Coca Cola, NTT DoCoMo deployed 5,000 Cmode vending machines across Japan

Credit: Coca-Cola

As of February 16, there were 5,000 Cmode vending machines rolled out across Japan, with more than 500,000 cellphone users subscribed to Club Cmode:

Cmode is a service that lets users of the i-mode wireless Internet service, provided by NTT DoCoMo, buy soft drinks and mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers and apps from vending machines using their cellular handsets. The Cmode (or “shimo” in Japanese interpretation) vending machines are equipped with a special barcode reader that identifies whether the user is a Club Cmode member, by scanning a barcode displayed on user's cellphone screen. The second generation of Cmode machines called shimo2 can conduct transactions based on contactless payment system FeliCa built in DoCoMo’s wallet-phones. There were 3,000 shimo2 machines out of total 5,000 in Japan by the end of 2005.

The mass-market rollout of Cmode-compatible vending machines began in April 2002, while the first trials were conducted a year earlier. Achieving a 5,000 mark is an impressive milestone for DoCoMo and Coca-Cola Cmode service, however it still accounts for less than 0.5% of total 980,000 Coca-Cola-branded vending machines rolled out throughout the country. Nevertheless, the companies plan to gradually increase the penetration of Cmode service virtually to every vending machine in Japan and make the service compatible with new transaction platforms such as iD and Toruka. Though they do not provide the exact date when it is going to happen.

Source: IT Media