i-mode stalls in Europe

i-mode stalls in Europe

one reason why Telefonica wants O2

By Tony Dennis: Sunday 06 November 2005, 09:44 ALTHOUGH I-MODE has been offered in some markets as a commercial service for over two years, it has not experienced the kind of success in Europe as it has in Japan claims a new report from Visiongain.

I-mode is topical since O2's support for i-mode is one good reason why Spain's Telefonica has just launched a bid to acquire Britain's O2. I-mode is a factor in the deal which other observers have overlooked. The two operators' approaches have been very different, however.

To promote i-mode, O2 has started the largest advertising campaign in its history. This is in stark contrast to Telefonica, which has virtually hidden i-mode behind its own-brand e-mocion portal, says Visiongain.

It was the enormous success of i-mode in Japan that has led a number of global (predominantly European) operators to directly license the technology. The latest report, 'i-mode in Europe: Gaining market momentum', claims the technology is not the failure that many have labelled it.

For example, signs point to i-mode gaining market traction among the region's operators, as evidenced by recent commercial launches by Cellcom, MTS and O2, with more likely in 2006. Moreover, existing i-mode operators have witnessed visible subscriber increases after a difficult initial period.

Still, European operators like O2 have a long way to catch DoCoMo's success with i-mode. O2 kicked off with 100 dedicated i-mode websites available in the UK, which pales in comparison to the 90,000 in Japan.

There's also the handset problem. O2 launched with two NEC handsets. The Samsung Z320i handset is still not available, while the S500i is advertised on the O2 site but not the Carphone Warehouse site (the UK's leading retailer).

Intriguingly, the Visiongain report predicts how many European i-mode subscribers will there be in 2010. Sadly it hasn't released this figure publicly. µ