Our post on mobile data pricing as seen by Opera has caused lively debate in our readership – big thanks to each and everyone of you for the great feedback.
Thomas Ford from Opera has now sent us the following statement:
Clearly the U.S. was the toughest country to figure out exactly what number to use. There was a robust internal debate regarding the pricing with respect to tiered plans and unlimited plans. However, with tiered plans, Opera Mini will only save money if someone goes over their allotment. The real benefit of Opera Mini under those circumstances is more page loads under the plan. With unlimited plans, the primary benefit is speed. Almost all users with those plans won’t reach the level of usage to pay overage charges.
We decided to use pay-as-you-go rates for two reasons. First, it is the clearest in terms of pay-per-MB pricing when considering the issue with tiered plans and unlimited plans. Second, while smartphones dominate the top 10 handsets in the U.S., the so-called Long Tail has a notable impact.
Approximately 62% of our U.S. users use something other than an Apple, RIM or Android smartphone.Globally, of course, these numbers are closer to what almost everyone pays. Metered plans are more prevalent in many countries, including most in the top 10.
I can but hope that this somehow clarifies the situation – please let us know if we can assist you further!
Related posts:
Content, RSS
Twitter