O2 overhauls Active as i-mode fades

UK mobile operator Telefonica O2 is trying to tempt users onto a freshly redesigned O2 Active portal, as the company prepares to pull the plug on i-mode.

Following 9 months of close collaboration, O2 UK is gearing up to launch “a highly sophisticated, personalised and content centric” mobile portal, designed by mobile content firm ChangingWorlds.

ChangingWorlds launched the first personalised mobile content platform for O2 in 2003, and claims that over 96.5 per cent of the operator’s portal users have explicitly chosen to register for personalisation on the portal. The company is now migrating the individual content preferences into the new portal structure.

The ClixSmart system automatically generates, maintains and monitors both user profiles and user community profiles. The community profiles allow O2 to monitor the level of interest in each O2 service, be it music, sport, news, games or viral applications such as Myspace and Facebook, all of which are integrated into O2 Active.

O2 revealed plans to pull the plug on its i-mode mobile web service last summer, after the launch of 3G services took some of the shine off i-mode outside Japan and worsened its precarious position in relation to WAP.

Speaking to telcoms.com recently, Mike Short, vice president of research and development at Telefonica O2, said it was the lack of handsets that brought about the demise of a short lived UK outing for i-mode.

The company will continue to support i-mode until 2009, but will not launch any new i-mode handsets.