Mobile service providers continue to be obsessed with finding the next killer application. When existing services do not achieve immediate success, they are frequently neglected or even discarded as service providers (SPs) turn their attention to the next sexy service that comes along. Fast and relentless technological innovation fuels this trend.
This approach to driving usage of value-added services (VAS) is flawed. SPs can learn from their history of failure. They should adopt a product lifecycle management (PLM) philosophy when introducing and managing services. However, they must combine the PLM approach with a customer-centric view of the fundamental barriers to higher VAS penetration and usage.