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Abstract
i-mode has been phenomenally successful in Japan. The US, however, has remained mystified; most discussions of i-mode and why it has not taken off in the US center around the slow rollout of third-generation networks.
However, i-mode is not a technology. I-mode is a business model, implemented by NTT DoCoMo using technologies freely available during the mid-1990's. It is a 9600bps service today. In addition, there are two other Japanese carriers - J-Phone and KDDI - who have successfully implemented the same business model using very different technologies, and have each captured 20% of Japan's wireless Internet market. In fact, KDDI provides a WAP-based service, implemented on a Qualcomm-provided, cdmaOne network.
This paper describes in more detail the services provided, the disparate technologies used, and the business model implemented by these three vendors. Most attention is given to i-mode, both because it is the largest and best known service, and because the most information about it is available in English. It ends with a discussion of the US market, highlighting fragmentation, spotty coverage and the difference in business models as the key factors that have prevented such a success in the US.
Table of contents
Japan's wireless Market: the Birth of i-mode
So who are they, anyway? - the Facts & Figures
So how come they're making money at this?
The "Semi-Walled Garden"
To whom do they market this, and how?
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode Service
Dominating the Value Chain
What Underlying technologies do they use, and why?
Emerging technologies
But... what about the US?