iMode vs. iMode : the difference between the East and the West

A very interesting and insightful post written by Anil de Mello from AdM Partners, on why i-Mode has not been more successful in the West.

One reason according to de Mello is that many of the latest services making it so successfull in Japan are not available for the European market. "At the DoCoMo stand at Telecom 2003, 2 year old Japanese handsets had been re-released as GSM devices and displayed as cutting edge euro phones. When I asked when they expected the next version of DoJa (DoCoMo's implementation of J2ME) would be released in Europe, the answer was, "well, the new features are not necessary for the international market".

It also appears that the answer lies in DoCoMo's own business strategy:

"i-mode has been phenomenally successful in Japan because it is remarkably convenient for users, employs powerful new technology, and relies on NTT DoCoMo's unique i-mode business model. Underlying this business model is an entirely new approach to the mobile service value chain and to the relationship between wireless service and the Internet.

NTT DoCoMo synchronizes the entire i-mode value chain, in order to develop ever-better mobile service for subscribers".

emily | 10:33 AM | Reports |
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