Editing I-mode (section)

==Markets==
Seeing the tremendous success of i-mode in Japan, many operators in Europe, Asia and Australia sought to license the service through partnership with DoCoMo. Takeshi Natsuno was behind the expansion of i-mode to 17 countries worldwide. Kamel Maamria who was a partner with the Boston Consulting Group and who was supporting Mr. Natsuno is also thought to have had a major role in the expansion of the first Japanese service ever outside Japan.

i-mode showed very fast take-up in the various countries where it was launched which led to more operators seeking to launch i-mode in their markets with the footprint reaching a total of 17 markets worldwide.

While the i-mode service was an exceptional service which positioned DoCoMo as the global leader in value add services, another key success factor for i-mode was the Japanese smartphone makers who developed state of the art handsets to support i-mode. As i-mode was exported to the rest of the world, Nokia and other major handset vendors who controlled the markets at the time, refused at first to support i-mode by developing handsets which support the i-mode service. The operators who decided to launch i-mode had to rely on Japanese vendors who had no experience in international markets. As i-mode showed success in these markets, some vendors started customizing some of their handsets to support i-mode, however, the support was only partial and came late in time.

While the service was successful during the first years after launch, the lack of adequate handsets and the emergence of new handsets from new vendors which supported new Internet services on one hand, and a change of leadership of i-mode in Docomo, lead to a number of operators to migrate or integrate i-mode into new mobile Internet services. These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and i-mode never became popular outside of Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gyrovague.com/2014/06/27/how-sms-set-back-the-mobile-internet-by-ten-years/|title=How SMS set back the mobile internet by ten years|date=26 June 2014}}</ref>

i-mode sponsored the [[Renault in Formula One#Renault F1 Team (2002–2010)|Renault F1 team]] from 2004 to 2006.

i-mode was launched in the following countries:
* [[Australia]] ([[Telstra]])
* [[Belgium]] ([[:nl:BASE_(telecommunicatie)|Base]])
* [[Bulgaria]] ([[Globul]])
* [[France]] ([[Bouygues Télécom (company)|Bouygues Télécom]])
* [[Germany]] ([[E-Plus]])
* [[Greece]] ([[Cosmote]])
* [[Hong Kong]] ([[Hutchison 3G|3]])
* [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] ([[O2 (Ireland)|O2]])
* [[Israel]] ([[Cellcom (Israel)|Cellcom]])
* [[Italy]] ([[Wind Telecomunicazioni|Wind]])
* [[Netherlands]] ([[KPN]])
* [[Romania]] ([[Cosmote Romania]])
* [[Russia]] ([[Mobile TeleSystems|MTS]])
* [[Singapore]] ([[StarHub]])
* [[Spain]] ([[Telefónica]])
* [[Taiwan]] ([[FarEasTone]])
* [[UK]] ([[O2 (UK)|O2]])