Ovum: Vodafone Analyst and Investor Day

John Delaney at Ovum posts his thoughts after spending a day with Vodafone's top management at the company's analyst and investor day. One key fact he learned is Vodafone's 3G user base is now up to 4.35 million at the end of August.

Delaney noted "Vodafone continues to post good numbers, and it is an increasingly formidable outfit," and provides his thoughts on the company's efforts in various geographies. He commented that the presentation on U.S. efforts, of which "Verizon generated over 16% of the Group's revenues in the last financial year," seemed like an afterthought with only a couple of bullet points and a 10 minute speech from Verizon's new CFO accompanied by no slides and no Q&A towards the end of the day. Delaney stated that "Verizon is an awkward fit with the Vodafone Group in many ways; its treatment yesterday felt like a theatrical metaphor for that situation."

Delaney did point out one potential issue for Vodafone's long-term prospects, emerging markets. He stated:

We expect the world's next billion customers to connect to mobile networks during the next five years. If we had any money staked on Vodafone for the long haul, we'd be wondering: how many of those billion does Vodafone expect to be connected to networks which it controls? The most effective way to grow a business organically is to win new customers. Vodafone's footprint doesn't yet cover the places where most of those new customers will be.