With mobile phones slowly becoming commodity nowadays, it’s not hard to imagine a day when today’s high-end smartphones will cost $100 or even less. The only thing that will make the difference will be in the software and services, handset maker or carrier provides with the device. That said, I’m not surprised to see virtually all major handset manufacturers entering the world of services, to compensate on shrinking margins and further develop brand awareness among its customers.
On the other side we see an emergence of many interesting mobile service providers, which give their best get a slice of the huge mobile market. In that sense, they’re partnering with handset makers and operators to capture eyeballs and get more people to use their services.
One such service is the mobile social network and user-generated content service – GyPSii, which keeps growing like crazy. During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, they announced a major deal with LG as well as a new developer API. Even earlier, they scored a deal with the world’s largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers – China Mobile. And as they add more to the table, they became more interesting to other larger companies as a potential target for acquisition. That’s the main idea of this article – some smart handset maker should acquire GyPSii!
As I said, margins are going down and it’s the software and services that will make or break a handset maker’s offering. Including or pre-installing something like GyPSii could be of benefit to both end-users and handset makers, which could additionally make money from advertising and other value-added services provided via GyPSii.
Nokia instantly comes to mind as it’s the single largest “mobile services pusher,” but they’ve already heavily invested in Ovi and I don’t see GyPSii adding much to the mix for them. The Finnish giant seems to have all the technology and synergies are not visible, at least from where I stand. Other handset makers are a different story — by acquiring GyPSii, they would get an instant access to the mobile services market and eventually be ready to compensate on lower margins.
With recession looming, company valuations are going south, hence it’s an ideal time for strategic acquisitions. GyPSii could be just the company to go in line with handset makers’ strategy… Any thoughts?