When mobile internet as a medium was at its infancy, Vodafone had taken a big leap in the year 2002 by introducing Vodafone Live suite of services which were positioned as VAS taking consumers beyond the traditional voice and messaging services prevalent during those days.

Within two years time the company migrated this suite to its 3G service offerings.

But as they say the only constant is change and change is what Vodafone is gunning for now. The convergence of mobile with internet and the emergence of social networking platforms has in a way compelled the operator with 315 million subscribers spread across the globe to reposition its VAS offerings.

And it is literally going for a 360 degree turn around. Vodafone 360 will be the company’s upcoming new suite which will integrate numerous social networking applications and services.

The move is seen as company’s reactive measure to popularity of applications available on smartphones such as iPhone & BlackBerry as well as popularity of the Android OS by Google.

Analysts believe that in the current scenario a subscriber downloads applications or features from application stores or portals leaving little scope for mobile service providers to have a share of the pie apart from nominal data charges. Vodafone is aiming to tap this value chain and force itself so that its subscribers can download such applications from the operator itself rather than downloading it from handset manufacturers and developers.

Vodafone had earlier in May announced its plans to rollout its own application stores.

Vodafone 360 will first be launched on September 24 on a Samsung model. Subsequently the service provider will extend the concept to majority of the markets around the world.  

Coinciding with the new change in focus will be the company’s changed brand campaign which will switch over from ‘make the most of now’ to ‘Power to you’.