Yahoo Keitai !

When Softbank bought out Vodafone there were quite a few rumours about what the new company name and brand would be. Softbank played along by issuing teasers, and then announced in May that it would be "Softbank Mobile".

This week they announced some more information about the future branding. The portal site will change from Vodafone Live! to Yahoo Keitai! Softbank are obviously using the brand strength and familiarity with Yahoo to help the continuing poor subscriber figures.

Other than the Yahoo Keitai! portal site, Vodafone will in general change to Softbank. Other Vodafone Live! services will change to S! services, for example, S! Mail and S! GPS Navi. Similarly V-appli becomes S!-appli.

The other main news is that new handsets will have a Y! button on them to take users straight to the Yahoo Japan portal and other Softbank services.

It is a shame if it is a sign of things to come, but this time there is no corresponding english press release on Vodafone's website.