3 U-Turns with X-Series; AOL MIA

IanFogg | November 16, 2006, 04:02 PM

Mobile operator 3, announced today a final break with its original strategy: today there was no mention of a fully walled garden and a per event charging model for media content downloads and viewing email messages.

3 announced that the X-Series line will: "...offer mobile Internet services free at the time of use, for a flat fee." Pricing for the subscription was not announced today and will likely vary by country. 3 only announced two handsets supporting the service: the Nokia N73 and the SonyEricsson W950i; both are smartphones based on Symbian OS.

This data pricing model is similar to T-Mobile's Web n Walk tariff, but quite unlike almost every other major European mobile operator's data tariffs, which are typically charged per Mb at extortionate price levels. I'm sure, however, with such an all star cast in attendance today that 3 will do well with the column inches tomorrow.

Microsoft, ebay, Skype, Yahoo!, Google, Sling Media, Orb Networks, SonyEricsson and Nokia all presented. There was no sign of AOL or most of the current wave of Web 2.0 luminaries like News Corporation-owned MySpace. Youtube videos appeared within Orb Networks' placeshifting demo.

Many of the solutions discussed and demo'ed today were not especially revolutionary or exclusive: Yahoo! Go; Windows Live Messenger; Google’s mobile portal, translator and search; ebay’s mobile interface and the Nokia and SonyEricsson handsets are all available elsewhere.

Sling however, demo’ed its Symbian video client which is, apparently a European exclusive on 3, reflecting Sling's different market strategy in Europe compared with the US.

Skype demonstrated a completely new Skype client running on a Nokia Series 60 handset. In essence, this version of Skype is a very new application that has both tangible end user benefits and also works within the established mobile value chain. This is very much a Skype “Light” experience that has little risk of cannibalising 3’s voice or SMS revenues.

More on this in a separate post to follow.