“In times of economic crisis, expensive terminals suffer, and the competition has expensive terminals. While the data market growth rate is somewhere around tens of thousands of clients per month, we want to create our niche on the mobile data market,” said Chris Bataillard, CEO of Telemobil. He added that the new service is aimed at both business and residential users.
“I believe we are speaking of a change. Many potential clients we are speaking to are desktop users who want a laptop for mobility. However, 80 percent of laptop users use these for communication: internet, messenger, voice. If they can have a very inexpensive termina, then they will no longer have to buy a laptop,” added Bataillard.
On the local market, the major operators Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania have announced sustained growth strategies for mobile data services and massive investments in this area, both players reporting significant growth in the number of users.
The package launched by Zapp starts at €12/month, while the price of its Z910i terminal as part of one of its two subscriptions, Zapp Easy, is €50, which includes unlimited instant messenger and electronic mail services.
Telemobil CEO indicated that its strategy for Zapp will be a very aggressive one in terms of offers to gain market quota, adding that major operators face the challenge of deciding how much they can afford to drop their prices for their entire client base.
According to information available on the Ministry of Finance site, the company posted turnover in 2007 of €89.6 million, down from €99 mln year-on-year. Telemobil also reported a net loss of €9.3 million.
