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Monday, 23 July 2007 |
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O2 and Telstra to discontinue i-mode services. Samsung apparently thinks there’s life in it yet, though…
Less than two years after its debut, and reportedly following the investment of around US$20mn, O2 in the
UK is to phase out the i-mode mobile Internet service it imported from NTT DoCoMo. The move comes as Telstra Mobile has notified its i-mode customers that the service will close on 10 December, 2007.
Low service uptake, with a reported 260,000 users, is cited as the main reason for O2’s decision. "We will continue to support i-mode for the next two years. However, as part of a regular strategic review we won't launch any new i-mode handsets from July 2007,” reads a statement from the company. “The service has proven to be successful with rich content and high satisfaction amongst users. However, a limited range of devices has restricted its growth and we don't see that changing.” O2 will switch off its service in July, 2009.
According to the Ovum consultancy in its ‘EuroView Daily Comment’ service, on the whole O2 is wise to call an early halt to its involvement with i-mode. “In O2's case, i-mode always seemed a particularly awkward fit. For a start, it could not use the i-mode brand in the German market because E-Plus already had the franchise there. And in all its markets, O2 had already invested considerably in establishing its own portal brand, O2 Active. Both i-mode and Active feature content heavily in their marketing, and many content brands are available in both environments,” according to Ovum principal analyst John Delaney. “In any case, the i-mode service concept itself runs counter to trends that are emerging in the mobile Internet market. In the i-mode business model, operators keep only a small amount of content revenue, making most of their money by charging for data network usage. But regular users of the Internet on mobiles will become increasingly dissatisfied with 'having the meter running' while they surf, and the trend is already moving in favour of flat-rate data tariffs.”
Delaney also notes the small range of i-mode handsets that were on offer to customers – perhaps significantly not including any from Nokia.
Telstra Mobile launched its i-mode service in November 2004, and current reports have the Australian i-mode user population at a modest 60,000. A statement on the company’s website said: “With a new range of multi-media features now available on the Next G™ network, our i-mode service will officially close on 10 December, 2007.”
Interestingly, in view of the handset availability/range factor in the case of O2 pulling out of i-mode, reports say that Korean vendor Samsung is now planning to launch the i-mode compatible SGH-730i slider phone in Europe, initially in
France and
Italy. Do or die-mode?
John Williamson |
