O2 dumps i-mode in the UK

I tried i-mode I went and bought a £49 pay-as-you-go o2 handset. It was pretty cool — but in the concept of a 1995 mobile service. It didn’t look good. It was all text links. I never used the handset or the service again. Please I tried it though,.

Link: O2 drops i-mode mobile internet service in Britain | New media | MediaGuardian.co.uk

Mobile phone company O2 is understood to be dumping its i-mode mobile internet service in Britain, owing to low take-up and a lack of attractive handsets.

The company, owned by Spain’s Telefónica, launched i-mode less than two years ago with its largest advertising campaign since rebranding from BT Cellnet.

The £10m spent has brought in only 260,000 active users in Britain.

It’s always good when I can link and quote text written by a journalist who actually knows his or her stuff. Richard Wray, communications editor at MediaGuardian clearly does, including this paragraph in the article:

The failure of i-mode will bring back some uncomfortable memories for O2 which under its previous parent, BT, was responsible for the last failed attempt to get the internet on mobile phones under the banner of “Surf the Net, Surf the BT Cellnet”. The service was a failure with consumers, who quickly discovered it was nothing like the internet they knew.

Surf the BT Cellnet was quite possibly the shittest advertising campaign ever. Well, the advertising was fine actually. The problem was the fact that it was promoting a pathetic, slow, rubbish wap service.