Natsuno isn't discouraged, saying PocketNet is too focused on business clients. He says i-mode will target young people, who he believes will be attracted to services such as pop music ringing tones, cartoon downloads and games. Analysts say U.S. teenagers are unlikely to be as enthusiastic as their Japanese counterparts about animated Hello Kitty screensavers and other kitsch. Merrill Lynch Japan Inc. When DoCoMo started i-mode last February, the company had 67 Web site providers. Now it boasts more than a thousand.
Subscribers also can access corporate intranets.
After only 21 months, half of DoCoMo's 33 million cellular phone customers in Japan are using i-mode. Revenue from data transmissions surged 20-fold in the past year. I-mode users are on average spending twice as much as last year. Almost 60 percent of i-mode traffic goes to DoCoMo's official sites for entertainment purposes. To enrich the service, DoCoMo introduced handsets with color screens.