DUBLIN, Ireland-Gaining more than 10 million Japanese subscribers within 18 months of launch, NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode wireless Internet service is a genuine industry phenomenon. But despite the Japanese company’s determination to extend the service to Europe to compete with the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-which has attracted disappointing subscriber figures-lack of interoperability and the heavy investment already made in WAP are potentially insurmountable obstacles.
While the statistics are certainly impressive-there are several hundred percent more i-mode customers in Japan than WAP users in all of Europe-they will have little impact on networks committed to WAP. DoCoMo’s acquisition of a 15-percent share of Dutch operator KPN Mobile earlier this year might lead to i-mode being launched in the Netherlands, although DoCoMo declined to elaborate on its plans for i-mode expansion.
Elsewhere in Europe, the outlook for i-mode is less positive.
WAP penetration has been affected by slow data rates, frustrating connection times and lack of content, but even this is unlikely to lead to operators viewing
i-mode as an alternative, according to Jake Saunders, European wireless systems analyst at the Strategis Group.
“WAP is perceived to be less graphical than i-mode, but this is down to the limitations of the handsets,” said Saunders, in regard to i-mode handsets’ higher resolution than WAP terminals and color screens. “Consumers are impatient, and there is a temptation to view i-mode as a better option, but this is not automatically true.”
Interoperability is another key issue for networks, which will be unwilling to sacrifice lucrative roaming revenues by adopting a service that cannot be used on most foreign networks. The proprietary nature of i-mode compares poorly with WAP, which operates to standard technical specifications across Europe.
Scott Goldman of the U.S.-based WAP Forum said it is highly unlikely networks will abandon WAP. “WAP can do virtually anything that can be done on i-mode, particularly with the introduction of packet switching through GPRS, which allows the user to maintain a constant connection,” he said.
“I-mode was built on a packet-based platform from the outset unlike WAP, but although it is an excellent example of brand building, it is a closed technology. It has been available for more than two years, yet there is still only one company using it.”
This view was shared by a senior source in Nokia who asked not to be named.
“I-mode’s main selling point is that it is `always on’ and this is particularly useful for sending and receiving e-mail, but it does not support SMS, which is growing exponentially across Europe,” said the Nokia executive.
Steve Walker, U.K. marketing director at Ericsson, agrees that manufacturers have backed WAP because it is an open standard-even DoCoMo is a member of the WAP Forum. “I-mode does not lend itself to open implementation across a range of networks. In contrast, there is both demand and support for WAP in Europe since any operator can implement, develop and put it across their network. I would say that the balance of power is very much on the side of WAP,” Walker said.
Walker also dismissed the possibility of some networks implementing both standards. “Neither vendors nor operators want that to happen. From a marketing perspective, it is too confusing for the consumer. Terminology means nothing to the end user; they just want a useful service,” he said.
The Japanese technology’s cause has not been helped by a series of high-profile network failures that have seen services offline for as long as five hours. DoCoMo blamed the crashes on network congestion, but observers feel the company has underestimated the volume of e-mail traffic and say that limited radio spectrum is another problem. Partly in response to the latter issue, DoCoMo has accelerated its development of third-generation (3G) systems, which offer much higher capacity.
Jay Saw, strategy manager at U.K. mobile carrier One 2 One, said it will be difficult persuading developers to produce material in compact HTML (cHTML), the language in which i-mode content is written, as well as HTML and WML, the programming language used in WAP networks.
“WAP is starting to build critical mass, certainly within the handset manufacturing space, where just about every handset is going to be WAP-compatible, so why would vendors want to introduce i-mode?” said Saw.
“DoCoMo says it is trialing a software engine that will translate WAP pages into cHTML, but of course, customers would have problems trying to use their handset on any other network that did not have an i-mode gateway,” added Saw. “I don’t think there’s much incentive for other operators to introduce the service. Customer demand is the key factor, and I cannot see customers demanding i-mode.”
Despite the relative strength of WAP, i-mode will make an appearance in Europe and elsewhere because DoCoMo has the financial muscle, partnerships and desire to move outside its home market. But while the technology might make a significant impact across Asia and other parts of the world, lack of interoperability with the incumbent European wireless Internet standard will limit its impact in that region.
