Tony Fernandes says Tune Talk is Malaysia’s largest MVNO. Having launched its BlackBerry service recently, the prepaid telco has 3000 BlackBerry subscribers at the moment, but being a prepaid provider, subscriber numbers tend to be fluid as the attrition rate is typically higher than a post-paid telco.
Having said that however, Tune Talk is doing very well for itself. In the prepaid market, Tune Talk has probably toppled DiGi as the prepaid king with unbeatable value and an appealing marketing approach. Having a rock star front man with and even bigger rock star boss helps with the brand appeal as well.
So it’s safe to say that the Tune Talk brand is making a mark, but that’s not stopping the dynamic duo of Fernandes and Lo from achieving greater success. Via Twitter Fernandes has indicated that Tune Talk will be offering Android devices. It’s a fleeting statement yes, and it could mean anything at this point but its definitely something Tune Talk fans will definitely be looking forward to.
How would a prepaid operator offer devices if it can’t tie its subscribers down with a contract? In Tune Talk’s case, there are three possible approaches — 1) Offer a bulk buy credit purchase for a subsidized device price (meaning buy a boatload of reloads upfront and get a discount on devices), 2) Simply offer discount deals with a device partner, in this case Samsung (meaning if you sign-up for Tune Talk or purchase reloads you get a discount voucher for Samsung devices or you can redeem Tune Talk points for discounts on devices) or 3) Shift the business model from prepaid to post-paid.
We’re more inclined to think that Tune Talk will adopt approach number one or number two but it’s too early to say. So we’ll just see if Tony or Jason has any more interesting tidbits to share.
