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Home>
Technology> FAQs> i-Mode FAQs
i-Mode
FAQs
What is i-mode?
i-mode is NTT DoCoMo's mobile Internet access system. "i-mode" is
also a trademark and/or service mark owned by NTT DoCoMo.
Who invented i-mode?
Mari Matsunaga
How many subscribers does i-mode have?
As of 21 December 2000, there were 16,574,000 (over 16 million)
i-mode subscribers, increasing by about 50,000 per day. According
to DoCoMo's data, the large majority of subscribers uses email and
browse web pages every day. i-mode users include a wide cross-section
of Japan's society, including not only youngsters, but middle aged
and elderly people as well.
What is NTT-DoCoMo?
NTT-DoCoMo is a subsidiary of Japan's incumbent telephone operator
NTT. The majority of NTT-DoCoMo's shares are owned by NTT, the majority
of whose shares are in turn owned by the Japanese government. With
shares separately listed on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges,
NTT-DoCoMo's market value (capitalisation) makes it one of the world's
most valued companies.
How does i-mode work?
Technically, i-mode is an overlay over NTT-DoCoMo's ordinary mobile
voice system. While the voice system is "circuit-switched" (i.e.
you need to dial-up), i-mode is "packet-switched". This means i-mode
is, in principle, "always on", provided you are in an area where
its signal can reach you. When you select an i-mode item on the
handset menu, the data is usually downloaded immediately, without
any delay for dialling to set up the connection. However, there
is a delay in the data reaching you, similar to the delay on your
PC-based Internet connection after you click on a link or type in
a URL and press the 'Return' or 'Enter' Key. There could be further
delays if the information you download is too large, or if the network
is overloaded.
What do users do on i-mode?
Users send email, look at the weather forecast, check sports results,
load ringing melodies into their handsets, play games, conduct online
banking and stock trading, purchase air tickets, download cartoons
and images, and look for restaurants and new friends!
Are there i-mode emulators?
Yes, i-mode emulators are available on the Internet. However, there
are many handsets in circulation that differ significantly. Some
are in colour, others B/W - and all are in Japanese. So at the moment
you need to be able to read the Japanese language in order to read
most i-mode content or test i-mode pages.
Are there images and movies on i-mode?
There are gif and animated gif images but no movies on i-mode right
now. Some handsets have colour screens (256 colours) that can display
colour images.
How are web pages encoded for i-mode?
i-mode uses cHTML (compact HTML), which is in part a subset of ordinary
HTML. However, in addition to HTML tags, there are some special
i-mode-only tags, e.g. a tag to set up a link, which, when pressed,
dials up to a telephone number, or another informing search machines
that a particular web page is an i-mode page. In addition, there
are also special DoCoMo characters, which are symbols for joy, kisses,
love, sadness, hot spring baths, telephone, encircled numbers, etc.
There are a large number of these special non-standardised characters.
Can I look at i-mode web pages with my
ordinary Netscape or Internet-Explorer browsers?
Of course. Since cHTML is an extended subset of HTML, you can use
your Netscape or IE browser to look at i-mode pages. However, (a)
you will need a Japanese enabled browser because at the moment almost
all i-mode users are Japanese and therefore most i-mode content
is in that language; (b) you will not be able to see i-mode-only
tags (such as the links that dial a telephone connection directly
from the i-mode handset in Japan; and (c) you will not be able to
see the many special DoCoMo-i-mode symbols, which will usually be
replaced by a question mark.
Therefore, looking at an i-mode page with an ordinary PC-based browser
will give you an idea, but will not exactly reproduce what i-mode
users see on their handsets.
What is the difference between i-mode
and WAP?
In one sense, i-mode and WAP-based services are in competition in
Japan, and could be competing worldwide in the future. Both are
complex systems, and it is really only possible to compare their
present implementations as well as their business models, pricing,
marketing, etc.
There are several important differences in the way i-mode and
WAP-based services are presently implemented, marketed and priced.
For instance, i-mode uses cHTML, which is a subset of HTML and
is relatively easier to learn for website developers than WAP's
markup language, WML. Another difference is that at present in
Japan, i-mode is implemented with a packet switched system, which
is in principle "always on", while WAP systems in Europe are circuit-switched,
i.e. dial-up.
Besides, at present an i-mode user is charged for the amount of
information downloaded plus various premium service charges (if
used). WAP services, on the other hand, are charged on the basis
of connection time. Packet switching or circuit switching is a
technical difference of the telecommunication system on which
the services are based. It has nothing to do with the i-mode and
WAP standards themselves. In principle, i-mode and WAP encoded
web pages can be delivered over packet and circuit switched systems.
Why is i-mode so successful?
There is no single reason behind i-mode's success. However, it
can be largely attributed to the fact that NTT-DoCoMo made it
easy for developers to develop i-mode websites, and that home
PCs in Japan are not so widespread as in the USA and Europe. Another
major factor is the exorbitant local access charges in Japan,
which have led to Japanese people not using PCs for Internet access
as much as people in the US or Europe.
Here is a list of possible reasons:
- Relatively low street price to consumers for i-mode-enabled
handsets at point of purchase
- High mobile phone penetration (60 million mobile subscribers)
- Relatively low PC penetration in homes; high local loop access
charges
- i-mode uses packet switched system: "always on"; relatively
low charges on the basis of information accessed, not usage time
- Efficient microbilling system via the mobile phone bill. Microbilling
system makes it easy for subscribers to pay for value-added, premium
sites, and attractive for site owners to sell information to users
- Trends and efficient marketing
- Email is the "killer ap" just as in the initial years of Internet
growth
- Use of cHTML, which makes it easy not only for developers but
also for ordinary consumers to develop content
- Explosive growth of content
- AOL-type menu list of partner sites gives users access to select
content on partner sites that are included in the microbilling
system and who can sell content and services
- The Japanese love gadgets!
What is the bandwidth for downloading
data to the i-mode handset?
The maximum speed for downloading is 9.6 kbit/sec. This is approximately
6 times slower than a 64 kbit/sec ISDN connection, but is sufficient
for simple i-mode data. Of course, this speed makes it impossible
to download live movies through i-mode.
Which system has more users - WAP
or i-mode?
As of November 2000, the world's wireless Internet users could
be segregated according to the system used as follows: i-mode:
60% WAP: 39% PALM: 1%
What are the major differences
between WAP implementations in Europe and WAP and i-mode in Japan?
WAP implementations in Europe as of November 2000 were circuit
switched (users needed to dial-up in order to connect), whereas
i-mode is packet switched (always connected, as long as the user's
handset is reached by the i-mode radio signal). In Japan, WAP
implementations use packet switching too.
i-mode includes images, animated images and color. WAP implementations
in Europe at the moment use only text but no images.
There are major differences in the business models, charging systems
and marketing of different WAP implementations and i-mode:
· Marketing: WAP in Europe is aimed at businesses, while i-mode
is mainly marketed to ordinary consumers
· i-mode handsets in Japan have large, full-colour (256 colours)
displays and can display animated full-colour gifs and ten lines
of text or more. However, European implementations of WAP today
have handsets showing four lines of text in black and white, without
images. Note that this is not a limitation of the WAP protocol
itself (as Japanese WAP implementations demonstrate) but rather
a limitation of present-day implementations in Europe. WAP-implementations
in Japan do include full-colour images and many other features
not found in Europe.
· Content: Marketing of WAP-based services in Europe presently
focuses on business applications (banking, stock portfolios, business
news, flight bookings), while the marketing of WAP-based services
and i-mode in Japan focuses on fun and lifestyle: restaurant guides,
games, images, ringing melodies…
What about the future of WAP and
i-mode?
It is very difficult to predict the future. Who could have correctly
predicted the relative development of WAP implementations and
i-mode three years ago? Future development depends on user/consumer
choices, operators' choices, commercial decisions and technical
limitations. There are even health issues that keep getting raised.
Therefore, unexpected developments are not to be excluded. i-mode's
success itself couldn't be foreseen a few years ago. Of course
this does not prevent intelligent guesses about the future - but
they may well turn out to be wrong. A large factor in change will
also be the introduction of broadband wireless (3G, UMTS, etc.)
services. These will impact the business models, the types of
services offered, user acceptance, cash flow models, etc.
Why are WAP-based wireless services
in Europe implemented as a circuit switched (dial-up) system while
DoCoMo's i-mode uses a packet switched system for i-mode?
DoCoMo already had a fully functional packet switched network
installed before introducing i-mode. This packet switched network
is an overlay over DoCoMo's circuit switched cellular voice system.
European operators do not yet have such a packet switched mobile
data network. Therefore, they needed to roll out WAP services
on a circuit switched (dial-up) basis. The WAP protocol itself
has nothing to do with circuit switching or packet switching.
In fact, WAP-based Internet services in Japan are implemented
in part on top of a packet switched network architecture.
Who will win - WAP or i-mode?
First of all, this may not be a very appropriate question to ask,
since there are various WAP implementations across the world,
and also because both the WAP protocol and the i-mode brand and
its services evolve over time. Mobile communication is a revolution,
and it's difficult to predict developments.
Nobody knows; they may both win! Actually i-mode can also be deployed
over WAP, or the standards could merge. In the future it is likely
(but not guaranteed) that XML encoding will become dominant on
the Internet. Therefore, future standards for both WAP and i-mode
could become XML based. In this (likely) scenario it is difficult
to assign winners and losers!
Who can operate "portals"?
In the case of WAP as implemented in Europe, in principle anybody
with an Internet connection can operate a WAP portal. There is
the possibility of multiple portals as well.
In Japan's i-mode, NTT-DoCoMo operates the "official menu" and
"i-mode centre(s)". Anybody can operate an i-mode site, but needs
to enter into a partnership with DoCoMo for the site to appear
on the official i-mode menu. Only NTT-DoCoMo operates "i-mode
centre(s)".
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