CEAi Market Brief - Service Costs of Wireless OS

How much does it cost wireless providers to service different smartphone operating systems?

The explosion of smartphones has revolutionized the wireless world in recent years, serving as an invaluable additional revenue stream for telecom companies while offering consumers dramatically advanced user experiences and convenience. Smartphone data plans increase monthly service bills by $10-$20 per customer, improving the bottom line for wireless companies by billions annually. However, technological advances like these often mean an increased demand for customer support and service for consumers adoption and maintenance.

How many times have you found yourself stuck trying to use an app for your BlackBerry? Or found that the location-based restaurant app doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to? Or worst of all, your corporate e-mail is not coming through to your smartphone the way it’s supposed to?

Well, it turns out that questions like these increase the number of customer service calls to wireless carriers, increasing servicing costs. If we look closely at smartphones by operating system, there are clear differences. Analysis of more than 250 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. revealed interesting data points around the cost of servicing smartphone users.