There are several reasons why "i-mode" has become a major hit in Japan. A survey by NTT DoCoMo in May showed that the services currently most used are "i-mode" mail, mobile banking, and train timetable and inter-train transfer information. The ability to use the service "anywhere and anytime" is seen as its major attraction, indicating that a new lifestyle is emerging in Japan.
The "i-mode" mobile platform has been designed to put the needs of users first, with features such as billing only on the volume of data actually exchanged, not on the time spent to access the network. Another feature is the primacy of voice communication, whereby, for example, if an incoming call is received while a user is accessing the Internet the call will be put through immediately. Then, when the call is finished, the "i-mode" screen will return and the connection to the data previously being accessed will automatically be resumed.
The attractiveness of the "i-mode" service is assisted by the wide diversity of its contents. At this time, 123 of Japan's major companies use a DoCoMo "i-mode" portal IP web to provide direct access to services that can be categorized into four areas: "on-line transaction," "databases," "information," and "entertainment." These "i-mode" portal IP web sites have been carefully selected to ensure both that the services they provide will be diverse and have usefulness in everyday life, and that they are suitable for the functioning of a cellular phone as a portable medium.
Users can also access hundreds of independently launched unlinked "i-mode" sites by simply entering a site's URL on the browser screen. Moreover, creating these sites is simple, because the "i-mode" is based on the HTML and HTTP Internet-language protocols. The "Oh! i-Search," an "i-mode" compatible site-search engine, detected 1,287 operational "i-mode" compatible web sites as of August 4, 1999. Those sites covered such categories as news, hobbies, entertainment, sports, travel, retail information, personal homepages and bulletin boards, education, chat, news groups and company information.
A particularly important function for business-and a great convenience for the consumer-is the ability of NTT DoCoMo to collect money, even if the amounts billed are small, spent by users on services from the pay sites on the DoCoMo menu. This feature allows companies to find opportunities to do business using the "i-mode" platform.
Many new uses are waiting to be discovered. In terms of possible business uses, for example, sales personnel who are out of the office could exchange data with their managers, check on inventories, and submit sales and travel reports-all without the need to use a PC. Thus, "i-mode" cellular phones have, in addition to their value as direct-sales tools, the potential to be effective tools for streamlining the business operations of an enterprise.
