Docomo
Docomo
NTT Docomo (previously styled as DoCoMo) is a Japanese mobile phone carrier known for launching the i-mode mobile internet service in early 1999.
i-mode contained one of the earliest emoji sets, designed by interface designer Shigetaka Kurita. While Kurita's 1999 emoji set is commonly cited as the first emoji set, it is more accurate to deem this one of the first emoji sets as earlier examples have been located, albeit on less-popular platforms than Docomo's i-mode.
Notably in 1995, Docomo produced a popular Pocket Bell pager that allowed users to send each other simple pixel heart (โค) and telephone (โ) symbols. The popularity of this feature amongst Japan's youth has consistently been cited by Shigetaka Kurita as a direct source of inspiration when creating Docomo's 1999 emoji set.
Note: Each emoji design within every pre-2010 emoji set has been mapped to its modern Unicode codepoint, despite these sets existing prior to Unicode emoji standardization.
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