The Register has an interesting, but apparently incorrect, autopsy over the failure of iMode in Europe.
It’s interesting, because the article states that the biggest reason for failure is cultural. Make sure you click the comments, because there is a really decent collection of comments that expands on the original articles premise. Like this one:
bq. “most Japanese use imode for things that you can’t get in the UK, like good travel information on Tokyo’s extensive train network…the other big difference between imode in Japan and in the West is the information density of kanji-based characters…”
As well as ballsing up pricing (i.e. not flat-rating) and tying/locking into sub-par partner promoted content, the lack of i-mode take up would also seem to underline the importance of actually understanding _why_ something is popular, and how it gets used. Maybe o2 should be taking a leaf out of Nokia’s focus on ethnography?
(Via TechMeme.)