Mobility Minute: Mobility-as-a-Service Options Open Up With Unlocked Phones

CRNtv had the opportunity to speak with Mike Coleman, head of mobile channel sales at Samsung Electronics America, about the opportunities for solution providers around unlocked phones.

The unlocked phone business is growing exponentially, as the fastest growing segment, and mobility is the new currency. Coleman says now is the perfect time for solution providers to begin investing in their mobile practices.

Much like Software-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Mobility-as-a-Service gives partners the opportunity to offer packages that create margins.

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’You surround it by accidental damage, so a break-fix [service]. That’s included as part of the warrantee. In addition to that, you surround it with mobile device management and the services around that in which the channel partners can actually invest and then build those practices to solve real problems for customers," said Coleman.

Some of those solved problems have to do with flexibility and choice. Customers can buy a package of unlocked phones and disperse them among many carriers. SIM cards from each of those carriers can be inserted into the phones.

"Last year, a billion-and-a-half cell phones were sold worldwide, and of that, 12 percent were unlocked," Coleman said.

Channel partners who invest in mobile app development and the solutions that include the hardware, software and services are going to be poised for tremendous success and growth in 2017 and beyond.