Vodafone Live! is dead, long live Y! Keitai

The sad story of Vodafone’s mobile phone failure in Japan will be officially closed in October 1st when the remaining services with Vodafone branding to be changed to Softbank’s name. For example, the mobile portal, previously known as Vodafone Live!, will be re-branded to Y! Keitai, while other services’ brands will be stripped out of Vodafone brand and substituted with S!, standing for Softbank!

This is not the first time the struggling mobile operator changes its name. Previously known as J-Phone, it was bought out by Vodafone, which rushed to change its name to Vodafone K.K. Now it is Softbank’s turn to introduce the new name for the company – Softbank Mobile.

It remains to be seen whether the new leadership can change the course of Japan’s third largest mobile operator toward success, but merely changing the name of the company will not help if not even making it worse by confusing users.

So far, Softbank’s president Mr. Son outlined the four-point strategy for the carrier, including the following:

1. Continuous enhancement of 3G coverage
2. Strong build-up of 3G phone portfolio
3. Beefing-up mobile content offerings
4. Reinforcing company’s management and brand