1. Telcos – selling phones
Looking for a new phone? This is your moment. There are some sharp trade-in deals in Australia coming up to the launch of the new Apple iPhone from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. Apple is hoping it’s first round of intelligence can drive a replacement cycle in phones to drive profitability.
Early data from US brokers suggests lead times are low indicating either slightly less demand or a bigger supply chain build by Apple. iPhone 16 Pro Max lead times are currently around 23 days creating a bit of excitement with the tech heads.
Source: Telstra (September 2024)
2. Mobile & AI
T-Mobile (US) announced a deal with OpenAI to build a platform based on T-Mobile data sets.
- Some of the benefits expected include:
- Call centre replacement.
- Preventing subscriber losses based on predicting churn behaviour (perhaps logging in to check bill details).
- Quickly accessing data on billing and network performance for a customer to head off issues in the future.
OpenAI have promised not to use corporate data to train their broader models, a key point of contention among all data owners.
Source: Llama 3.1 using prompt ‘call centre staff picture’ (September 2024)
3. Travel remains HIGH on the agenda
Multiple data points this week suggest travel remains high on the agenda:
- Low cost European airline Ryanair said August / September was much better than May, June and July.
- UBS released a quarterly survey of 1,000 Australians suggesting we are looking to travel more. Almost as much as straight after lockdown.
- Those with high incomes showed the greatest increase in travel intentions.
Source: UBS (September 2024)