i-mode Introduction
i-mode is Japan's NTT DoCoMo mobile Internet access system, where "i"; in "i-mode"; stands for information. Nearly 30% of Japan's population uses i-mode as often as 10 times or more per day sending e-mails, booking hotel rooms, searching for cheap flights, reviewing latest movies or listening to the hottest music etc. i-mode was launched in Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Greece and Italy) in April of 2002, and during the year of 2004 extended its services to Australia and Taiwan.

i-mode vs. WAP
There are several important differences in services between these two compound systems. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) introduces the concept of Internet as a wireless service platform that needs to be launched every time users require internet service and i-mode on the other hand is always "on", enabling consumers to avoid the dial-up waiting time frame and begin browsing at once!

Another vital dissimilarity is the page description language: WAP implementations use a new complex mark-up language called WML (Wireless Markup Language) while i-mode employs, common to many CHTML (subset of HTML) which is easier to learn for website developers rather than WAP's WML. Therefore i-mode mobile marketing enormously expands with advertisers because of the min complex page description language and max speed of internet browsing.

Applications for i-mode
Currently the number of possible business related applications for i-mode is limitless: airlines offer and sell air tickets via i-mode, media sells cartoon images, popular ring-tones etc. via i-mode, shares and investments are also sold via i-mode as well as Japanese national lottery tickets. Also any subscriber may have his/her private virtual network on i-mode. I-mode is widely used among various companies for Customer Relationship Management (CRM): since for instance, about one-third of Japan's population uses i-mode practically every day, i-mode allows firms to interact with a large part of Japan's population.