Forerunner of mobile Internet, i-mode is fading in Europe - Kevin J. O'Brien, International Herald Tribune

In 2001, the Dutch mobile phone operator KPN stole a beat on European competitors by introducing the Continent's first handsets with color screens and polyphonic ring tones, courtesy of an imported Japanese technology called i-mode. The technology appeared poised to roll over Europe as well. I-mode was praised for featuring cutting-edge software and services from the mobile operator NTT DoCoMo and for putting the Internet into the hands of more than 30 million customers in Japan. But on Tuesday, the British unit of O2 said it would phase out its i-mode service - used by only 250,000 consumers in Britain - by mid-2009.

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