Internet on the mobile? Not in Holland

Figures released in the annual reports of the Dutch phone companies like KPN the Dutch branch of Vodafone indicates the data services are still only a fraction of the turnover, despite heavy ad campaigns. In 2003, KPN reported the turnover in the dataservices was just 192 million Euro, compared to 135 million the previous year. The total turnover is 2.3 billion. KPN has made a lot of noise about the fact that it put nearly 900,000 i-mode handsets into the market, but most people just use them for SMS services - perhaps because not enough shop assistants can demo what the phone can do?

Vodafone has a similar story. 165 million turnover (120 in 2002) in data services, largest proportion was also SMS. Total market in the Netherlands for mobile phones was 5.4 billion Euro, 14% more than 2002. In a country of 16 million, there seem to be 13,1 million mobile phones. German T-mobile grew the fastest in the Netherlands, with a 15.1% share in 2003. Source: Dutch press bureau ANP