screens would be TV, PC and phone.) “We are a mobile-centric company at our heart,” Collins says, quoting AT&T’s CEO. Collins says the company is still figuring out what a three-screen strategy means, but chances are the phone will be the lead device. “We think having that choice available to the customer as well as potential advertisers and content providers is a big deal.”
It’s an evolutionary process, it’s not a revolutionary process, Collins says. “We think that messaging is job one. We think that content is really important.” He says integrating content with messaging, which some social networking sites are doing, is intriguing, and AT&T is watching very closely.
One of the Matchbox Twenty band members, Paul Doucette, has come to the stage to demonstrate AT&T’s mobile service through Napster. “By the way, good reception in here,” he says offhand. “We’re raising the bar,” Collins says, throwing out an AT&T marketing slogan.
The conversation has ended.
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