DoCoMo, KPN target 1m i-mode subs in Europe by end of 2003. (The Pulse).NTT DoCoMo (NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc., Japan) Founded in 1991, NTT DoCoMo is a spinoff of Japan's NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) which provides wireless services, including cellular, paging, satellite and maritime and in-flight telephone services. aims to increase the number of European European emanating from or pertaining to Europe. European bat lyssavirus see lyssavirus. European beech tree fagussylvaticus. European blastomycosis see cryptococcosis. i-mode subscribers to 1 million by the end of next year. DoCoMo will operate through associate KPN KPN Koninklijke PTT Nederland (Royal Dutch Telecom) KPN Konfederacja Polski Niepodleglej (Polish conservative party) Mobile NV of the Netherlands and KPN's subsidiaries, releasing handset The part of the telephone that contains the speaker and the microphone. On a desktop phone, the part you hold in your hand is the handset. On a cellphone, the entire phone is the handset. See multihandset cordless and headset. models with built-in digital cameras. It started the i-mode service in the Netherlands in April this year and its German subsidiary, E-Plus, began offering the service in March. Base, its Belgian unit, plans to Offer the service this autumn. Only one i-mode-compatible model is now available in the Netherlands and Germany. A model With built-in game-enabling software will be launched at the end of the year and a model with a built-in camera will be rolled out in early January. Source: www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_627243.html?menu=business.latesthea dlines COMMENTARY: There were some 60,000 i-mode users in Germany and Holland as of the end of June and the service appears to be unfolding nicely, if a little slow. The most important metric is the 200-plus content, application and service providers, indicating that a solid base of third parties believes they can make money on the i-mode brand. Further, the proven success of camera-equipped phones and the fact that the current NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. i-mode hand-sets are pretty attractive (great color screens, good tones) should attract even more subscribers. E-Plus, the German KPN partner, for one, is not forgetting about the marketing, either -- data costs are modest. One E-Plus brochure states that it costs about 0.07 euros to access a sports news story with a picture, 0.14 euros to download To receive a file transmitted over a network. In any communications session, "download" means receive, and "upload" means send. The download/upload often implies a big/little scenario, in which data is being downloaded from the "big" server into the "little" user's computer. an image, 0.03 euros to receive a mail and 0.22 euros to send. A final challenge will be persuading the market to go for more lively games. One Europe-based Java developer said, "Europeans are not accustomed to mobile gaming." Carriers are starting with simple stuff, like Tic Tac Toe. We think folks will learn real fast once Java is available on i-mode (next year?). |
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