Is International iMode Stalling?
For years, NTT DoCoMo’s iMode in Japan was the model of a wireless data service for handsets. So, when they started investing internationally with plans to expand iMode outside Japan, many people got very excited. However, the hype hasn’t lived up to the reality and now Mobitopia is exploring why iMode’s success hasn’t been translated overseas. There are iMode related offerings, but they’re not as up-to-date as iMode in Japan, and they haven’t been as strategically marketed. They also haven’t courted the developer community as much as in Japan. Finally, the article suggests, they didn’t take into account cultural differences between how people want to access information in Japan and elsewhere. There are a number of reasons for this, of course, some of which include DoCoMo having more troubles at home than expected, leading them to cut back some of their international efforts.
