Jupiter: Vivendi Universal Results and Music Phones

Thomas Husson posts at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs about Vivendi Universal's first half results and why a music phone like the Motorola Rokr makes sense. Husson lists his key takeaways from the results with an emphasis on the performance of Vivendi's SFR mobile network:

• 300.000 3G subscribers at the end of August (1.8% of the installed base)
• 30.000 full-track mobile music downloads bought in August (0.1 / 3G subscriber / month)
• 5% of Universal revenues derived from digital (my take is that more than 2/3 is ringtones)
• 3.2 M V-Live Subscribers
• New VU Games Business Unit for mobile games
• CanalSat TV available on SFR (current promotion: 7 euros / month excluding...transport costs)
• SFR represents 68% of operational revenues!

On the topic of muisc phones like the Rokr, Husson counters SFR's claim that it's not convenient because you have to download the music from your PC and then transfer it to your phone by stating, "it is convenient! That’s precisely what you do with the i-pod and the i-pod is a mobile device. Ok, you will not be able to make impulse purchases, but is that a big deal? For the mobile operator yes since revenues will not come from data used on 3G networks, but for the consumer?"

He also notes that network operators are going to have a hard time stopping consumers from transferring files to their phone, and comments that European operators T-Mobile, 02, and Bouygues Telecom share this view, which is why they plan to offer the Rokr soon. Husson posits:

So who is right? It was argued that the Motorola ROKR was postponed due to lack of interest from mobile ops. Not so sure in the end, since it is only…a phone. You just need some buzz and marketing to attract new customers into buying the phone and subscribing your offer. Apple is quite good at that and that is probably the main point of the story since there are already many Mp3 phones in the market and that the Sony Walkman W800, forthcoming Nokia N91 and other Samsung to be introduced will probably not generate the same buzz.

It's all about the buzz, and of course making things more convenient for the consumer...