I-mode Totally Explained

Everything about I-mode totally explained

NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a wireless Internet service popular in Japan and is increasing in popularity in other parts of the world, such as Israel (Cellcom

being the main company to sell i-mode phones and service there). 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.
   A few months after DoCoMo launched i-mode in February 1999, DoCoMo's competitors, the Japanese mobile operators launched very similar mobile data services: KDDI launched EZweb, and J-Phone launched J-Sky. As of June 2006, these three major mobile data services have over 80 million subscribers in Japan. Vodafone later acquired J-Phone including J-Sky, renaming the service Vodafone Live!, although initially this was different from Vodafone Live! in Europe and other markets. In addition, Vodafone KK was acquired by Softbank, an operator of Yahoo! Japan in October, 2006 and changed the name to Softbank Mobile.
   In contrast with the WAP standard, which uses 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 demand for mobile email services which are part of i-mode.
   As of June 30, 2006, i-mode has 46.8 million customers in Japan and over 5 million in the rest of the world. i-mode is being provided world-wide through DoCoMo's partners through a licensing scheme involving mobile operators in the following countries: Germany (E-Plus) (currently phasing out), the Netherlands (KPN) (currently phasing out), Belgium (Base), France (Bouygues Télécom), Spain (Telefónica), Italy (Wind), Greece (Cosmote), Hong Kong (3) and Taiwan (Far East Tone), Singapore (StarHub), Israel (Cellcom), Ireland (O2), Bulgaria (Globul) and Russia (MTS) have launched i-mode services October 2005. The worldwide partnership is called the i-mode Alliance.
   Starting from summer 2007 i-mode is available in Romania as well. The technology was brought by the Greek operator Cosmote, the third biggest GSM operator on Romanian market. Telstra (Australia) and O2 (United Kingdom) on the 18th of July 2007, announced that they were dropping support for i-mode services. . Low subscriber numbers were cited as reasons, as was lack of support from some vendors. KPN (Netherlands) on the 19th of July 2007, announced that it'll no longer be launching new i-mode services or mobile phones geared towards i-mode support. . Low subscriber numbers were cited as the main reason. i-mode services will continue to be offered, letting the services phase out naturally; The i-mode mobile banking service by the Postbank was also stated to contine to be offered, despite minimal use of the service by subscribers.
   (MTS) is dropping i-mode since 20th of February 2008. Though i-mode phones were not available from MTS since mid 2007. E-Plus, the KPN-owned German mobile operator, has ended its i-mode service since the 1st of April, 2008.
   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's charged according to the number of individual packets of data sent and received.

i-mode phones

Some typical features include the "clamshell" model with large displays (240x320 pixels) and in many models, a display on either side. Additionally the phones have many extra features, for example a megapixel digital camera. The displays normally have 65,536 colors but the newest models have as many as 262,144 colors.
The first nine i-mode handsets released in the UK are:

i-mode Ecosystem

While WAP is essentially only a page description code, i-mode as introduced and managed by DoCoMo is a full Eco-System.
i-mode's Eco-System includes about 4000 content partner companies, as well as many other companies such as content aggregators, software developers, browser and JAVA tool companies and many others. Many traditional companies carry a substantial part of their business out via i-mode mobile commerce or mobile transactions.

i-mode in use

i-mode phones have a special i-mode button for the user to access the start menu. There are more than 12,000 official sites - and around 100,000 or more unofficial i-mode sites, which are not linked to DoCoMo's i-mode portal page and DoCoMo's billing services.
NTT DoCoMo supervises the content and operations of all official i-mode sites, most of which are commercial sites. These official sites are accessed through DoCoMo's i-mode menu but in many cases official sites can also be accessed from mobile phones by typing the URL or through the use of QR code.
An i-mode user pays for both sent and received data. There are services to avoid unsolicited e-mails. The basic monthly charge is typically on the order of JPY ¥200 - ¥300 for i-mode not including the data transfer charges, with additional charges on a monthly subscription basis for premium services. A variety of discount plans exist, for example family discount and flat packet plans for unlimited transfer of data at a fixed monthly charge (on the order of ¥4000/month).

Further Information

Get more info on 'I-mode'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://i-mode.totallyexplained.com">I-mode Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.