2:35 PM UK operator comes down from the mobile cloud, for now

Michelle Donegan

October 19, 2011

2 Min Read
Vodafone Ditches 360

2:35 PM -- Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) is giving up on providing its own branded Internet services as the operator has confirmed that it will shut down and drop the Vodafone 360 brand by the end of this year.

Vodafone launched 360 in September 2009, and it was designed to be a one-stop service that gathered and stored all of a customer's contacts, social networks and entertainment in one place. At the heart of it all was 360 People, an address book that synched contacts from mobile and social networks. (See Vodafone Live! Is Dead! and Vodafone Goes 360.)

Clearly, the project did not go well.

A Vodafone spokeswoman emailed the following statement to Light Reading Mobile:

  • The People service experience didn't live up to the expectations we had of it, so after a review earlier this year we took the decision to close it in a phased approach. We're not ruling out providing cloud-type back up services in the future as we know that customers place high value on these.

    The 360 brand was about delivering the experience of integrated 360 services -- namely the People service with Shop, Music, social networks etc. That is something we are no longer pursuing, so it does not make sense to keep the brand.



Vodafone will continue to offer its Shop for apps and games as well as its Music service, but these will be branded separately.

When Vodafone unveiled 360, it was hailed as a bold move by a mobile operator to take back lost ground from the likes of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). The question now is whether Vodafone's failure signifies slim chances that mobile operators will be able to compete on Internet services, or that Vodafone's program was just badly executed. It's probably a bit of both, but at this point, I'm leaning toward the former -- it doesn't look good for operators. (See Operators Accept Support Act Role.)

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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