Top New Stories

1. Putting the iPhone in context

2. LiMo Linux for Mobile gets brand and logo

3. DoCoMo India plans stymied by Hutchison

4. Red Herring pokes into DoCoMo's future

5. FOMA D800iDS has dual screen

What's On

The iCF is an endorsing body for the 2nd Annual Mobile Content Australia Summit, to be held Tuesday 27th & Wednesday 28th March 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Walter Adamson will be speaking on "What Investors are Looking For and How to Present to Them".

If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com

---

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy  

1. Putting the iPhone in context

Whether you are overwhelmed or underwhelmed by Apple's announcement of the iPhone depends in large part on where you sit in the world.

The Toronto Star contains an excellent opinion piece which places the iPhone in the context of DoCoMo and Japan's mobile phone systems - it's worth reading because it is well researched and well balanced.

The near-euphoric reaction to the iPhone, however, has missed a key part of the story.

For the past decade, commentators in the United States and Canada accepted the idea that North America remains the global innovator in consumer electronics and mobile media. The reality, however, is quite different.

Mobile phone hardware and mobile Internet services are much farther advanced in other countries. Long before the iPhone, mobile media companies in other parts of the world were providing consumers with a startling array of mobile options and services.

Japan continues to be a key innovator in this field. The leader of the mobile media revolution is a company called DoCoMo. This firm responded to the shortcomings of Japanese Internet services by setting up an exceptional mobile Internet operation. Its i-mode phone transformed DoCoMo into the world's largest mobile communications firm. The i-mode revolutionized the mobile Internet in Japan, offering email, web-browsing and e-wallets. Five years ago, DoCoMo launched a 3G service in Japan that enabled easy usage of audio and video files.

Post your opinion below

---

2. LiMo Linux for Mobile gets brand and logo

Motorola, NEC, DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone announced today the official launch of the LiMo Foundation - "to support their goal of creating the world's first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices". The group was formed six months ago.

"DoCoMo believes continuously improving performance and reducing handset costs are vital goals for operators," Kiyohito Nagata said in June last year when the consortium was announced. Two of the foundation members, NEC and Panasonic, have been working together on Linux-based phones for DoCoMo since 2001.

LiMo has three classes of members - Foundation, Core and Associate - open to any individual or enterprise for an annual fee of between $40,000 and $800,000 depending on membership class.

LiMo is a powerful kick to Linux on mobile but it faces open source fragmentation as it perhaps competes with or at least splits attention with the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum, whose backers include manufacturers Texas Instruments, ZTE and Freescale, operators France Telecom (the owners of Orange), Telecom Italia and software vendors Trolltech, Palmsource Inc and McAfee.

^^Back to top

3 Reasons why you should Join the i-mode Content Forum
Check our Aims & Objectives HERE

3. DoCoMo India plans stymied by Hutchison

No sooner has DoCoMo celebrated its potential entry into the Indian market, through its tie-up with Hutchison 3G, Hutchison has hatched a plan to exit the INdian market at a substantial profit. DoCoMo's long held dream of entering India (and China) has been shattered as a consequence of its poor international partnering strategy which is proving tenuous at best with their partners in Israel, Australia, Russia and probably Holland all quietly losing interest and sinking i-mode in their local markets.

When the Indian tie-up was announced Takeshi Natsuno, DoCoMo Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Multimedia Services, said: "I am delighted that i-mode will be introduced in India, giving DoCoMo a foothold in this dynamic emerging market".

Kiss that goodbye as Canning Fok, managing director of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa - the holding company for Hutchison Telecom International Ltd (HTIL) - is poised to sell off their stake in India's Hutchison Essar for a potential US$17 billion (just as other particuarly Western companies e.g. Vodafone say it's time to expand operations in the country).

---

4. Red Herring pokes into DoCoMo's future

Red Herring's February issue has a piece called "Trouble at the Summit" which "looks at Tokyo's mobile king, NTT DoCoMo, which is moving into credit cards and other areas as the company looks to counter slipping market share, slowing subscriber growth, and a stagnant stock price".

The people at Red Herring have superb contacts and know what is going on in IT and wireless and that issue would be worth a good read. The main feature is about Hutchison 3G and its newest marketing strategy (also tied up now with DoCoMo, see item above).

---

5. FOMA D800iDS has dual screen

As so often, leading the world in handset innovation, DoCoMo announced new 3G FOMA™ handsets including the D800iDS, which has two screens:

• a conventional screen; and,
• a touch-screen instead of a keypad, making it easy to input letters.

This Symbian handset is discussed on All About Symbian and there are screenshots.

Other handsets announced included the 703i Series and the SO903iTV. The 703i Series consists of eight models: N703iμ (iμ is pronounced i-mew), P703iμ, D703i, F703i, N703iD, P703i, SH703i, and SO703i. Most of the models are extra slim, with the N703iμ and P703iμ being the thinnest W-CDMA clamshell handsets in the world as of January 15, 2007.

The (Sony Ericsson) SO903iTV handset is equipped with a high-resolution LCD using BRAVIA® technology and high-quality audio for viewing "One-segment" terrestrial digital broadcasts.

The other 703i Series models and D800iDS are planned to be sold in February, while SO903iTV is scheduled to be launched in June 2007.

END
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

---

Independent audits, analysis, project reviews and i-mode strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment - to discuss these and other opportunities, please call or email. | Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) . | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) . | Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.

This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you the i-mode Content Forum (iCF) the world's largest and most active i-mode® content trade association. President Pascal Lorne, and VP Asia-Pacific Walter Adamson.  See our Aims and Objectives.