It adds that while operators and service providers are naturally interested in introducing or developing their direct channels they must be careful about managing their existing dealer relationships.
This will help to minimise any sale channel conflict.
"Managing channel conflict is one of the most complex areas of mobile distribution due to convergence of the pure mobile specialist channel with the mass market retailer combined with the integration of the direct and indirect routes to market" it says.
"The network operator handset vendor and content provider each has a different starting point in approaching the challenge of distribution management and conflict management strategy."

A key finding of the latest annual report on sales and distribution from Informa Telecoms and Media is that while revenues from mobile data offerings are on the increase in the retail channel revenues from voice services are in overall decline.
This will come as no surprise to anyone involved at the sharp end of selling both contract and pre-pay deals as more and more customers are interested in the non-voice capabilities of their handset.
3 is the latest network to try to meet this need with the long-awaited launch of a 3G data card.
The card which should be available to 3 retailers by the end of this month will cost between £39.99 and £119.99 depending on data bundle. Monthly data bundles are priced between £20 and £45.
"Competition is intense in the marketplace" noted Informa senior research analyst Dan Winterbottom. He added that as the cost of voice minutes is driven down networks have turned to non-voice services as a way of making up the shortfall.
SMS still generates the lion´s share of data revenues he noted.
"It costs the mobile operator very little to send SMS messages across their network but the mark-up is significant" he said.
Winterbottom argues that the fact large media brands now view mobile as a significant channel to market means a big hike in the money spent on mobile content.
"This is increasing the range of content available to mobile users meaning that the lack of choice that perhaps used to hamper the growth of the mobile content sector is no longer happening" he said.
So where does this leave the market for voice services?
According to Winterbottom prices for voice minutes have fallen significantly in recent times and there is little room in the market for prices to go back up though Orange is trying to shuffle per-minute rates up on its new tariffs.
"I don´t think prices can go back up" he said. "3 played a very good game in offering economically priced bundles of minutes to grab market share and the rest of the industry has followed suit" he said.
As a result of this downward pressure on voice revenues he argues that it is inevitable that operators have had to look at non-voice services and content in particular to ease the shortfall.
"Orange and T-Mobile in particular have been very innovative in ensuring a wide range of content is available to all their users" he pointed out.
Winterbottom also has high hopes for instant messaging which he says could be as big in revenue terms as text messaging.
"This is why Vodafone has struck a deal with MSN Messenger" he said adding that it is important to realise that instant messaging is not a new technology.
"It´s something that´s been hugely popular on the desktop Internet so there´s no reason not to expect it to be good revenue earner for the mobile industry" he said.

The phone is being offered in green pink blue and orange in time for summer.
Motorola VP and director of consumer experience design Jim Wicks noted that the move takes advantage of handset demand moving from function to design.
"We´ve gone from pink to whoa´ to make the PEBL expressive and refreshing" he said.
"This is a product you choose because you want it not because you need it."
No pricing for the new coloured models is currently available.

Nathaniel Henry 19 of Beauchamp Road Upper Norwood was given bail at Horseferry Road Magistrates´ Court to appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court at a future date.
The four men have been charged with offences of robbery and violence on a tram between Arena and Sandilands tram stops on December 8 last year.
The four are accused of robbing Nathan Fallon of a Nokia 7250i worth £100 and a £69 iPod; Brendon Bullod of a mobile phone worth £35; Alex McCarthy of a Nokia 3520i and £4 in cash; Mark Phipps of a Sony Ericsson phone worth £120 and Penny Boniface of a quantity of cigarettes.
As a condition of his bail Henry was ordered not to contact his three co-defendants who had appeared in court at an earlier hearing.

According to press reports bids have come from Warburg Pincus and two joint bidding partners CVC Capital and Providence Equity Partners and Bain Capital and Nordic Capital.
Three bids of £1 billion are believed to be on the table.
Founder John Caudwell announced in November that the group was up for sale following a strategic review of the business by NM Rothschild.
Despite industry predictions that the group would be broken up business managers have insisted it will remain intact.
The group has refused to comment on the reports.

The network claims it provides business with the freedom to use services as they wish without having to commit to specific amounts of voice or data. All bundle usage is charged at standard rates.
Orange understands that businesses want predictable costs and simpler pricing said a spokesman. 85 per cent of financial management professionals argue that complex tariffs and pricing make it impossible to determine the true value of offerings from operators.

Karim Ghouila 31 of Rathgar Avenue in Ealing faces seven theft charges and seven counts of dishonestly handling stolen property on various dates between January 14 and February 4.
He is alleged to have stolen a Nokia 1100 and a Samsung MP3 player worth £80 from a Miss Yun at Oxford Circus station; a Nokia 7210 from a Miss Bernardino on a train between White City and Tottenham Court Road stations and a Motorola V975 worth £150 belonging to a Miss Rahman between Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.
Other alleged thefts were two older persons Freedom Passes from a Mrs Gray and a Mrs Zolyomi and a Samsung E700 phone stolen from a Miss Atkins at Chancery Lane station.

The gang beat up TAP director Les St George as he left the premises on March 9 leaving him with a broken nose and jaw.
The gang ram-raided TAPs front gates in a white van but couldnt get past the first set of shutters at the entrance to the TAP warehouse.
TAP head of compliance and legal Ahmet Ratip said:
"After Les St George locked up on Thursday night [March 9] he was violently assaulted by four men driving an Audi A4 estate. He was taken from his car and beaten up.
"They ram-raided the first set of gates in a white van. And they tried to break down the first set of shutters too but gave up. They left the white van behind. Hopefully they have left a few calling cards behind in it."
TAP has now beefed up its security with an overhaul of CCTV gates and procedures.
"We are spending more than £250000 on installing a completely new security system with CCTV new gates and anti-ram-raid rods" said Ratip. "We are taking extremely serious measures. Undercover security escorts all our vans."
Ratip said that police are re-constructing the attempted raid for BBCs Crimewatch programme.
Ratip said: "There has been an increase in raids like this but if they think that by beating up a 60-year-old man they can get something then they are wrong."
St George is currently on leave but will return to work next week.
The raid comes as logistics companies and freight insurers are warning that raids and hijacks of high-value mobile phone stock around Heathrow Airport have increased dramatically in the past two months and are continuing to rise.
Insurance companies suggest that as much as £40 million has been lost to freight theft of mobile phones and CPUs in the past six months.
Colin Stewart security manager at Hawk Precision Logistics said:
"In the past three months there have been concerted attacks. They have tried to drive lorries through the side of walls."
The most recent raids in the London area occurred on February 15 in Southall when a gang ram-raided a depot and got away with £2 million in mobile phones and CPUs.
Forward Logistics managing director Angela Deane said: "It is very dangerous out there at the moment. It has got worse in the past few months. It is quite frightening."
Dave Riley director of a&b insurance brokers said that the number of claims relating to theft of mobile phones and CPUs has increased five-fold in the past six months.

Riley claims around £60m worth of merchandise was lost to such attacks last year with 27 per cent of that occurring in the build-up to Christmas. His clients have recorded losses of £4 million in the past six months and of around £2 million in the last two.

Riley said: "Two clients phoned me last week about attempted raids. And these raids arent happening in the middle of the night. Most of the hijackings in the past five months have happened in daylight near Heathrow."

Every phone bought in the sale on April 14 will generate a donation to the charity which supports research into Adrenoleukodystrophy a rare terminal brain disorder occurring mainly in boys.
The initiative was started by Midland chief Mark Liley who has two sons affected by the disease.

Vodafone is believed to be concerned about alleged high levels of churn. The network has apparently decided the situation is no longer acceptable.
"For Vodafone to reach this conclusion like this the churn must be 40 per cent plus" said a source close to Vodafones UK management team.
According to the source Vodafone now wants to terminate this arrangement with CPW and bring its users back under its own management. It has invoked a six-month notice clause.
Vodafone declined to comment. No one from CPW was available at time of going to press.