From "Stupid, Stupid Operator Creatures" at Mobitopia:

"I'm not sure that this was an advert for the specific service you're talking about (football) commentaries.

Lots of the operator advertising I've seen recently (in the UK) seems to be echoing the Bob Hoskins "It's good to talk" campaign that BT ran in the 80s/90s. From what I remember reading (sorry can't remember references) the campaign was designed to stop the public from only using phones for important conversations, and to stimulate voice usage by getting people chatting and exchanging smalltalk. I've read somewhere that it had a dramatic effect on BT voice revenues.

In much the same way, operators are running advertising showing trivial uses of text messages (Vodafone), letting you try before you buy (Orange), and in this campaign emphasising that the cheapness of voice calls makes them suitable for lots of things you may not have considered before.

It's not so much about selling sports commentaries as persuading the public that mobile calls are cheap enough to not worry about, and thereby get people talking and texting more (nice safe well-understood revenue streams that don't rely on selling in new concepts or investing in new handsets/network kit)."

A trio of interesting articles from Julian @ Go Capital.

Excerpts which had me nodding vigourously at my screen include:

"The point is that the mobile user may have never been exposed to the Internet before and therefore needs a quality experience when they use the I-Mode service."

So true - mobile penetration exceeds fixed-line internet. Some mobile users won't be comfortable using the web. You can't rely on them understanding request/response metaphors, what a browser is, what a server is.

"In Japan, we have seen tremendous growth in the number of so-called unofficial sites, compared to official sites the ratio is something like 1:35, a complete reverse of the situation at the beginning of mobile Internet"

We're just starting to see this fact recognised over here in Europe, with Vodafone launching a second-tier, less branded portal for less official content.

"So what are the key takeaways from the Japan experience? Well, the care and attention to the quality of the customer experience is something we could all emulate - that quality comes from (1) fantastic handsets - believe me you haven't really seen a handset (and let's face it, most of us haven't) until you've seen the handsets available in Japan: more variety, lighter, colour screens, excellent sound, batteries last ages, they look better, are more reliable and easy to use than the 'bricks' they sell in Europe; (2) great services - you can only get great services when there is an environment that allows service providers to make money and innovate. Japan's packet-switched network helps and so does the fact that the business model for services providers is clear. It's very interesting that the debate at industry conferences in Europe tends to revolve around how to make money, whereas at equivalent conferences in Japan it is about what new and exciting services we can innovate next."