As the market heats up for wireless instant-messaging services, a handful of vendors are touting their rapid implementation of the Open Mobile Alliance’s IM specifications as a way to drum up carrier business.
ACL Wireless, Colibria, Comverse Technology Inc., L.M. Ericsson, Followap, MessageVine Inc., Nokia Corp. and Oz Communications Inc. jointly announced their support of the OMA’s specifications for instant-messaging servers. The announcement was notable in that it left out a number of rival instant-messaging companies.
“Not everyone has jumped on board,” said Hilmar Gunnarsson, vice president of sales and marketing for wireless IM company Oz.
The OMA manages the Wireless Village initiative, which was formed in 2001 to develop common instant-messaging protocols for wireless users. Version 1.2 of the OMA’s Instant Messaging and Presence Services specifications includes guidelines for both IM handsets and carrier servers. Most handset makers support the OMA’s Client-Server Protocol (CSP) specifications, but not all IM server vendors support the OMA’s Server-Server Protocol (SSP) specifications.
Jabber Inc., for example, said it does not have plans to add the OMA’s SSP specifications to its server product for sale to wireless carriers. Jabber offers IM services to both corporations and carriers.
“We are watching the market carefully and listening closely to what our customers say they need,” Jabber wrote in response to questions from RCR Wireless News. “That said, Jabber XCP already offers server-to-server connectivity through the XMPP protocol, and that has been an effective way for our customers to communicate between servers to date. XMPP server-to-server connectivity is already widely deployed.”
However, Jabber said it would add support for the OMA’s SSP specifications if its customers requested the technology.
Other IM companies are taking a more gradual approach. For example, IM server vendor Openwave Systems Inc. said it will add support for the OMA’s SSP specifications in the second quarter.
“These protocols are mature and ready to be used,” Oz’s Gunnarsson said. “What we are doing is emphasizing our support for the Server-Server Protocol.”
The SSP specification ensures that instant-messaging servers from different vendors will work together. Thus, if a carrier were to launch its own branded instant-messaging service, its subscribers would be able to chat with the IM subscribers from a rival carrier-assuming the servers from both carriers supported the SSP specification.
Gunnarsson said such a scenario would be more likely in Europe, where carriers are more willing to launch their own branded IM services. In the United States, wireless carriers so far have relied on established Internet IM services like Yahoo! Messenger and America Online Inc.’s AIM. By using established Internet IM services, interoperability concerns become less important because the messages are routed through the Internet and not directly between the servers of wireless carriers.
Although some wireless IM vendors hope their OMA compliance will entice carrier customers, that might not necessarily be the case. Michael King, senior analyst with Gartner Research, said OMA compliance is not a “show stopper.”
“I have yet to chat with a carrier that says, `I won’t buy that because it’s not OMA compliant,”‘ he said.
Most carriers are far more concerned with offering stable and usable instant-messaging services from established IM players like AOL and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, King said. Further, the Open Mobile Alliance is primarily driven by vendor companies, not carriers, so the group’s specifications are more aligned with vendor concerns.
That said, Oz recently managed to score an important deal with T-Mobile USA Inc. T-Mobile will use Oz’s IM gateway to manage its disparate IM services, including those from AOL and Yahoo!.
Wireless instant messaging has quickly become a major area of activity in the U.S. wireless market. Along with T-Mobile’s deal with Oz, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. too have recently launched expanded IM services. Indeed, Verizon is promoting its BREW-based IM service in its radio and TV advertisements.
The reason for such activity is clear. Research and consulting firm IDC predicts the market for wireless instant messaging in the United States is set to grow to 63 million subscribers by 2007, generating a total of $1.9 billion. The firm said business users largely will drive the push for wireless IM as an inexpensive, easy-to-deploy communications medium.
“I think it’s going to be pretty big in the U.S.,” said Gartner’s King.
