[ Extracted from this week's Newsletter ]
When mmO2 announces its alliance with DoCoMo, aside from the resolution of the German market with KPN/E-plus, the most interesting part will be to examine "what type of i-mode" they will be implementing.
For example, Spain's Telefonica Moviles has not branded the service as i-mode, choosing instead to wrap it into its e-mocion mobile data service, which also uses the competing WAP standard. The service is seeing good take-up among customers.
There is little doubt that mmO2 is contemplating how to integrate i-mode into its O2 Active suite, and how the branding, content, and payment models can be blended.
Telefonica's e-mocion branding decision still irritates DoCoMo, as does the extensive pay-per-event content billing.
After all, DoCoMo has derided other carriers for their pay-per-event models, especially Vodafone in Japan, and it promotes the monthly subscription model as a key value proposition of the i-mode model. A key value proposition for carriers that is, since DoCoMo has witnessed that 60 to 70% of monthly subscribers forget to unsubscribe when they are inactive.
But O2 is already successful with its own branding and portal.
Surveys have found O2 to be the operator providing the most amount of support to third-party content developers. O2 Active, developed by ChangingWorlds and Icon Mobile and launched in June 2003, is claimed to be the most successful mobile internet portal in Europe:
"We take great pride in the portal. We have more content than any other WAP portal in Europe," said Christina Szirmai, head of customer experience and usability at mmO2.
O2 Active has been tailored for each market it serves (Germany, Ireland and the UK) to reflect differences in language, usage patterns, societal norms, and consumer preferences. And in fact O2 Active probably provided a combination of icons and color schemes to present users with a unique online experience that was more robust and interactive than i-mode was in June 2003.
A new version of O2 Active service installs the O2 Active menu on the handset, rather than making it available over a browser. The content on the handset downloads automatically to the handset and is updated automatically, which means that customers are able to access the content without waiting for downloading.
As a result O2 gets a disproportionate share of the WAP downloads (total all-carrier UK downloads hit 8.8bn in the first seven months of 2004), and has more than 1m subscribers to O2 Active.
Contrast this for example with Telstra's position where their Mobile Loop portal strategy and implementation had virtually zero market acceptance. They were keenly seeking solutions, when i-mode walked through the door as an option to recover and to move forward.
mmO2 is in a strong negotiating position, with growth in its markets and profitability, and a successful mobile internet strategy, and major alliances with companies like Intel in place.
To add to its headaches DoCoMo needs mmO2 more than mmO2 needs DoCoMo. The three O2 networks would increase the potential European subscriber base for i-mode by about 22 million. To date, i-mode has only about 3 million subscribers in Europe. Even a small percentage of O2 converts would considerably boost that number.
DoCoMo must get access to the UK market as a priority. That explains why DoCoMo is prepared to pressure their early partner KPN into giving up the German market to mmO2.
It also means that i-mode will be integrated into O2's branding and technology and billing models and not the other way around.
Watch for the launch of:
- "O2 Active's i-mode",
- run through the WAP portal, and
- with pay-per-service as the dominant billing method,
- every point an anathema to DoCoMo.
This raises Tom Hume's point of what is mmO2 actually getting from i-mode?
The answer is in the transition to 3G, that is consulting advice, and the more advanced products in the roadmap, e.g. Felica, and finally despite the success of O2 Active mmO2 does need to raise the level of subscriptions well beyond the 7% of subscribers that it is sitting at today. i-mode may give them that kick forward.
The point is this: mmO2's adaptation of i-mode, irrespective of the spin put on it by DoCoMo, will further confuse and dilute the international strategic intent and i-mode "model".
It's not a particularly difficult task to derive an effective strategic intent and strategy for international i-mode. DoCoMo has more than its fair share of clever people. It has the means but it lacks the will. Therefore this is probably down to corporate politics.
Perhaps mmO2 should sell its international business consulting skills to DoCoMo? That's not a silly suggestion!
(Why is the company sometimes called mmO2 and other times O2? mmO2 is the parent company that operates in a number of countries (UK, Ireland, etc). Its operating units in these countries are called O2.)
- for more, see this outstanding analysis of some of DoCoMo's current intentions and issues at The Register, by Wireless Watch.
How do you think that mmO2 will implement the i-mode model and what will be the key differences with other implementations? Post your Comments (below).
Related reading:
mm02 signs with DoCoMo as ｉモード alliance partner
DoCoMo's public humiliation of Microsoft further confuses i-mode strategy in Europe with mmO2
DoCoMo pokes Microsoft in the eye - again
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Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632. | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) +33 670 765 643. | 
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