A few months ago Forbes had a nice article on NTT DoCoMo's iMode service, and Kei-Ichi Enoki, the man behind it. (Forbes stories are all about heroic executives, since the rich strivers are the only people who matter to it.)

The point, for us, is the direction mobile data services may take after the obvious niches, like e-mail and games, have burned out.

Enoki's answer -- remote controls. Not in the sense of point it at your TV, but in the sense of remote control of life functions. Enoki is turning iModes into electronic wallets, personal shoppers, GameBoy and iPod replacement.

There's also an answer to the item that follow this (and was written a few minutes before):

Softbank has announced plans for a rollout of mobile Internet phones, offering wireless at what will be a fraction of its usual cost. That could devastate NTT Docomo's economics, since it still gets 67% of its revenue from old-fashioned voice minutes. The more Enoki can glue his customers to their screens, the less likely they'll be to switch just to save money.

In other words, Softbank is playing hte WiFi card, and NTT's "dual-mode" handsets are a head fake. The real game is tieing consumers to iMode data services, using 3G networks. At that point they won't mind giving NTT their phone minutes because they won't want to switch handsets.

That's the idea, anyway.

Bonus question -- A free copy of my book goes to whoever first guesses the artist referred to in the headline.