Video #4 - "I-Mode (Internet Cell Phone)"
Monday, January 09, 2006BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Imagine getting in your car and picking up your cell phone, but instead of calling your buddies and chatting, you send e-mail, organize contacts, play games, run fairly robust software, and later interface the information with your PC. That soon will be possible in Japan.
AFP (Agence France Press) reported from Tokyo on March, 15, 1999 that Japan's mobile telephone giant, NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTTDoCoMo),and Sun Microsystems Inc. had agreed on a technical tie-up to make "network" cellular phones. The two companies said they would combine Sun's Java computer language and NTT's new handset to make a terminal that can settle transactions with banks and download computer software. They also planned to incorporate the U.S. computer firm's Jini language into the new product, giving it the capability to link with digital home appliances in the future.
The new terminal would be based on NTT DoCoMo's recently introduced "i-mode" handset that can receive on-line services such as Internet connections, electronic mail, ticket reservations and commuter railway guidance.
"When these Sun technologies are introduced to the "i-mode" service, a variety of additional applications, including reinforced banking service security, downloading of game software and updating of software, will become possible," the firms said. NTT DoCoMo and Sun plan to make a prototype by the end of this year.
NTT has the greatest share of the Japanese cellular phone market - over 20 million subscribers. NTT DoCoMo was established in 1992 as a separate company of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Group. Its mission: to enhance and diversify mobile communications operations into fields that at that time were little more than dreams. In Japanese, the word dokomo means anywhere, a name that echoes the company philosophy of providing customers with the ability to communicate anywhere, anytime.
According to BBC News Online for May 23: "The mobile phone is set to overtake the computer as the most popular way to access the Internet in Japan. New figures from Japan's mobile phone operators show the number of phones with Internet access could top 10 million by the end of May. About 18% of mobile phone users in Japan would have web-compatible phones."
NTTDoCoMo said subscriptions for its "i-mode" Internet service were rising by 20,000 a day. The market is thriving with NTT DoCoMo subscriptions at 6.92 million; Nippon Ido Tsushin subscriptions at 2 million; and J-phone subscriptions at 1 million. These web access phones allow subscribers to access e-mail, do online banking and click on to more than 7,000 Internet sites. "I-mode" has reportedly beaten traditional Japanese Internet service providers to become the country's biggest Internet access platform. Last month, the company was forced to temporarily suspend new sales because of capacity problems.
Mariko Fujiwara, director of the Hakuhoda Institute of Life and Living in Japan, notes that "In Japan and in big cities, people commute more than an hour on average." She says this will enable people to effectively make use of that time.
Daniel Scuka of J@pan.Inc thinks that the world may never catch up with Japan. While the US and Europe diddle dawdle, millions of Japanese already access the Web via tiny mobile devices. Mr. Scuka sites three simple reasons: technology, economics and demographics. "Japan is the first nation to enjoy full time, always-on mobile access cell phones (keitai) operating on packet-switched networks, where subscribers pay based on the amount of data received, not on air time. The gadget-crazy Japanese are themselves part of the reason for this. Nowhere else are manufacturers as driven to miniaturize, innovate, and ply on the features by a consumption-minded public.
Additionally, mobile Net publications in Japan contain page after page of websites geared specifically toward the small screen. Sites that let you read the news, check your schedule, trade your stocks, get the weather, do Web searches, convert currency, reserve a car or hotel room or flight check train schedules, see if that video is in stock....
Finally, the consensus of opinion is that this trend will foster a number of new companies and new models, and new ways of using cyberspace. Mr. Scuka ponders: "Whatever develops here is likely to also develop in other places, like the US -- ironic, since Japan is a few years behind the States in terms of the Net in general. But it's not surprising: Japan has always had a way of taking great ideas from the rest of the world and making them its own -- and then exporting them."
SOURCES:
"Japan's web phone revolution;" BBC News Online, May 23, 2000.
"Microsoft, Japan's NTT DoCoMo form communication venture;" Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, October 27, 1999. DJC.COM.
Fujimoto, Kyoko, "Hello i.mode NTT DoCoMo Wants to Follow You Everywhere;" Computing Japan.com
Scuka, Daniel, "Unwired;" J@pan.Inc, June 2000. http://www.japaninc.net/mag/com/2000/06/jun00 unwired.html
http//industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/print/0,1797,13087,00.html
www.nttdocomo.com
LESSON PLAN
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 10-12/Economics, International Relations, World History, International Baccalaureate Programs(IB), Current Events.
PURPOSE: to present activities to be used at a variety of classroom situations in order to enhance student understanding of Japanese economy and its significance globally.
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:
- Explain how the i-mode phone works.
- Explore the ramifications of this new technology for the Japanese economy.
- Predict the effects of this technology on business in general and e-commerce in particular.
- Forecast the effects of this and related technologies on society.
- Analyze the sociological implications of mobile access cell phones.
MATERIALS:
- Background information provided.
- Resources on the available at your school's Media Center and the Public Library System in your area.
- Background information available through Internet "search engines".
- Computing Japan.com
- www.nttdocomo.com
- DJC.COM.
- http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/print/0,1797,13087,00.html
- Scuka, Daniel, "Unwired;" J@pan.Inc, June 2000. (packed with information) http://www.japaninc.net/mag/com/2000/06/jun00 unwired.html
ACTIVITIES: May be assigned as group activities or as individual tasks. They may also be designed as preparation for related presentations either by individuals or groups.
- Design a pamphlet advertising the i-mode.
- Create a diary entry depicting a day in the life of an i-mode subscriber.
- List the possible ways in which the i-mode technology can enhance business opportunities for its subscribers.
- Write an editorial forecasting the effects of the i-mode technology on the Japanese economy.
- Write a scenario depicting possible new technologies and entrepreneurship based on the mobile cell phone and its impact on world economy. (Scuka's article may help)
EVALUATION: Individual assignments should be graded by the teacher using established criteria. Group activities, presentations and projects may be evaluated by teachers and students using the following criteria and scale:
Content 1= Superior (A) Creativity 2= Excellent (B) Clarity 3= Good (C) 4= Fair (D) 5= Poor (F)
To print this lesson plan: If your browser does not print frames, try this -- click the right button on your mouse and select "Open Frame In New Window." Then use your browser's print function to print that page. Another option -- choose "Select All" from your browser's pull-down Edit menu. "Copy" the highlighted text and then "Paste" it into any text editor. You can then print it from the text editor.
