Instant messaging, the simple act of writing to another person in real time, is a big deal.
This fact has been proven by the popularity of America Online Inc.’s instant messaging program, which became a subject of debate during the Federal Communications Commission’s hearings on the AOL-Time Warner Inc. merger. The wireless industry has taken notice of the program’s popularity, and now there is quite a bit of business surrounding the simple act of text conversations.
Dozens of companies, including Invertix Corp., Bantu Inc. and wireless heavyweight Motorola Inc., have jumped into the instant messaging space-betting that IM becomes more than just a cool way for teen-agers to find out the latest gossip. Some in the industry think instant messaging will become a critical aspect of every business operation, while others are hoping it will become a major part of ordinary people’s lives. Still others see it becoming the driving force behind the supposedly inevitable mobile-commerce storm.
“Mobile commerce will be built on top of instant messaging,” said Mark McDowell, president and chief operating officer of Invertix. McDowell made his comments during a forum on instant messaging that was part of the recent CTIA Wireless 2001 show in Las Vegas-further proof that instant messaging is becoming an important part of the wireless industry.
McDowell said merchants will use instant messages to contact potential customers, allowing shoppers to respond with their wallet-or e-wallet as the case may be. Unsurprisingly, Invertix offers an m-commerce platform based on instant messaging called IM-Anywhere.
While Invertix believes instant messaging will become an instant smash hit with consumers, others in the space think it will be more quickly adopted through business use. Larry Schlang, president and chief executive officer of Bantu, puts his bets on the enterprise.
Schlang said instant messaging will soon become a simple part of worker communication, allowing managers to keep in touch with their employees and business to get done quickly, easily and from anywhere. Schlang said one of the most important aspects of instant messaging in businesses is security; Bantu’s IM offering is secure and encrypted, the company said.
Motorola is taking yet another approach with instant messaging. Craig Peddie, general manager for Motorola’s Lexicus division, said instant messaging is just part of the services that will lead people to use their mobile phones for more than simple voice calls.
“People are starting to use these devices for much more,” he said.
Looking toward the future, Peddie sees instant messaging playing a role in multimedia communications. Along these lines, Motorola recently made a deal to expand its instant messaging offerings through a partnership with Personity Inc., an infrastructure technology provider. Personity and Motorola intend to create a presence and availability management program for wireless carriers to offer to their customers. The companies said the technology will allow users to control their communications by letting people know when they are available and how they want to be contacted-through voice, picture or wireless instant messaging.
But before instant messaging can really get started it faces one major challenge, said Cynthia Hswe, a senior analyst for The Strategis Group. Like many parts of the wireless industry, IM must become standardized.
“The main obstacle is the standards,” she said. “There is just not one standard platform.”
A standards body made up of several wireless instant messaging industry leaders has recently been formed and is looking into the problem, but interoperability has historically been a touchy subject. Even in the wired world, standards issues create intense debate-AOL, the leading IM service provider, has been reluctant to open its platform.
But once that standard is in place, Hswe said, things will be much easier for the wireless instant messaging market.
“Then it will be a lot easier to develop it into that platform,” she said. “It does definitely open up the market.”
“Whatever is accepted as the industry standard is what we will use,” Motorola’s Peddie said.
