Vodafone Netherlands was present in the first group of European subsidiaries to launch Vodafone live! on October 24, 2002. The service looked comparable to i-mode by KPN, which was already on offer on the Dutch market since April 2002. Vodafone live! had one large plus-point compared to i-mode: MMS. The general opinion then was that it was just a matter of time before Vodafone live! would catch up and outrun i-mode in subscriber base numbers. After five months the number of live!-customers is estimated to be approximately 50,000 in the Netherlands, much better than i-mode after five months in terms of percentage as well as in subscriber base numbers. KPN however was able to boost i-mode sales between the fifth and eighth month. At the end of June 2003, Vodafone live! is present in the Netherlands also for eight months, but is estimated to sell far less.
