i-mode as known as a mobile service, which is original developed by Japanese company named NTT DoCoMo, that offering easy access to Internet sites, send i-mode email and receive message service since its introduction in Japan at February 1999. User can connect and communicate and extended information between the office, the home and other destinations for enhanced convenience in all aspects of everyday life.
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i-mode service has already been launched in a number of countries throughout Europe, with each country offering its own unique content and terminals. NTT DoCoMo shares their technology and expertise to partnership and concerns the benefit of the subscribers with content diversity.
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The NTT DoCoMo Company is using the GPS technology to provide a wide range of location information solutions. By using GPS technology, passengers can be notified by the bus location in real-time. By selecting this service with i-mode handset, user access the information of specific area information, such as, detailed of weather forecasts and maps, information on traffic, restaurants and sales at local stores. This service provided by i-mode is designed to protect privacy. Both user and anyone who will access the user’s location information must agree to share access. In addition, those who are checking the location must input a password each time they access the service. Moreover, this service applied to a broad range of uses, such as to confirm the location of children and the elderly, and as a theft countermeasure for automobiles and motorcycles.
Pay by credit via infrared, multimedia information complex
Example: i-mode LaQua: LaQua is an entertainment complex in the heart of Tokyo and opened in May 2003. Visitors can experience the latest mobile system through three attraction zones: spa, attraction, and shop & restaurant:
Barcode Shopping, e-tickets and e-coupons, and versatile vending machine
A "two-dimensional" barcode that encodes i-mode barcode reader scans up to 652 full-size characters of information. 2D barcode contains information in both vertical and horizontal directions, which hold greater volume of information than a bar code and the bar code contains data only in one direction. Mobile phone with barcode (QR Code) scanners can scan product and price data from catalogs or magazines, which automatically display on the screen and even make payments. Mobile phones with installed cameras and barcode readers have dramatically broadened the scope of barcode usage. For example, users can read barcodes printed on business cards to record the information in their phone address books, display barcodes on their phone screens to use as tickets, and more.
Japan Coca-Cola's vending machine network is a particularly advantageous infrastructure for communicating with consumers. Vending machines are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The consumer interaction via infrared communication, which moves from limited to pushing a button and receiving a drink, to the consumer, can download ringing melodies, standby screen, or even buy tickets.
i-mode user can subscribe for the mobile novel; it is the 1,600 word installments by email and avoids the use of difficult words. The famous mobile novel in Japan is called Deep Love. The story is about a 17-year-old girl named Ayu, who finds love through a chance encounter. The author, who calls himself Yoshi Official Website, became so popular that it turned into an actual book, became a bestseller, and even produce the film.
NTT DoCoMo want to size the mobile phone function to rather than just voice transmissions but multimedia and achieve "new global communications culture" which communicate seamlessly with each other, anytime and anywhere by using mobile terminals to access multimedia services through a borderless global network. One of NTT DoCoMo innovations in this area is known as VSF-OFCDM (Variable Spreading Factor-Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing) enable the transmission speeds up to 100Mbps outdoors and up to 1Gbps indoors. NTT DoCoMo is building a mobile IP network specifically for packet data that supports seamless service between the cellular service and a variety networks with an enhanced online experience with reduced network cost. NTT DoCoMo wants to achieve mobile phone not just voice transmissions but use as the new global communications culture at anywhere and anytime.
Privacy
The most important privacy concerns related to wireless technologies: “collection of location information, tracking visits to wireless websites, and increased personal data collection�? (Wilma 2003, 33). Location-based services raise concerns because the consumer's specific location can be tracked and confirmed, whenever the user's device is on. These signals can be used to determine a mobile phone user’s location and pinpointed fair precisely in some areas. Wilma (2003, 35) say that “To address privacy concerns arising from these potential commercial uses, a provision of the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 amended the Telecommunications Act to provide that carriers must obtain ‘express prior authorization’ before releasing this location information to third parties�?.
As user surfing the wired Internet, the user’s unique identifier, and the consumer’s mobile number could be obtain by the carrier and third party content providers. Wilma (2003, 36) says, “A consumer advocate urged companies not to use consumer’s unique identifiers if they do not need to do so�?. One of the most valuable functions is personalized wireless content. The wireless advertising will be targeted and focus on existing consumer and customer relationship management rather than recruiting new customers. Moreover, some of the law enforcement agencies may seek access to such information in criminal investigations. Therefore, the company should not collect information that they do not need, such as Social Security numbers. Consumers should be given some choice about the collection and use of their information in the wireless space. The statement about the use of privacy disclosures should be posed in several different places, and clear and easy to understand. Since the screen of mobile phone or PDA are so small to read for large amount of characters of text at a time (Wilma 2003, 37).
Security Since the wireless devices are so small and easy to misplace and easy to steal. In addition, the consumers already store highly sensitive information in their wireless devices. Therefore, a representative of the technology infrastructure company MEconomy, Inc. made several recommendations to improve wireless security, including 1. Users can load or unload their own privacy and security by using an open platform for technologies devices; 2. companies should increase privacy and security by separating personal identifiers from transactional data; 3. use authenticated public key infrastructure and the Wireless Transport Layer Security (Wilma 2003, 41).
--Yingtsenlin 02:35, 2 Sep 2005 (EST)
