Will Americans go for mLife?

[Mr. BIG]

I'd like to hear how mmode actually compares with NTTs imode....if anybody has used both, could you give us some insight??

[Crispy]

I was interested in that. I had known about the I-mode stuff for a while and was wondering if this m-mode thing had anything in common with it, or if it is the same group of services that they decided to put another name on. Either way, I don't have a cellphone now but I might buy one in Japan, since I won't have a ground line.

[DoriKin]

"What we're doing is unique in the American marketplace and is not simply a transplantation of imode, slapping a different letter onto it and then just moving on from there," says spokesperson Mark Siegel. "The content is uniquely American, the approach is uniquely American."

read as: "what we are trying to do is make some money with a service that has worked in Japan, and although we know it may not work in America, we figure that any dumb american consumer will buy into it and we can make a quick buck. Were going to half-ass it, becuase the average amercian consumer wont know the difference"

In Japan, the ubiquitous mass transit system is often cited as a primary reason for imode's success. The transit system creates a lifestyle full of "microniches" of time. There's a lot of hanging around nearby bus, subway and train stations, usually waiting for friends or for transport. Imode and its competitors have filled this otherwise empty space with well-received services and cutting-edge handsets

This is exaclty why imode works in Japan and why it wont in America. There is no need for it here.