Follow The Yellow Brick Road: The Consumer, The Carrier, And The i-mode Platform

This IDC study examines the roadmap of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's highly successful mobile Internet platform, information-mode or i-mode, and how emerging mobile non-voice applications and services have utilised it as a vehicle to enter the mobile market. From the genesis of the i-mode service and how it was designed to meet the demands of the consumer, this study explores the mobile applications that were later built on top of the i-mode platform and have punctuated its tremendous success. The i-mode platform is an exemplary realisation of convergence on the mobile platform (the quintessential everyday tool) of highly advanced applications that facilitates peoples' everyday lifestyles.

"The i-mode platform is a ground-breaking success because it simultaneously addresses the issues of a mobile operator's declining ARPU, partnering businesses into collaboration, increasing customer satisfaction, and continually innovating mobile services," says Jerson Yau, associate analyst, Wireless and Mobility, IDC Australia. "Advancing consumer behaviour and revolutionising mobile services can be accomplished, as seen in the i-mode platform, and business entities in the mobile ecosystem need to quickly align themselves towards achieving this common strategic goal. This paradigm shift can be evolutionary, but its expediency must border on the revolutionary, else a valuable window of opportunity in uplifting consumer behaviour may pass by."