Depending on your perspective, mobile instant messaging either has taken off like a rocket or is still idling on the launching pad.
Like many other applications, IM has been a hot topic in wireless circles for years. And as with many of those other applications in their early days of wireless, primitive technologies coupled with high expectations make for a rotten user experience.
“Over the last four years, there was a lot of talk about mobile IM,” said Skuli Mogensen, chief executive officer of Oz, an instant-messaging software firm. “(In those days), IM was based on a WAP interface that was completely unacceptable for IM users” because it virtually eliminated the most appealing thing about the application: the way it can feel like voice conversation.
“In the past, there were a lot of false starts,” said Mogensen.
The most recent start may be genuine, though. Instant messaging, which has been an unqualified success on desktop computers, appears finally to be going mobile.
The industry is targeting IM users for good reason. The Washington-based Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated last month that 53 million adults use instant messaging. And as younger users become accustomed to the technology, they’ll be more likely to embrace IM on their handsets as teens and young adults.
“You’ve got PC-to-PC IM creating 5 billion messages every day, and people are only sitting in front of computers 30 percent of the day,” Mogensen said. “But people carry their mobiles at all times. I think that market absolutely has plenty of room for targeted devices.”
IM’s appeal is obvious: In addition to offering the back-and-forth of a voice conversation, it offers features such as AOL’s Buddy Lists and “presence,” allowing users to flag their status (such as “available,” “away from my computer,” or “in a bad mood”).
What’s less clear is how well the application transfers to a handset. In the past few months, though, there has been an unmistakable buzz surrounding the application, as service providers, handset manufacturers and software developers begin to make it easier to use IM on the move.
But as desktop IM providers AOL, MSN and Yahoo! fight to move into the mobile market, one major problem remains: interoperability.
The big three to date are not willing to allow users to communicate across providers. And if IM’s popularity among mobile users is going to grow, that obstacle must be overcome, said wireless analyst Seamus McAteer.
“(Interoperability) has always been a mess,” said McAteer, who recently founded M*Metrics, a California-based wireless research firm. “It’s a bigger problem in the mobile domain (than on desktops) when you can’t load three IM clients onto your phone.”
In an effort to establish an industry standard for IM, several handset manufacturers founded Wireless Village, which has been subsumed into the Open Mobile Alliance. The forum is developing yet another system, Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS), an XML-based application that has the support of most top-tier carriers.
What it doesn’t have-at least, not yet-is support from IM providers.
Meanwhile, handsets are being produced that support all three providers, even if consumers must use the services independently. And AgileMobile.com, a Bangkok, Thailand-based software developer, recently released Agile Messenger 3.0, which supports simultaneous connectivity with the networks of the big three providers, as well as the networks of IMPS, ICQ and QQ.
Last month, AT&T Wireless Services released Ogo, a non-voice messaging handset targeted directly at IM and SMS users that runs on Oz software. The $100 gadget supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo!-a fact that may help make interoperability issues obsolete, according to Amit Haller, chief executive officer of IXI, which provided middleware for the device.
“I don’t think interoperability is a big concern,” said Haller. “The way people have solved it is pretty simple: to have two or three accounts (on a device) based on the communities they need to interface with. On the Ogo, we created three environments. Basically, that resolved the interoperability issue.”
That may be true, but wireless IM users represent only 7 percent of mobile consumers, said McAteer. And that’s not likely to grow exponentially.
“I don’t see (IM) getting much north of 10 to 15 percent (of wireless users),” he said. “While it’s growing, we’re still talking about small numbers. It’s still niche, but then again, so is gaming. And you see how that’s growing.”
