I-Mode: lessons from Japan

In Japan, cellular phones, it seems, are quietly replacing desktop computers with the position of the main devices to access the Internet. NTT DoCoMo, the leading provider of wireless service in Japan, monthly connects more than 400 000 new customers to the services of standard i-Mode. With high-tech phone i-Mode-user can get the latest news, financial information and, of course, have fun. The guide DoCoMo fond of saying that cell phones are no longer needed just to talk, but rather to use or how to say computer scientists, for "yuzaniya. The streets of Tokyo, visually confirm this view. Cell phones - everywhere. Some make calls, but most look at the screens. They quickly push the small button, wandering the back streets of the menu. At the bus stop, train station or the subway reading the Japanese news, e-mail, which generously used animated pictures. Java allows the benefit of its owners to download new software, which adds to the already considerable capabilities. Anyone can pay for purchases, playing with toys, getting information from corporate databases - all from your phone. The latter specifically advanced models allow you to take photos, which can then be sent by mail to your friends or colleagues. In Japan, the technology of wireless communications have reached unprecedented heights. For two years, DoCoMo has attracted nearly 20 million customers. No wonder the company is the largest ISP in Japan and second only to AOL in the world. i-Mode recognize the most successful consumer product in history. And now the company is preparing for aggressive expansion into Western markets. Their appearance i-Mode has provoked a permutation of forces in the global wireless market. This significant success is based on an innovative business plan, under which the system was created based on the packet data. Thus, we have introduced IP-services. In 1999, DoCoMo pioneered in the operation of a network based on packet switching, becoming the market leader in the promotion of new technologies. And here the Japanese, as has always been ahead of the rest. In Europe and the U.S. package technology will be added to existing networks, based on the principle of circuit switching, but it will happen only in the middle or the end of this year. In Britain, Vodafone has launched a service with a packet of April 2. These networks are designed for data transmission. Once the phone connects to the server, channel remains open constantly, even if the exchange does not go. Due to the fact that one channel can be shared between multiple clients, the frequency spectrum is used more efficiently. This technology is also called 2.5G. Company DoCoMo pioneered 2.5G. I-Mode phones are equipped with a screen size of a business card, but the magnitude does not exceed the European model. Regardless of manufacturer, the keyboard all the phones have a button "i". When you click on her phone connects to the server DoCoMo, shows the home page i-Mode and go into standby mode. While the user watches the content, no communication with the server unavailable. Only after selecting any item telephone requests data, and then again waits for further "guidance". During the connection fee is charged only for the received IP-packets, but not for time spent on line. Sending and receiving mail or pictures is quite a bit, and all these costs simply added to the monthly phone bill. Ability to collect payment for small data packets (micro) is one of the main advantages of packet-switched networks. i-Mode has both free and paid services. Moreover, 90% of the collected money get providers of these services. The most expensive costing from 100 to 300 yen per month. This favorable pricing attracts new providers and new customers. Number of sites i-Mode has exceeded 30,000 and continues to grow steadily. Foreign companies are also trying not to miss such a wonderful market. Yahoo and Google - one of many foreign firms to establish their own i-Mode sites. Why are millions of Japanese use the services of web-services on the screen size of a business card? Part of the reason for this is a marketing assault on potential users.Many of those who subscribe to i-Mode, in fact, indifferent to the web-technologies. DoCoMo to connect your phone to the internet, but did not aim to inform the customers. After launching i-Mode Company is constantly avoiding some mention of Web'e, which seems most Japanese are too technocratic, difficult to understand and development, universal freemen for crowds committing excesses of adolescent bullies. Instead, it was established "reserve", which contains only the data specifically tailored for Japanese consumers. This is a brand-"brand", a new exciting service for people who are in constant motion. Even today, many users have no clue about what they spend hours every day "sit on the internet. No, rather "go to step i-Mode'oy. Initially services were targeted at the youth market, where they received great popularity. Millions of teens download animation clips, and pictures of idols, the entertainment industry use them as "wallpaper" or sent to friends via e-mail. And these pictures and cartoons bring millions of dollars in profit providers of such content. As a markup language i-Mode uses a limited subclass of HTML 4.0, which is called cHTML. This is an important cause of the avalanche growth of content. cHTML is easy to learn, and it can be created using an existing program. Developer of the technology, the company Access, was founded by such giants as Sony, NEC and Matsushita. The aim was to create such a standard that takes into account a small amount of memory and weak processing power of mobile phones. cHTML does not support tables, image maps, different fonts, colors, backgrounds, frames, cascading styles, and image format JPEG. Support for the latter format will be included this summer, at the next building power networks. In the meantime, use a more compact GIF. The fact that most of today's i-Mode phones have a display with 256 colors, and new models will have screens with 64 thousand colors. i-Mode is often compared to WAP, but this comparison is not entirely correct. As the name implies WAP - a protocol for wireless data transfer. i-Mode - so much more. This is the fully functional network. WAP could not get a great development due to the fact that it is used in networks of second-generation switched networks. The result is a slow connection and high tariffs. Example of Japan shows that WAP - this is also a well-designed protocol. Local rivals DoCoMo provide WAP services in modern packet-switched networks and their services signed by about 8 million customers, more than in the whole world. And so, even despite the fact that WAP uses WML (Wireless Markup Language - a markup language for wireless connections), which is much harder in training. In addition, developers of solutions for WAP are required to pay royalties of Phone.com, the creator of WAP. In the near future 2.5G network DoCoMo (the so-called network of "second-half" generation) will be replaced by CDMA-third-generation networks, which are theoretically available speeds of up to 384kb / s. The new network will be capable of delivering short video clips and other multimedia information. But even before the introduction of these technologies improved data compression protocols, and other new items will achieve similar speeds and networks 2.5G. Sources, Materials: