Disqus
Sad news for fans of i-mode, on the back of some good news for the rest of us – O2 is preparing to pull the plug on i-mode, at the same time as getting ready to launch a newly redesigned ‘Active’ portal.
The new portal features highly sophisticated personalisation, and is content-centric – it’s the result of 9 months of work between O2 and mobile content firm ChangingWorlds. ChangingWorlds was responsible for O2′s first personalised portal, way back in 2003, and claims ~96% of people turned the personalisation feature on.The Clixsmart system in place generates both user profiles and community profiles, allowing better tracking.
O2 revealed it’s plans to shut down i-mode last summer, after less than stellar performance – whilst a number of great innovations were delivered, the core service has not attracted the users – O2′s Head of R&D commented that in fact it was the handsets (or lack of) that proved to the biggest issue.The company will continue to support i-mode until 2009, but will not be launching any new handsets.
It’s always a shame when services don’t perform as expected, and this one is no exception – i-mode could have been a success here, but I was always puzzled as to how the Japanese experience would be translated over here – there are so many unique factors in Japan that contributed to i-mode’s success, that it was never guaranteed in Europe – and in this instance, unfortunately, it just didn’t fly. Sad, but true.
[Via: Telecoms.com]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
