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July 23, 2007

Amp’d is Done. Helio Surges

Michael Arrington

36 comments »

It seems like the only way for virtual mobile operators (MVNOs) to get any news today is by shutting down. Amp’d, the high-flying mobile operator, is powering down on July 24. Or to be more accurate, they are “potentially suspending US operations on July 24th.” I guess TechCrunch could be suspending U.S. operations on July 24, too, but we wouldn’t be posting that unless we thought it was pretty certain to be happening. The company has been going through bankruptcy but it was not certain they would be shutting down until now.

Meanwhile competitor Helio, which entered the market at about the same time as Amp’d, keeps on surging. Last week they announced that they reached 100,000 customers and have ARPU (average revenue per user) of $100 - way above the average for mobile startups.

A lot of Helio’s success can be attributed to their new Ocean, a killer dual-slider phone. I actually considered using the Ocean over the iPhone because it has a keyboard and great instant messaging support, but it doesn’t sync with Macs.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. kent

    July 23rd, 2007 at 5:33 pm

    f.y.i….I don’t know how this bodes for helio’s outlook…but I live in santa monica and frequent 3rd street promenade, where helio has a storefront. It’s constantly empty and doesn’t seem to attract much traffic. Apple’s store, on the other hand, seems to be always packed, more so in the last few months.
    For a company which has really gone all out in terms of advertising and raising awareness, 100,000 customers in a little over a year seems kind of disappointing.

  2. bulltunes

    July 23rd, 2007 at 5:45 pm

    Michael
    Stop listening to BrewPR,Helio’s PR firm, and be real. Helio is toast. 50% of the people I know in LA using it bought an iPhone and are counting down the days to sign off. If Earthlink could, they’d run from this!!!!

  3. a non

    July 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm

    What were they thinking @ Redpoint Ventures?

  4. Paul

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:06 pm

    In the big picture achieving 100,000 new subs in a mature market is a good feat to date. I was fortunate to be part of one of the first pure 3G networks in the world to launch with a content lead differentiation message. I was in the product team; the biggest problem we had was that price and device were what the consumer’s primary decision path to purchase, content was a nice to have…

    It will be Helio’s goal to get people to try it, from my experience once a consumer has had a play with a good mobile content experience they like it, want it, and use it! We achieved a 45% monthly content purchasing penetration of the active user base, and once the pricing, device, and product messages were aligned intelligently acquisition followed, and now out strips the incumbents. Capped call plans were the catalyst, and deep pockets a must…

  5. bob cobb

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:10 pm

    Im not sure that anyone is surprised by this. I won’t be surprised whne helio goes under either.

  6. Chris Fralic

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:12 pm

    AMP’D MOBILE CMO DOUG DOBIE NAMED ADVERTISING AGE’S ENTERTAINMENT MARKETER OF THE YEAR

    LOS ANGELES – May 22, 2007- Amp’d Mobile announced today that its chief marketing officer, Doug Dobie was selected as one of Advertising Age’s Entertainment Marketers of the Year for 2007. Ad Age’s Entertainment Marketers of the Year issue explores the top MVPs of entertainment marketing for the year and investigates the leaders behind the hottest campaigns across film, TV, publishing, Broadway, and other entertainment venues.

  7. Allen Stern

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:16 pm

    Sure glad I didn’t take that Internet Marketing Manager job a year ago!

  8. Don Wilson

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    But the real question is — did you get the iPhone?

  9. Michael Arrington

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:33 pm

    oh yeah. i got one. and it is the most important person in my life right now. :-)

  10. kent

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:53 pm

    but how do you type? if you got fat fingers, typing is a pain in the arse.

  11. Evan

    July 23rd, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    Does anyone have ARPU figures for other MVNO’s or any mobile operators? $100 strikes me as absurdly high given the average costs of voice and data plans on most networks, but I’d like to see some comps if someone has it easily accessible.

  12. David Mackey

    July 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    MVNO’s? I’ve heard of Helio and Amp’d but need a bit more of a definition on their differentiators.

  13. Tim

    July 23rd, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    Amp’d out.

  14. Paul

    July 23rd, 2007 at 7:40 pm

    I don’t know one person who uses Amp’d or owns a Helio. Here in MN, we’re all Sprint, Verizon, or Tmobil baby :/.

  15. Jay (living in First Life)

    July 23rd, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    Helio will go out of business too. What’s compelling about their business model?

    Let’s first analyze what the two core problems at Helio are:

    1. Joint venture - we all know that JVs blow. They are very difficult to manage. With $220 MM in initial funding from both SK Telecom (of South Korea) and Earthlink, it was a sticky arrangement to begin with. Sky Dayton, founder of Earthlink, runs the company.

    2. MVNO model is extremely difficult - you need very high ARPU and to minimize churn. The entire Myspace mobile thing was a good start but didn’t get them enough traction. Helio lost $192 MM in 2006. It is projected to lose $330 - $360 MM in 2007. Losses will widen as the subscriber base grows because even at $100 ARPU, the cost of acquisition is insane and the barriers to switching are not extremely high.

    Helio has tried to target the top-end of the market - those willing to pay the most for devices. These are the same people driven by the new and the shiny and they switch as soon as something else comes along - ahem, iPhone.

    Good luck. Helio will be dead by March 2008.

  16. Dave

    July 23rd, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    Anyone know what they are doing with their Canadian operation? Will it be shut down on the same day or will we still have service for a while? I am one of the stupid people who ended up buying into this service and I really want to know where I stand.

  17. Alan Wilensky

    July 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 pm

    You can say the Helio Ocean is a killer device - certainly when I went to Helio’s poorly staffed store in Palo Alto, the handsets they allowed me to demo crashed constantly and could not open audio or video content on 3rd party sites. I love to listen to KQED audio on my Blackjack, or audio programing from a number of other streaming sites, but not on the Helio Ocean - why I asked the poorly trained staff?

    The answer will stun you: “because Helio wants you to use its paid content and not go to other media sites!”

    This is not my opinion, this from Helio staff. I sat in that damned store for two hours trying to get Helio Ocean to play WMV, Quicktime, or MP3 from KQED, which palyed fine on my Blackjack.

    and the handset crashed 10 or 15 times.

    Ye Gads!

  18. Lance Weatherby

    July 23rd, 2007 at 9:28 pm

    Prediction.

    SK Telecom takes an equity interest in Sprint, rolls Helio into it, cashes out EarthLink, and provides Ocean (and its offspring) to the masses with Mac support.

  19. TOby

    July 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    Since there is no “sumbit a tip” feature on this site…

    http://www.latimes.com/busines.....s-business

    Amp’d will have service to the end of this month or so

  20. D'oh

    July 24th, 2007 at 5:44 am

    “Helio keeps on surging”?! Thanks to the people who called TC on this drivel.

    When Helio launched they said the co “hopes to have 3 million customers by 2009″. Well, 2008 is coming soon and 100k pops is a joke this late in the game. They are way behind projections.

    TC, please do your homework or risk losing credibility w people who actually follow this space.

  21. bdb

    July 24th, 2007 at 5:57 am

    @D’oh, for someone that “watches this space” you should have been able to provide a more insightful comment. You did not. Shut up.

  22. spacebas

    July 24th, 2007 at 6:27 am

    Helio is the only mobile device (don’t call it a phone) I am aware of that has Google maps integrated with a GPS. That alone is worth the price of admission. What good is Google maps on a phone (iPhone) if you don’t know where you are? I have the Helio Drift and I have yet to see it crash.

  23. Rb

    July 24th, 2007 at 7:48 am

    Helio sounds great ; but the real webpage browsing is why Im with the iphone

    Also with services the Iphone will do instant messaging, and also - with google docs, you could edit word, power point, excel ….

    Iphone is good, not sending picture messages? (you could email them) isnt that big of a problem for me

  24. bdb

    July 24th, 2007 at 8:47 am

    Helio and Amp’d both operate(d) on Verizon’s network, isn’t Helio missing an opportunity to provide some consolation to disaffected amp”d subscribers (eg. discount for phone trade-in/ credit for free month)

    Unless these folks are too gun shy for early adoption now. Verizon could do the same.

  25. Joseph

    July 24th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    Helio actually runs on the Sprint network, not on Verizon’s.

  26. John Mc'Kinley

    July 25th, 2007 at 5:51 am

    The death of Amp’d and the shortfall to original forecasts by Helio make the case for a US MVNO a real challenge. Only the low-end prepaid players seem to be able to make a go of things (Virgin et al). I only hope that when voice has a national IP path (through Wimax and hopefully the 700 mhz auction), we will see a catalyst for change. More thoughts at http://www.greatfallsventures.com.

  27. Stephen Welton

    July 29th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

    I wonder what that means for it’s Canadian retail affiliation with TELUS Mobility???? Anyone got the inside information on that one?

  28. smh

    August 2nd, 2007 at 3:54 pm

    Helio uses Sprint’s network you dolt

  29. smh

    August 2nd, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    Helio also does a credit check so no poor credit risks can get service w/out a deposit.

  30. jd

    August 6th, 2007 at 4:00 am

    actually, i got service with a $35(somewhere around there) “credit fee” and I have really crappy credit(verizon wanted a $400 deposit and T-mobile $250). Even people with poor credit can get helio, apparently…….

  31. frank

    August 19th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

    i have a helio ocean and love it i dont know why everyone expects the best of the best in every feature the web browsing to me is just find come on guys i mean your either home and u have ur pc or ur at work … WORKING or maybe chilin with some friends do u really need the best god damn browsers in the world to look up a couple things on the net as far as serice goes hell i have better signal better call quality then verizon which i just canceld and cingular b4 verizon the phone is mint does a lot of stuff and its more then half a iphone u guys cant knock a 175 dollar unit selling on finawireless .com and a iphone for 600 bux with no insurance available the serice is good the plans are simple the phone is really good clear display i mean now look at the sidekick to me i think that phone is to damn big and i dont like the phone oh and its on T FUCKN MOBILE the worst possable service out the least amount of towers and droped calls is its second nature. i think once helio catches on it will be a big hit a lot of people u have to understand are scared to go to a new company and gettin out of a contreact whiich most are in they dont wanna pay that plus not knowing what kinda service etc is expected with helio and i have to say i love the damn service and phone u guys wanna bitch about phones go to asia where there on a 5 g network downloading high def vids for there phones with 8 mega pixel cams yes fuckn 8 i seen it un real so stop your bitchin helio is a great device ive read the reviews weeks b4 i got the phone the good out weighed the bad in most cases .i havent had any probs with it.it did crash 1 time big deal phones do that these days yea even the iphone the i phone dont even have stereo bluetooth but the apple team decied to put 4 or 8 gig drive u guys talk about web browsers as if thats the only feature on these phones the iphone will have a better browser that i could expect who cares i aint payin 600 freakin bux on a phone that will 1 day DROP scracth that gorgeous touch screen and screw it all up or break it then ur down 600 plus bux helio also just came out with a fin phone 3 mega pixel which is unheard of in the STATES and helio will continue to have more advaned devices to come by the time we adapt to 3 mega pixel cams like other companies helio will have a 4 mega pixel cam to me a camera is more important that a web browser u can go at home on the net and blazing speeds but u can alwyas say my phone is a high quality camera phone and has a decent browser etc etc so screw off cause im a helio ocean owner and i LOVE IT!

  32. frank

    August 19th, 2007 at 11:27 pm

    and amped mobile went out of buisness cause they plain sucked i seen there phones i mean they were the same as every other company but had like stupid ass packages and crap nothing to seperate the phones
    unlike helio every device they have is unique and nice the phone is really made well to the way it slides u can tell it is not cheap made
    screw you guys im going home!

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