BRAINSTORM: Mobile Instant Messaging

[jklondon]

Its a very interesting topic, so whos up for brainstorming business ideas around this hey? I will post up some background material later...

[buzz-promotions]

Interesting topic indeed, I think it would be popular especially between the teenage generation! Would like to see what you post? :wink:

[crus]

You could also add pictures and sound maybe and call it media multi messaging, maybe?

What kind of things are we going to discuss as I like this topic very very much.

D

[DuaneJackson]

Isnt this already 'out there'? I remember a year or so ago I had a client whoused to use MSN on his mobile.

[crus]

Yep most IM clients are now mobilised, however there is big space in this market with the changes in network connectivity of hand held devices.

I am awaiting a spare dev machine runing OS X Server 10.4 which includes a private ichat server which I am looking to dev a mobile app around.

D

[DuaneJackson]

...there is big space in this market with the changes in network connectivity of hand held devices.

Good point. There is probably a lot of new options opening up becuase of this.

What could the 'killer app' that capitalises on this be? Maybe IM, maybe not. Certainly worth giving some serious thought though.

[jklondon]

ahh some interest worthy of a follow up ;) Ok I should explain what I actually meant..

Ok my interest emerged last week as I was talking to a reporter who was at the 3GSM conference recently. So some backround (for free!) ..

IM on fixed devices is clearly a success we all know this.

IM on mobiles is very new and has been largley driven by fixed device operators such as MSN, Yahoo moving over their product to a mobile device.. great BUT the people you IM need to use the same platform, imagine if SMS worked this way!

So last week over 40+ mobile operators around the world signed a letter of intent to create an interoperable network! Thats the amazing part (if it actually works)..

[jklondon]

.. some facts

- you only pay for what you send not recieve, which seems good to me - i.e. cost for spam high.

- conversation threads

- real time delivery

- presence changable i.e. online,offline,busy etc.


theres a paper on all this somewhere will find it if theres interest.

[DuaneJackson]

Sounds interesting.

Wouldn't you need the network owners to actually act on their commitment and then release a white paper or RFC of some kind for the techincal/protocol spec before you, as an independent developer, could do anything though?

[jklondon]

Duane - yep - I suspect so, I was hoping someone might have more info on this than me.

From their point of view of the Operators the startup costs should be realivley low compared to other ventures... MobileTV, MMS (flop!) assuming they can all agree and ratify a standard which is seems they might be able to do if GSM association does its bit.

Would be great to plug our price comparison service into this directly :)

[crus]

OK,

a little confused that the big wigs have wigged out.

mJabber is an example of an existing java app running IM.

Convergence of IM software has already happened with a number of clients offering access to multiple providers.

The draw back is the keyboard (fastap.com may have it busted though), with a normal phone messaging is ok but using a chat client sucks. (god bless my communicator!)

I believe a much more media driven chat client is the solution exchange audio and video via IM mechanism possibly breaching MMS as this would negate the keyboard issue make use of audio and video record on the phone and could still have the functionailty of the IM client to show whos online etc.

D

[DuaneJackson]

Just took a look at your site JK, good to see you implemented some of the SEO stuff we discussed - it's looking good. Best of luck with it.


Back on topic....

The big operators still seem to be recouping the costs of their 3G licenses. So presumably if it's an open network then a smaller player would have a pricing advantage as there wouldn't be all the legacy stuff to fund.

I'm still not convinced on IM, but I think there could be other ways to utilise the changes in connectiivty of mobile devices.

What services do we have available on fixed device that currently isn't available on mobiles?

stock tickers?

[jklondon]

its all down to simplicity and interoperability - a single IM standard across all mobile networks will clearly win - however the operators have also stated that they want the system to work with all fixed-line IM systems. So perhaps we are a few years away from an Open Source standard.. not sure.

The valueadd (and money making bit) will be functionality offered by applications running over this protocol.

[jklondon]

yep thanks for your initial help Duane, much appreciated. We had a team of flyer distributors hitting the high-streets over the last couple of days getting the word out as a soft-launch, unfortuantley the cold weather makes this job pretty hard!

I actually think IM on mobiles will be big - however I suspect it will emerge as an evolution of SMS (or at least I suspect SMS growth to curb hard once IM takes of on a widescale)

There a lot of stuff happening in the mobile world in terms of connectivity/protocols so we should be thinking about the applications that can run over these that can take-off on widescale like ringtones did.

Mobile Stock-Tickers are out there but I never found a good one - though I am not looking anymore.

[TWD-Tony]

There is an App for Symbian devices (and probably PocketPC and PalmOS etc) that is a chat client utilsing Bluetooth.
I have not used it but from what I have read it allows you to search for other users with the client enabled and then start a chat with them...

I know that at the moment Bluetooth range is limited to <10m but the new Bluetooth v2 has a far greater range... Bluetooth is a killer technology on mobiles simply because it's fast, and best of all FREE :wink:

Maybe short range Bluetooth / IM app is the way to go...????

[jklondon]

..

Maybe short range Bluetooth / IM app is the way to go...????


yea possibly - but whatever happened to bluetooth dating .. maybe a longer range app which takes up less battery life (which is why I dont always leave it on) may revive this..

[crus]

http://developer.aim.com