(keitai-l) Re: I-mode in Europe

Hello all,
Thought I'd put some substance in the discussions on KPN and iMode. Here is
a snipplet which will shed some light on what the view is from KPN:

16/08/00 UK: POPULARITY OF I-MODE ROCKETS, WHILE WAP BEGINS TO WOBBLE.
By Liesbeth Evers.
Advanced technology brings colour, graphics and video to mobile devices.

I-Mode is about to make in-roads into the UK, opening a debate about whether
it could beat Wap as the mobile internet protocol and provide better
security for e-business.
Following its alliance with NTT DoCoMo and Hutchinson Whampoa, the Dutch
carrier KPN said that it was looking into the possibility of a dual
development of Wap and i-Mode for its planned 3G network in the UK, Germany,
France and Belgium.
Amos Kater, innovation manager for mobile data at KPN, said that it was
still too early for details. However, he confirmed the company's intention
of deploying i-Mode in Europe, either alongside current Wap services or as a
separate application.

Moving into Europe
"I-Mode has proven itself as a technology and we are looking for a way to
bring i-Mode applications to Europe," he said. "At the moment there are only
few GSM cHTML phones available but we do not expect that to become a
problem."
The technology is available through a cHTML gateway. Content is presented on
mobile phones with i-Mode browsers, regardless of the underlying network
technology.
Last month Logica released its cHTML gateway, m-WorldGate, and Kater
confirmed that it is among the technologies being considered by KPN.
Wap was presented as the highway from internet to mobile phone, but analysts
are beginning to say that it is not delivering.
A recent survey showed that 50 per cent of internet sites now have Wap
sites. However, users still find that they can only access select streams of
text, rather than the full range of graphics, colour and video that they
associate with the internet.
However, Wap's Japanese counterpart, i-Mode, is able to bring the coloured
web to a mobile device, Subscriber numbers have grown rapidly, topping 10m
last week. Users have access to around 20,000 content pages.
Wap critics dedicate i-Mode's success to its cHTML protocol that, as a
compact version of HTML, allows easier content conversion than Wap's WML.
The use of IP packet data, which at 14Kbps is enough for the demands of a
small screen, is faster than Wap's circuit switched data.

Incomplete standard
Simon Buckingham, managing director of Mobilelifestreams, said that the
biggest problem for Wap is that it still is an incomplete standard and a new
standard is reissued every six months.
"That makes Wap hard to work with," he said. "It may only take about four
months to develop new technology, but it takes between 12 and 18 months to
make a commercial application for the marketplace."
Frost & Sullivan analyst Jan ten Sythoff said that Wap downloads will remain
slow and expensive until GPRS offers the faster, 'always-on' packet data
transmission. "Wap takes 20 to 30 seconds to connect," he said. "That gets
expensive and it is annoying when you are on the move."
Wap defenders, however, argue that WML is built on the concept of XML,
branded the future of the internet. They also say that Wap offers better
security than i-Mode because it uses the safeguards of the GSM SIM card.
Platform provider Tantau said that neither i-Mode nor Wap can sufficiently
protect transactions. Vice president of marketing, Peter Klante, said that
regardless of the protocol, e-commerce companies can only guard customer
relationships by keeping the internet gateway in their own control.
"Wap and i-Mode can be relatively secure. However, for conversion to and
from secure HTTP content, the information needs to be decrypted at the
wireless internet gateway," he said. "If that resides with the carrier, it
leaves a security hole for transactions to banks and travel companies."


Kristian

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	paul.c.eijkemans@ac.com [mailto:paul.c.eijkemans@ac.com] 
Sent:	Friday, August 18, 2000 12:36
To:	keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Subject:	(keitai-l) Re: I-mode in Europe


Hello Declan,

Since I am Dutch I maybe could comment on this.

As far as I know KPN is absolutely not planning this. It would be a clear
mistake since (1) I-Mode browsers have to be build into current GSM phones
which is unlikely to happen because the strong market base for non-Asian
phone manufacturers in Asia, (2) there will be hardly any I-Mode content
while WAP sites are popping up like mushrooms in  dark cellar. From a
network point of view, however, is does not matter whether your content is
cHTML or WML.  And then there is, of course, the discussion on which is the
better standard which we have seen in the keitai-i: I-Mode is marketed
better, WAP is technologically more advanced and has more support
worldwide.

Please, don't make the error of confusing packet-switched with I-Mode or
WAP: the cHTML part of I-Mode could as well work on a circuit switched
network, WAP will also work on  a packet-switched network, and the
similarities between WAP and I-Mode as from a network layer perspective are
striking. KPN will introduce GPRS at the end of this year or early next
year, but don't expect any miracles. Yes, WAP will be faster and yes, the
dial-in time will decrease from 20 seconds to almost zero. However, the
same will happen as with the WAP handsets: it will takes some time before
they are available in large quantities and in the models the customers will
like.

There are basically three main reasons, besides the money, that KPN wants
DoCoMo in:
   DoCoMo has 1.5 years of experience with mobile commerce business models.
   KPN could profit from the lessons learned.
   DoCoMo has already experience with packet switched data. Packet switched
   data has a huge impact on your billing model.
   DoCoMo will introduce W-CDMA next year, KPN only in 2003. Knowledge
   could be leveraged.

I am, however, not sure why DoCoMo wanted the 15% of KPN Mobile. Probably
they want to be sure that the W-CDMA system, of which most patents are in
the hands of Qualcom, is also introduced in some European countries. The
KPN Mobile's stake in E-Plus (that 'won' a UMTS license yesterday) and the
combination with Hutchinson is maybe a stronghold for W-CDMA. Is there any
of the readers living in Japan to comment on this?

Best regards,
Paul


>Only yesterday, the FT reported that "...KPN Mobile plans to introduce a
>similar service (i-mode)in Europe, possibly this year"

>How will they do it?

>I-mode on GSM?  where i-mode content can be viewed but the benefits of
>packaged data cannot be implemented.  This would be a very costly service
-
>to the consumer, of course.

>Wait for GPRS?

>I have heard rumors that the Japanese handset manufacturers have GSM
i-mode
>enabled phones in production - any truth to the rumor?


>Declan Collins