The main challenge facing operators looking to move their business into the connected home is not the threat from Apple or Google, but ensuring the customer experience is solid, Orange has said.
The France-based operator’s Vice-President for Innovation, Marketing and Technologies, Pierre Francois-Dubois, was speaking to Mobile Europe at last week’s LTE World Summit in Amsterdam.
Orange has already moved into the market with its MyPlug smart object, which can be used to control household appliances via a GSM modem and an Orange SIM card.
Apple and Google have both recently announced their intention to compete in the smart home space, with the companies presenting the same OTT threat to operators as they have done with other services.
However, Dubois said Orange is competing in an different area of the connected home market to these companies. He said: “The main challenge is the customer experience and how the customer is going to understand what we are trying to sell them.”
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