I-Mode

I-Mode

A wireless data service capable of linking wireless telephony with the Internet. (Cingular)

NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a wireless Internet service popular in Japan and increasingly elsewhere. i-mode was launched in Japan on 22 February 1999. The content planning and service design team was led by Mari Matsunaga, while Takeshi Natsuno was responsible for the business development. Top executive Keiichi Enoki oversaw the technical and overall development.

In contrast with the WAP standard, which utilizes WML on top of a specific protocol stack for wireless handheld devices, i-mode borrows from fixed Internet data formats such as C-HTML based on HTML, as well as DoCoMo proprietary protocols ALP (HTTP) and TLP (TCP, UDP). It became a runaway success because of the well-designed services and business model, as well as the strong need at the time for text messaging service.