The company expects to have 20 million customers by March, just in time for its second anniversary. Compare i-Mode to WAP, its European and North American counterpart. WAP has, however, become shorthand for European and North American mobile Internet services that employ the protocol. WAP services have been much less successful than i-Mode. Out of only 8 million WAP customers in the world, many don't bother to set up the service.
Users log on an average of only twice a month.
While i-Mode phones come preconfigured, WAP customers must go through a complicated procedure to configure their phones. Then WAP users must log in each time they want to view a Web site, a process that takes 15 to 30 seconds. In Europe and North America, WAP runs on circuit-switched networks, so customers pay for Internet services based on time elapsed rather than information downloaded. All these factors deter customers, which results in fewer content providers creating WAP sites. The lack of content further deters customers, and so on.