Is O2 mobile data strategy going to work?

O2 claims to carry about one-third of the UK’s SMS traffic, and about one-half of all WAP page impressions. The talk from directors at a strategy briefing last week was sensible stuff about improving the user experience, building on SMS, using GPRS to seed multimedia services and kicking 3G services into the long grass until next year. Could it be that O2’s data strategy is finally taking on shape after a messy few years in the wilderness?

Eden also compares O2 Active and Vodafone Live!. They're both "lifestyle" applications, icon based with attractive features.

Unlike Vodafone Live! there are no specified handsets for use with the service. Instead it is available on more than 15 existing handsets, that should increase to around 20 by August 2003. We think O2 is sensible not to tie Active to a few proprietary devices. Active is meant to be an umbrella brand, and also O2 is not big enough to influence handset production and volumes in the way that Vodafone can.