I-mode

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NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a wireless Internet service popular in Japan and increasingly elsewhere. i-mode was launched in Japan on 22 February, 1999. The content planning and service design team was led by Mari Matsunaga, while Takeshi Natsuno was responsible for the business development. Top executive Keiichi Enoki oversaw the technical and overall development.

In contrast with the WAP standard, which utilizes WML on top of a specific protocol stack for wireless handheld devices, i-mode borrows from fixed Internet data formats such as C-HTML based on HTML, as well as DoCoMo proprietary protocols ALP (HTTP) and TLP (TCP, UDP). It became a runaway success because of the well-designed services and business model, as well as the strong need at the time for text messaging service.

As of June 2005, i-mode has 45 million customers in Japan and over 5 million in the rest of the world. i-mode is being provided world-wide [1] through DoCoMo's partners through a licensing scheme involving mobile operators in the following countries: Germany, the Netherlands (KPN[2]), Belgium (Base), France (Bouygues Telecom), Spain (Telefonica Moviles), Italy (Wind), Greece (Cosmote), Australia (Telstra) and Taiwan (Far East Tone). United Kingdom (O2), Singapore (StarHub), Israel (Cellcom), Ireland (O2) and Russia (MTS) have launched i-mode services on October 2005. The worldwide partnership is called the i-mode Alliance.

i-mode is now a global system where operators design the compatible handsets, give strong editorial and usability rules to content providers, and propose an open business model to them. i-mode uses open standards as technologies: a light version of HTML is used for producing content, the i-mode mail is interoperable with e-mail, images and sound formats are the ones used on the Web. i-mode users have access to various services such as e-mail, sports results, weather forecast, games, financial services and ticket booking.

The current i-mode center is called CiRCUS, which consists of 400 NEC NX7000 HP-UX servers and occupies 4600 m² floor space in DoCoMo's Kawasaki office. The operation support system is called CARNiVAL, which is hosted in the Toranomon JT Building.

i-mode was developed as an inexpensive method of packet-switched high-speed communication. "Packet-switched" means that i-mode communications are “always-on”, unlike voice calls which are circuit-based and only function after dial-up. Packet-switched data transfer remains relatively inexpensive as it is charged according to the number of individual packets of data sent and received.

1 i-mode phones
2 i-mode in use
3 See also
4 External links

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i-mode phones

Some typical features include the "clam shell" model with large displays (240x320 pixels) and in many models, a display on either side. Additionally the phones have many extra features, e.g. a megapixel digital camera. The displays normally have 65536 colors but the newest models have as many as 262144 colors. The phones measure and weigh about the same as Nokia models. A typical i-mode phone is comparable to a Nokia 6600 model.

The first five i-mode handsets released in the UK are:

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i-mode in use

i-mode phones have a special i-mode button for the user to access the start menu. There are numerous official sites - and even more unofficial ones - that can be made available by anyone, using HTML and with access to a standard web server. NTT DoCoMo supervises the content on the official sites and they are often commercial. These official sites are accessed through the menus but the unofficial site addresses may be typed manually or through the use of OCR functionality with the now ubiquitous mobile-camera.

An i-mode user pays for both sent and received data. There are services to avoid unsolicited e-mails. The basic monthly charge is ¥300 for i-mode, with additional charges on a monthly subscription basis for premium services.

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