DoCoMo Retires i-mode Brand In Japan

Wed, Jul 21st 2004 5:21pm — Derek Kerton

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, DoCoMo is retiring the 2G PHS i-Mode brand in a bid to migrate its customers to the 3G FOMA service. Although iMode will be visibly removed from all marketing, packaging, and messaging in the domestic market, customers with existing iMode service will continue to have access to iMode and DoCoMo will continue to support and market the iMode platform to its international carrier partners such as Bouygues Telecom in France. DoCoMo reasons that their FOMA service is affordable, and is now performing well, and not only does it offer better data services, but it offers greater network efficiencies (lower spectrum use) to the carrier for voice traffic. DoCoMo will also address the low-end market with voice-only service based on 2G technology with cheaper handsets. This move makes sense to us, and in a year or two we predict DoCoMo will take the next step and end iMode even for existing customers, who would be pushed firmly to FOMA. For more, here is the (subscription required) Total Telecom article. Addendum: Stop the presses! There's may be an an error in this story, and it's possible that it is incorrect. We'll update it when we confirm some facts.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

1 Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...