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StarHub to launch iMode services - Singapore

In a strategic partnership with NTT DoCoMo, StarHub will offer i-mode services over it's 2.5G and 3G networks, with DoCoMo providing its expertise in patents, branding, marketing, knowledge and technology. This partnership marks DoCoMo's 13th partner for i-mode services. Other partners are E-Plus, KPN Mobile, Far EasTone, BASE, Bouygues Telecom, Telefonica Moviles, Wind, COSMOTE, Telstra, Cellcom, mmO2 and MTS. i-Mode today offers 6,700 official mobile content sites worldwide to over 46M mobile users.  In Japan there are more than 80,000 independent i-mode sites. 

Related:

: Jack Qiu explores how i-Mode has changed the way Japanese especially the youth communicate privately and its influence on the society. Good read!

: DoCoMo sees Europe ripe for iMode

A Case on NTT DoCoMo

Jack Qiu explores how i-Mode has changed the way Japanese especially the youth communicate privately and its influence on the society. Good read!

Russia's MTS signs up for i-mode

Mobile Telesystems (MTS) in strategic partnership with NTT DoCoMo to deliver i-Mode services in Russia by December 2005. Both companies will bring work together to expand iMode service offering to other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including the Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

There are i-mode services in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan and the UK.

The i-mode technology allows the system's 45 million subscribers to use e-mail and other applications, and gives them access to about 6,100 official content sites.

Related:
: DoCoMo sees Europe ripe for iMode

: Russia's largest mobile operator - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has launched a premuim rate voice-based erotic portal - IFree. More

: Click here for iMode related articles.

i-Mode Wireless for Cars

NTT DoCoMo and Nissan Motors plan to introduce Okutto-Keitai - service that enables drivers to receive i-mode® content on their mobile phones by using their Nissan's CARWINGS navigation system. i-mode content includes restaurant information corresponding to the area in which their car is located or destined.

Within a few minutes, the CARWINGS data center will send an e-mail to the driver's i-mode compatible mobile phone with a URL link to the information he or she requested. By clicking on the URL, the driver will be able to view the i-mode site containing the information. The digital maps are provided by ZENRIN Co., Ltd., while the restaurant information is provided by Gourmet Navigator, Inc. In the future, Nissan and DoCoMo plan to expand the number of content providers to enrich the service. Although CARWINGS allows drivers to download similar information on their navigation system, including real-time traffic, the service is limited. By using Okutto-Keitai, drivers have access to i-mode's rich content and can now take the information with them when they leave their car.

Nissan also announced that it has developed a software that allows drivers to switch from voice communications to data communications and vice versa for the first time in the world. In other words, drivers can engage in conversation with operators through Nissan's latest CARWINGS navigation system without having to pick up a handset as long as they have a Bluetooth-compatible FOMA® F900iT in the car. The service was made available for the first time on Nissan's Tiida compact hatchback which went on sale on Sept. 30.

This is the first time for an automaker to connect its telematics services to DoCoMo's i-mode content and cellular phones.

Telstra launches i-Mode travel services

Under Telstra’s partnership with Flight Center, Tourism Victoria, Zuji and Best Flights, i-mode subscribers will be able to find travel information.

Subscribers will be able to opt-in to receive e-mail updates and special offers from travel companies through the i-mode e-mail and picture messaging services. The customer can then book via the i-mode site, or click on telephone links within the i-mode pages to automatically dial the number listed.

Local travel content will also be available from content partners such as Sensis Whereis Maps and Directions, Connex Melbourne and Tourism Victoria.

Related:
: Telstra partners with Turner Broadcasting to provide it's i-mode subscribers with access to CNN and Cartoon Network content.

: In a push to popularise MMS services in Australia, moodmessaging a local company has released IAmEmo -- a cartoon lizard which helps display the sender's mood. More

AT&T Wireless launches imode services in Caribbean

Subscribers in Barbados, Antiguq and Bermuda can now browse iMode content and applications such as Hotmail and MSN Messenger, CNN, CBS Market Watch, ESPN, The Weather Channel, ringtones, and games e.t.c More.

Wait and see iMode strategy pays dividends for Bouygues Telecom

Great piece by Daniel Scuka on how Bouygues Telecom successfully managed to exactly duplicate DoCoMo’s iMode development and marketing strategies. The article also highlights some of the mistakes made by KPN subsidiaries in Hollane, Belguim and Germany, who were the first operators to launch iMode services in Europe.

France's i-mode has taken off due largely to the arrival of better handsets similar to those in Japan, a tight i-mode marketing focus, and an emphasis on a well-defined and controlled portal strategy, all copied faithfully from DoCoMo in Japan.

It's widely acknowledged that the early German, Dutch and Belgian i-mode services suffered from poor-quality handsets that, at least initially, didn't even come close to the highly advanced models available in Japan. There was, for example, no i-mode-enabled cell phone available from dominant European leader Nokia when KPN's i-mode started (Nokia released the 3650 a year after KPN's i-mode launch). Until then, frustrated KPN customers had to make do with recycled discards from Japanese makers -- like NEC's N21i, a 120-gram beast with a lackluster 256-color display. Mitsubishi and Toshiba later fielded i-mode handsets for Europe. These, too, were unremarkable.

The billing, the content, the overall service envelope, and the evolution toward highly interactive Java content have all been implemented faithful to Tokyo's teachings -- and Gallic i-moders love it. They also love a bargain: For service launch, Bouygues offered steep discounts to new i-moders for two months. Customers received free packets for all mobile Web browsing, e-mail was free, and all downloads from i-mode content providers were free.

Outside Japan, the following operators have launched iMode services:

: KPN Mobile, BASE and E-Plus are KPN subsidiaries in Holland, Belgium and Germany respectively.

: Bouygues Telecom (France)

: Telefonica Moviles (Spain)

: Wind (Italy)

: COSMOTE (Greece)

: Telstra (Australia)