One interesting aspect of this argument is that DoCoMo has been a member of the
WAP forum even before the launch of i-mode. The reason that it didn't go with WML
or whatever WAP was on about in 1998, was according to Natsuno at DoCoMo that WAP
wasn't ready. Yet, there was DoCoMo with a full technical guideline for i-mode
that it started to implement. It is the same with i-appli for Java vs MIDP and to
some extend 3G, June 2000 vs whatever the latest version of 3GPP is today. DoCoMo
was always ahead of the curve, and went ahead with its own plans.
The issue isn't so much that DoCoMo went it alone, but that it was too arrogent to
care what the rest of the world was doing. Why didn't they make more of a fuss
with WAP's decision to go with WML, instead of cHTML, why didn't they throw some
money behind Ericsson (who was bleeding and still is) and get their support for
cHTML? Why didn't they tell the WAP Forum how to develop a billing system, instead
of the CNBC? Western companies use to the finer points of a standards war know
that adoption by others, not youself, is just as important as how the technology
really works.
The result of DoCoMo's lack of participation, or perhaps clout, into the whole WAP
standardization process is that hundreds of millions were spend on WAP
infrastructure worldwide by GSM operators, which all the Western vendors claimed
can't support i-mode content but is too expensive to write just yet. So despite
the dismal performance of WAP, no one has jumped on the i-mode bandwagon. I'm not
sure if those same WAP gateways can't be tweaked to support i-mode, but the result
is that it gave the West a convenience excuse to again stab DoCoMo in the back
with M-Services.
M-Services is essentially i-mode (including ringtone and screensaver downloads)
but on the WAP infrastructure. In fact, that' s exactly what Western vendors are
calling. Yet, it does all that i-mode does, but with proprietary (but now standard
thanks to M-Services) technology from Openwave. It even stabs Nokia in the back
since Nokia had gave away their Smart Messaging platform (enables ringtone and
screen saver downloads) for free since last year, and was hoping that it would
become the industry standard. But no, the GSM industry, no doubt with some clever
marketing and lobbying on the part of Openwave to the GSM association, decided to
re-invent the wheel with M-Services, and guess who gets the competitive advantage?
Not DoCoMo, not for Japanese handset makers, not even Nokia, that's for sure, but
Openwave. This, I believe, is the main reason that i-mode was delayed in Europe
since all the major handset vendors are now behind M-Services, whose phones won't
be on the market till next year. Without support handsets, how is KPN Mobile going
to launch i-mode without any handsets?
All this might have no effect on DoCoMo in Japan, but anyone can see that any
technological advantage that i-mode might have given Japanese handset
manufacturers or content providers has just evaporated into thin air.
The same could happen with Java. While i-appli supports sound, graphics and
over-the-air provisioning, all these functions have been proposed by Motorola to
the Java Community Process and a number of tech vendors are lining up to offer
their extensions. As soon as the JCP defines a standard extension set from the
proposals, then i-appli will really be proprietary, and it really will not work
outside Japan. Again, the industry is in the process of "setting" a standard, but
DoCoMo is happy not to do anything about it. That's all and fine when you hold 60%
of the market and can basically bully everyone around you, but DoCoMo has spend
some $19 billion overseas and clearly wants to be a global player, and the world
plays a different game, where competition is not only about having the best
technology (Apple vs Wintel), or the first to market (Netscape vs IE), but good
lawyers and lobbyists and yes, standards.
Tony
Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Benjamin wrote:
>
> > cHTML vs WAP is not a good analogy, as this time the Japanese chose a
> > standard.
>
> I find this disingenious. It's quite easy to argue that WAP and SMS are
> (or were) "the international standards" as that's what everybody else
> decided to standardize on for mobile phones, while the Docomo folks
> decided to "go it alone" with cHTML and e-mail. I expect that if WAP
> had not failed, we'd hear you saying that Docomo was "s-t-u-p-i-d"
> not to go with those standards, either.
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Received on Wed Aug 1 13:45:52 2001