"Though Orange has had the most positive start with its Unik service in France, other operators have struggled," said Jill Finger Gibson, research director, IDC EMEA. "This shows that FMC technology is moving in the right direction and is not the major hurdle to FMC adoption, at least in the consumer segment. That hurdle is getting the customer proposition correct, launching the service only once the necessary prerequisites are in place, and positioning an FMC service as a 'must-have' rather than a 'nice-to-have.'"
IDC believes that operators that are considering consumer FMC services should avoid positioning FMC as a new standalone product. Instead, it should be positioned as a complement to existing broadband and mobile services. In particular, operators planning on launching an FMC service need to ensure that a significant number of their existing broadband subscribers are already familiar with and using home networking equipment. Ultimately, home broadband penetration combined with home network penetration is the necessary prerequisite for the launch of an FMC service.
Based on the technology and service developments over the past year, IDC estimates that the FMC services market in Western Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 173% between 2006 and 2011, reaching $2.65 billion by the end of the forecast period. During the forecast period, the major FMC opportunity will be in the consumer and small/medium business segments rather than the large enterprise segment. The first deployments of FMC have been consumer and have shown that if the messaging, pricing, and device offers are right, people will buy the service. IDC believes that significant penetration of FMC in the enterprise sector will only occur after 2011, as the technologies needed for enterprise FMC to appeal to business technology decision-makers are still in the development stages, and enterprise adoption of new technologies is a gradual process.