IMode

NTT DoCoMo's iMode is a hypertext protocol for mobile phones, popular in Japan and increasingly also elsewhere. It was first launched in Japan in February 1999.

It is similar to WAP, but became a much bigger success because of more open networks. It uses CHTML (for "Compact HTML") markup language, a subset of HTML.

As of September 2003, i-mode has 40 millions customers in Japan, and 1 million in the rest of the world. It is a global ecosystem where the operator design the compatible handsets, give strong editorial and usability rules to content providers, and propose an open business model to them. i-mode uses open standards as technologies: A light version of HTML is used for producing content, the i-mode e-mail is fully interoperable with Internet e-mail and images and sounds formats are the ones used on the Web.