Israeli mobile telco Cellcom is a good example of a problem in the mobile content space — the content delivery platform of the operators are different, and change. In Cellcom’s case it launched iMode last September, the management changed and the new guys have reportedly decided iMode isn’t worth allocating resources to…the reported said they would let it “die on the vine”.
“Timing is everything in life, and that’s true for iMode, too. Its fate was sealed the moment that Cellcom’s new owners replaced the company’s management. The new team, headed by CEO Amos Shapira, doesn’t believe that iMode should be Cellcom’s main content platform. It expresses this lack of belief in iMode by not allocating resources to it.”
There are a couple of criticisms made of iMode (it’s more suitable to Japan than western countries and the mobile industry has changed since it was developed in 1999)… I don’t think you can cut & paste a system from one market into another and blindly expect it to work, but so far iMode is one of the most successful mobile content delivery platforms developed, if not the most successful. The difficult part is on the part of consumers trying to work out which platform is better to subscribe to, and content providers trying to work out which platform will have the most subscribers.
Cellcom isn’t the only telco going through these gyrations, of course…I’m familiar with the convoluted efforts of Australian incumbent Telstra, which is on it’s third or fourth mobile content platform, depending on whether you count the original WAP disaster.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post