But it's a marriage that could ultimately unsettle the alliances developing in the U.S. wireless world and push the look and feel of wireless Net technology in a new direction. The two companies each have succeeded far beyond competitors by making their services easy to use for mainstream consumers. That's a goal that has largely escaped wireless companies in the United States. If the pair is able to bring a version of DoCoMo's iMode service to the United States, it has the potential to gain considerable traction that other wireless companies lack. For this to happen, the pair would need to partner with one of the U.S. phone companies, most of which are committed to a non-iMode technology.
Analysts say that kind of partnership is possible, however.
Another chess piece needs to be played here before that comes to bear. But I wouldn't rule it out. The link between AOL and DoCoMo is a natural fit, placing two companies with similar global ambitions and approaches to customers on the same page. In fact, DoCoMo's iMode service has in many ways served as the closest analogy the wireless world offers for AOL's early days. But iMode, which analysts say has a more consumer-friendly focus, has already skyrocketed to 12 million subscribers.