Vodafone to launch flat rate, new Vodafone live! Google open portal and new mobile browser for all devices

Rating: Gung-ho

Nick Read, CEO Vodafone UK, was being bullish in today’s Vodafone Analyst Day presentation. He mentioned that a flat-rate fee is on the way in the UK market and (finally) Google will become the face of Vodafone live!
There was also a demonstation of a new mobile browser.

What we think?
Vodafone’s live! mobile portal is finally going to be revamped by Google. In February 2006, Vodafone announced its partnership with Google and October 2006 was the anticipated launch. This didn’t happen. Instead Vodafone Germany added Google to its front page as a browsing option and Vodafone UK added a “out of live” button for off-portal.

Vodafone in Germany also started an advertising partnership with Gruner & Jahr in Germany. Then in early 2007, Vodafone announced a mobile search advertising deal with Yahoo! Now the full frontal Google rebranding is expected by Summer 2007.

What does this mean?
We expect that Vodafone live! will now resemble more of an Internet mobile portal with access to off-portal content on the home page. Access to mySpace, YouTube and eBay will be pushed on the front page. It wasn’t specifically mentioned but we believe that the flat rate will be to push new IM services.