TABLE OF CONTENTS I-mode stands for information mode, and is the mobile web technology launched by Japan's incumbent mobile operator Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) DoCoMo in 1999. The intention behind i-mode is not that different from WAP: bringing Web content and applications to mobile devices. In terms of technology and business, however, there are significant differences.
While WAP has been struggling for survival, i-mode has been hugely successful in Japan since its creation. Apart from the cultural differences that exist between Japanese subscribers and subscribers in the rest of the world, there are two factors that can explain the success of i-mode:
I-mode comes technologically closer to what could be called mobile Internet than WAP. It relies on standard TCP/IP, HTTP, and a reduced version of standard HTML. This makes it much easier to port Web content and Internet applications to i-mode.
As soon as it launched i-mode, NTT DoCoMo created a revenue-sharing program that made it interesting for third parties to provide premium-rate content through i-mode. This generated a critical mass of content providers and content consumers in a short time.
Technologically, i-mode comes closer than WAP to what could be called mobile Internet, for two reasons:
I-mode uses standard HTTP and SMTP, and uses TCP/IP for packet transport, except on the air link. I-mode also supports standard mail protocols SMTP and POP. WAP uses its own protocol stack WSP/WTP/WDP.
I-mode uses Compact HTML (cHTML) as the hypertext mark-up language, a reduced version of standard HTML. WAP...
