Top New Stories
1. DoCoMo dreams not come true
2. Where does DoCoMo head now?
3. And then there was 3 - 3 HK joins i-mode
4. Smarting at 3's move to i-mode
5. DoCoMo and Microsoft make seamless land grab to foil Apple
What's On
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1. DoCoMo dreams not come true
A landmark short article in the Financial Times demonstrates DoCoMo's severe problems with its international strategy. It's a revelation of large proportions, and completely aligned with the position that we have been outing for more than 12 months - that the dreams in China are pipedreams, and that India is too "difficult" for DoComo (meaning too corrupt for DoCoMo to be able to interpret the rules).
What the interview with CEO Nakamura does not say is that DoCoMo's dreams in the US have also expired - the time has gone now when any US operator feels the need to suck DoCoMo's face. We predicted 18 months ago that this period just lapsed was crucial for i-mode in the US, and since nothing has transpired we can confidently pronounce that i-mode will not find a home in what is likely to be the next exploding market for moble content.
That's a pity for all of the mobile content world, that DoCoMo as struggled to export the i-mode ecosystem model. It is a pity because that model has made many content producers rich in Japan, and given a lead to how the mobile content world can make money for all the players. It may or may not be the best model of the future but it is the best model we have now, and it is a pity to see it fade without its benefits being fullly understood by other markets.
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2. Where does DoCoMo head now?
"The center of activity going forward will be Asia," DoCoMo Chief Executive Nakamura told the Financial Times (above). Nakamura came straight to the point that the inducement wll have to be money to bring new Asian partners on board.
"In Asia ... no investment may not be a feasible idea," he said, adding that the model for its expansion into Europe - technical alliances without large cash outlays - might not work in less advanced Asian countries.
At the same time, he raised doubts about investing in China and India.
"We've been having talks on various issues. But in these markets nothing has been decided." DoCoMo needed to clarify technological issues and "the direction of foreign ownership", he said.
Lack of clarity in the Chinese market meant "we haven't had any concrete talks ... We're not really sure which operator runs which (mobile) technology," Nakamura said.
"There are many other large markets with high populations such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, and the challenge for us is to decide what to do with these large markets," he said.
Frankly, there are a lot of startling revelations here which in summary mean that DoCoMo appears to have fallen back from the brink of success in their internatonal strategy.
The biggest challenge is to decide on the core strategic intent for i-mode/DoCoMo internationally, before any considerations of individual markets. On the tactical front, SMART Communications in the Philippines is in the final negotiations to launch i-mode.
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3. And then there was 3 - 3 HK joins i-mode
On the good news side the announcement of Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) joining the i-mode alliance is to be welcomed - and totally out of left field.
DoCoMo, and NEC, already respectively owned 24.1% and 5% in Hutchison Telecommunications (HK) but those investments in themselves do not make any compelling reason for Hutchison to go to i-mode.
It's a puzzle why Hutchison 3 would join, but it does point to the deeper characteristics of "i-mode" - meaning all the relationships and components of the ecosystem that go far beyond the superficial technology layer or the browser.
Takeshi Natsuno (a SVP of DoCoMo and Managing Director of Multimedia Services) was quoted as saying that i-mode in Hong Kong "will adopt a similar strategy to the one used in Japan to attract quality content providers, taking only 10%-15% of the amount content providers charge users".
"We have to be fair to content providers," said Natsuno.
That statement alone is cause to lament i-mode's lack of wider success outside of Japan. DoCoMo has already announced plans to launch more advanced i-mode services in Hong Kong such as Felica "wallet-phone" ahead of other i-mode partner markets.
- Note, from the press release: For further details, or anyone wishing to find out how they can make their applications or services available on i-mode and Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong’s advanced mobile network, please email selena.chiu@hthk.com
4. Smarting at 3's move to i-mode
In an interesting report by Marketwatch.com SmarTone Executive Director Patrick Chan said his company has "no plans to change its mobile-information platform because of Hutchison Telecom's plan to launch i-mode mobile Internet services in Hong Kong and Macau by the end of the year".
There follows a couple of particular observations which are not entirely complete or accurate:
Article quote 1: The i-mode service allows users fast access to Web sites customized for mobile phones. The service has more than 46 million subscribers in Japan, offering access to over 5,700 sites.
Article quote 2: "As long as we provide good and useful information with stable and fast connection, end-users will find our platform useful," Chan said. Unlike SmarTone's system, i-mode users can access independent content providers' Web sites directly.
These points overlook the 100,000+ unofficial sites to which i-mode system allows direct access, in Japan (and we believe about 10,000 official sites rather than the 5,700 quoted).
(Chan added data revenue now accounts for more than 10% of SmarTone's average revenue per user, up from 8.7% at the end of last year.)
5. DoCoMo and Microsoft make seamless land grab to foil Apple
DoCoMo and Microsoft have teamed up with Toshiba, JVC, Creative, iRiver and three other firms - banding together "in a power play to prevent Apple's iPod from holding a monopoly over the Japanese portable music player market" according to Apple Matters.
The nine companies reported yesterday that they will emphasize how compatible their respective software, devices and services are and how efficiently they all jive with Windows PCs. The consolidation follows the release of a Japanese version of the Windows Media Player 11 beta. Even though NTT DoCoMo said in May that it would offer phones featuring Windows Media Player, it has teamed up with computer giant Microsoft in a move that would seem counterintuitive: NTT wanted to offer the phones so that the music download market in Japan would not move too far toward computers.
It's not really "counter-intuitive" since the power comes from seamless integration across all access points and devices including the PC and the mobile handset. This is the power that Apple doesn't yet have, and a crucial part of the user experience, which Apple knows only too well and has to solve.
In fact DoCoMo would have been Apple's ideal partner, not the least because of DoCoMo's many previous spats with Microsoft, and most compellingly because DoCoMo and Apple share a passionate focus on the user experience. That isn't to be and I guess that Apple will put this mobile piece together with Softbank mobile in Japan.
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