Was out taking the new little madam for a walk (well, a carry) this evening when I spotted this O2 mobile advert down our street:

So whilst embodying the obligatory we’re-so-clever advertising visual and wordplay puns, does it actually make people buy more O2 stuff? Did Telefonica get value-for-money when they bought O2 today? Are they buying into a compelling vision?

Well, let’s look at what O2 is selling, and then think what the alternatives might be.

So having this unheard-of “i-mode” thingy (and you can bet 98% of the UK population haven’t heard of it) lets me, um, access the internet and search for jobs. Err, but don’t you use a PC at work on the quiet to surf Monster.com, not your phone? Can’t recruiters just call me like they usually do? And can’t I access the Internet already from my phone? Won’t it be expensive? Hmm… where’s the benefit?

And the alternative? Well, perhaps a few of those billions spent on 3G upgrades might have improved the core product that generates 90%+ of the revenue — voice calls — just a bit? One picoiota? A nanocent? Err, nope. No improved voice call quality. Can’t tell if someone is around before calling them — or even if they’re in the country. Zero presence and availability features. Still can’t access your voicemail via a multimodal client, listen to voicemails out of sequence. And so on.

I love this industry. No other is as screwed up in such wonderful and creative ways.

PS — The only mention of i-mode on the O2 home page is buried away, the main promotion is for an unrelated prepaid discount campaign, and a search box to help you hunt it down? You’ve got to be kidding me. Nice to see such joined-up marketing.

PPS — The hyphenation of i-mode is guaranteed to make word-of-mouth spread slower. Why have some name that’s hard to spell in Google? Even O2 can’t make up their mind: the advert URL is “…/i-mode”, whereas on their home page it’s “…/imode”.

via Telepocalypse

Noticed in Tesco that the mobile phone rack has shrunk in half for the Xmas season, with digicams filling the space instead. Tesco, as one of the world’s most astute and profitable retailers, generally gets these things right. Which tells us that for all the hype, “convergence” isn’t automatically a given, and when it happens it can be slow. Also doesn’t bode well for mobile as as a hot Xmas item — can you spell “saturated”?

But what’s really interesting is this. There are no 3G phones. Zero. Tesco is unable to articulate a value story in 3G for the everyday UK mobile customer. There’s no benefit to 3G that the consumate marketers at Tesco are able to spin that justifies any premium price or shelf space!

Doesn’t the inability of Tesco to stock and market 3G call into question, just a teeny bit, the strategic nous of those leading the industry to the world of IMS (a.k.a “3G mk 2”)? Actually, it reminds me a bit of yesterday’s post. Note that the O2 tagline is “Internet at the touch of a button”, when it’s anything but! As is the telco way, they’re conflating a service (Web) with connectivity (Internet). If it really was Internet at the touch of a button (any why bother with the button?) we’d all have a superior voice and messaging experience on O2 devices courtesy of Skype, MSN, Yahoo et al. Now that would be something to crow about.

PS - Note to US readers. Tesco is broadly the equivalent of Target, although the focus is more on food in most stores, and the quality of the food is a bit higher than the often mediocre efforts in the US supermarket sector.

via Telepocalypse