odology 13.2.1 Terminology and Abbreviations 13.2.2 Comparison Model 13.2.3 Data Collection This chapter expands the earlier work of the authors in Daim, T., Zhang, J., and Choi, C., Exploring diffusion of mobile data services, in Encyclopedia of E-Business Development and Management, Lee (Ed.), IGI Press, 2010, pp. 325-334. Service Delivery Platforms 13.3 The Performance of Developing Mobile Data Services 13.3.1 Diversity 13.3.2 Prevalence 13.3.3 Profitability 13.4 Regulatory Policies and Corporate Strategies 13.4.1 Regulatory Policies 13.4.1.1 United States 13.4.1.2 China 13.4.1.3 South Korea 13.4.2 Corporate Strategies 13.4.2.1 United States 13.4.2.2 China 13.4.2.3 South Korea 13.5 Conclusions References 13.1 Introduction The mobile communications industry is experiencing the 3G transition globally, which represents a shift from voice-centric services to multimedia-oriented services. According to the statistics from Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) forum and CDMA (code division multiple access) Development Group (CDG), 182 Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) networks, and 250 CDMA2000 networks have been deployed all over the world, and the total subscriber number of 3G (including WCDMA, High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), CDMA 1X, and CDMA Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO)) had reached 660 million by the end of March, 2008. In the 3G era, it is surprising that the successful development of new mobile tech- nologies and services has appeared in Asia, especially in Japan and South Korea, instead of Western Europe and North America. Japan is the first nation to have more than 50% of its subscribers using 3G, followed closely by South Korea [1]. Some developing countries have presented higher growth rate in mobile data services than developed countries. This phenomenon motivated this comparative study. Mobile data services, for which contents and applications are indispensable, are quite different from voice services. The 3G transition is not only a technology upgrade but a big ec