Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence
I am currently doing some work for Palringo so was interested to see the latest Forrester Research that European Mobile Instant Messaging To Triple In The Next Six Years.
There are two types of research. Forward looking such as this one and backward looking analysing what has happened. I tend to take forward looking ones with a measure of healthy scepticism because I have learnt that predicting the future, especially within mobile, isn’t that easy.
Having said this, I do believe there’s a great future in IM, more from the presence information rather than the messaging itself. I recently realised this when talking to people about the latest Skypephone. Knowing what people are doing, their current ‘thought of the day’, perhaps where they are etc are all forms of communication that add value and may actually pre-empt or initiate IM, SMS or a voice chat. In fact, it’s strange such presence features aren’t already built into most phones.
I guess this is why (from the Forrester Press Release)…
"operators still lack a true commitment to backing the technology because of fears that mobile IM will cannibalize revenue from their highly profitable text messaging services (SMS)"
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