Tony,
According to an NTT DoCoMo USA person I spoke with last year, the
proposed i-mode service in the U.S. will use one handset from a US
maker, and one from a Japanese maker. I asked him specifically which,
but he declined to comment further.
At that time the venture was due to be out sometime this spring or early
summer, but admittedly was behind schedule because of ATTW's re-spinoff
as a company. Also, the service, said these people from NTT DoCoMo,
would not be called i-mode. At the time I thought this ridiculous--why
throw away the very good branding NTT DoCoMo have done in Japan? Looking
at what is happening in Europe, it looks as though it wasn't NTT DoCoMo
that was doing this but ATTW. Admittedly, i-mode is a trademark already
registered to another company in the US, but they could have bought it
or something.
The impression I had from talks with ATTW was that their i-mode service
would be a better version of their PocketNet service. They proposed 3
portals--one for general consumers, one for young people, and one for
business-people. Their general attitude was quite American, and went
something like this "we already have PocketNet, which is a successful
service. What i-mode brings to the table is a better understanding of
the consumer market, and perhaps an interesting business model, IF we
choose to adopt it." One truly wonders what NTT DoCoMo's 16% stake
actually bought them. PocketNet, in the scheme of things, is NOT
successful. ATTW won't even release real subscriber numbers, but it is
reckoned at less than a million.
So, hope this helps.
Oh, yeah, and the US and Japanese phones running the service will,
according to someone I spoke with from Access Corporation, run the
Compact Netfront Plus or 3.0 browser that allows WAP 2.0 X-HTML Basic or
i-mode, much like it appears has happened in Europe.
Cheers,
Nik Frengle
-----Original Message-----
From: keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net
[mailto:keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net] On Behalf Of Tony Chan
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 7:15 PM
To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Nokia-Germany CEO interview
Can't help but wonder out loud what Nokia will be providing AT&T
Wireless in the
US. They actually have a contract to supply handsets for ATTW's upcoming
GPRS/EDGE network. Since DoCoMo and ATTW have already said they will be
deploying
some kind of i-mode, does that mean Nokia will balk on the contract, or
wait for
WAP 2.0 before moving ahead with phones for ATTW, which is supposed to
support
HTML, or at least, XHTML Basic..., which everyone knows is just like
cHTML,
right?
Anyone know what is going on with ATTW? when are they launching?
Another interesting tidbit that someone might want to comment on.
Apparently,
Telecom Italia Mobile decided to go with M-Services and launched it
without
Nokia's support. The result is a mobile data service that is NOT
available to
Nokia handset users. TIM and the GSMA claim over 2 million M-Services
subs...
Anyone know anymore?
Gerhard Fasol wrote:
> "Dr. Carsten Bormann" wrote:
> >
> > PS.: Where can I get FOMA phones and subscriptions for my
July/August Japan
> > visit?
>
> This is question 1.19 in the imode-faq:
> http://www.eurotechnology.com/imode/faq-gen.html
>
> You can get a FOMA phone + subscription at about 1 million stores
> in Japan. As a foreigner you'll the Alian Registration Card.
>
> Gerhard Fasol
> http://www.eurotechnology.com/
>
> This mail was sent to address tonyc@telecomasia.net
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Received on Sun Mar 17 23:49:46 2002