You may have heard the news that Telstra in Australia has dropped i-mode. Following suite, O2 in UK did the same. Launched in Japan in early 1999 by telecoms giant NTT Docomo, i-mode was viewed as a superior online access method because it was always on; it used a packet switched network to deliver data. Whereas the contender, WAP, ran on GSM networks which are circuit switched. GPRS later came along and got rid of that obstacle for WAP.

Some say that i-mode might be failing because there is not enough content; the sites have to be coded in c-html which is not compatible with WAP browsers. Others say it is because specialised handsets are required. But the problem causing this lack of adoption is perhaps more obvious than that.

i-mode was created by a telecom company which clearly focused on revenues in its domestic market. WAP was launched as a mobile standard by a world wide consortium and focused on providing the world with a method of delivering content to the mobile. NTT developed a technology and successfully deployed it at home and decided not to actively push it out to other international markets until GPRS and 3G technologies had already made their presence well known facilitating the rise of WAP.

NTT was late to the party!

I’ve no doubt that i-mode will continue to the dominant platform in Japan for many years into the future. But one has to ask why companies are so determined to create proprietary technologies in world that is driving towards open standards. Given their recent involvement in mobile TV standards, maybe we should ask the EU to get involved!!