The global mobile phone market is becoming saturated, especially in developed economies where phone makers are competing for market share in an increasingly ‘red ocean’. In contrast, the African market for mobile phones has huge growth potential given a fast-expanding population and high proportion of young people, yet relatively low rate of mobile phone penetration.

As of November 2001, NTT DoCoMo is the only company that has been able to make money out of the mobile Internet. This case study describes how, in a very competitive industry engaged in a technology race and strong price erosion, NTT DoCoMo has been able to achieve superior performance with its novel i-mode services.