Editing I-mode (section)

==History==
i-mode was launched in Japan on 22 February 1999. The content planning and service design team was led by [[Mari Matsunaga]], while Takeshi Natsuno was responsible for the business development. Top executive Keiichi Enoki oversaw the technical and overall development. A few months after DoCoMo launched i-mode in February 1999, DoCoMo's competitors launched very similar mobile data services: [[KDDI]] launched [[EZweb]], and [[J-Phone]] launched [[Vodafone live!|J-Sky]]. Vodafone later acquired J-Phone including J-Sky, renaming the service [[Vodafone live!]], although initially this was different from Vodafone live! in Europe and other markets. In addition, Vodafone KK was acquired by [[SoftBank]], an operator of Yahoo! Japan in October, 2006 and changed the name to [[SoftBank Mobile]].

[[Bandai]] and [[Namco]] launched content for i-mode in 1999. Bandai launched the ''Dokodemo Aso Vegas'' service in May 1999, reaching over {{nowrap|1 million}} paid subscribers by March 2000. In December 1999, Namco launched ''Namco Station'', a mobile site for i-mode.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fact Book 2021 |date=2021 |publisher=[[Bandai Namco Group]] |pages=23–4 |url=https://www.bandainamco.co.jp/cgi-bin/releases/index.cgi/file/view/10492?entry_id=7280 |access-date=2 October 2021 |archive-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019230136/https://www.bandainamco.co.jp/cgi-bin/releases/index.cgi/file/view/10492?entry_id=7280 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Since 2003, i-mode center is called CiRCUS, which consists of 400 [[NEC Corporation|NEC]] NX7000 [[HP-UX]] servers and occupies 4,600 m<sup>2</sup> floor space in DoCoMo's [[Kawasaki, Kanagawa|Kawasaki]] office. The operation support system is called CARNiVAL, which is hosted in the [[Sanno Park Tower]].

As of June 2006, the mobile data services I-Mode, EZweb, and J-Sky, had over 80 million subscribers in Japan.

i-mode usage in Japan peaked around 2008. On 29 October 2019, DoCoMo announced i-mode will end on 31 March 2026.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/2019/10/29_00.html |title = 報道発表資料 : 「FOMA」および「iモード」のサービス終了について &#124; NTTドコモ}}</ref>