O2 - I-Mode

[solo12002]

Hi Everyone.

As we know o2 I-Mode took of on the 1st of Oct , or did it?

I called into my local o2 shop, yesterday to look at some of the i-mode handsets. first the shop had none, dint know when they were due in.

The current o2 mag listing their price plans has little details in it to do with i-mode at all, and even loging on to the o2 online shop, you have to find the information, one would of thought it would of been on the home page, as for hand sets, you have guessed it, you can only buy one on pay as you go, another on contract and two not even been released yet, despite the press release stating other wise.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, with bad prep! Another question I asked from my local shop was why buy a i-mode handset if it cant be used on 3g, surely o2 should of issued 3g handsets with i-mode.No answer of course.

Now that Orange had droped data to £1 per MB and t-Mobile may have some incul in their price places who would want to pay £3 per MB to use i-mode?

[Ben]

Sounds like a bit of a shabby launch to be sure.

O2 only have the one i-mode handset in their range, one of the Samsungs, that's 3G.

i-mode pages are optimized for mobile, so the £3/mb pricetag isn't tooo bad - though yes, it does compare unfavourably with the rates offered by other networks for their mobile browsing and data access. i-mode is going to be something of a learning curve for all of us, I feel!

Good bit of investigatory work there :P

[getti]

Well aparantly Orange is NOT £1 per mb on it's own. It will be on a bundle like on 2G so you get 4mb for £4 = £1 per mb.

As soon as i can confirm what is the EXACT cost i will post.

[solo12002]

have to say thats disapointing, but look on the Orange web site, the phones that they have stated in their press releases as being on 3g pay as you are , not not shown as that at all, in fact they are shown as N/A on pay as you go

[3GScottishUser]

There is a Samsung handset which is 3G and features i-mode.

Full details here: http://flash.o2.co.uk/imode/index.html

[3GsINgH]

they also have two NECs for sale, the 343i which is a basic phone for £69.99 and the 441i which has Bluetooth MP3 etc etc for £99.99

[3GScottishUser]

NEC have actually made some decent GSM phones in the past so I think we will give them the benefit of the doubt with their i-mode products. Both the NEC's on offer look quite nice for the price but they face some intense competition from Sanyo's 3G 750i on Orange at £79 and the 3G Samsung Z140at £117 from Vodafone.

I think i-mode will do best as a contract product especially as both the Samsung's will be heavily subsidised.

[Ben]

Well, I certainly wont be touching an NEC mobile ever again or recommending anybody else to - but the 343i has something about it that I like! It'd be fantastic if it was smaller, but I don't think it's as small and thin as it'd need to be for the design to work.

That Samsung Z320i is where it's at for i-mode right now. Until that's available, hold fire!

[solo12002]

Ben

I agree if they had the Samsung Z500 with I-mode as well as 3g I would of brought another one, I understand that O2 will have some Nokia phone with I-mode on the network some time soon, however my view would be not to buy an I-mode phone only, I think you need to look past i-mode and get a i-mode 3G mobile.

I dont see the point of buying one without the other.

[whatleydude]

A Nokia I-Mode phone eh?
Sounds interresting..
They've got a fair few new models on their site now but none of which seem to be i-mode compatible..

[solo12002]

You need to lok at their site and on left have side, click on I-mode. I agree this service lunched on 01 Oct and despite saying other wise in press relaes , choice of Handsets are very poor half of those listed in the release are not, even avail to buy from O2 yet