UK i-mode by Mid-2005
Happy Thanksgiving to WWJ’s US readers and for those in the UK, we’ve glad tidings of an early Christmas present: i-mode will launch on mmO2 in mid-2005, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. A Reuters report earlier today quoted the paper as stating that NTT DoCoMo has reached a basic agreement to offer i-mode to Britain’s mmO2 Plc. What started with an under-attended press conference almost six years ago in Tokyo (when DoCoMo was generating some 10 percent of mobile revenues from SMS-type messaging) will now land in London. The Big Question: Will i-mode gobble up Vodafone live!’s lunch right on home turf?
Reuters said that the Nikkei said that mmO2 is expected to launch i-mode-based services as early as the middle of 2005. Britain has been the last major European country where i-mode has no presence. MmO2 Chief Executive Peter Erskine said last week the company would decide by year-end on whether to introduce i-mode.
Full Reuters report Here.