How many ways do we need to let people communicate with us? I

counted up the number of ways people currently have to get in touch with me, and I was shocked. These are just the ways people expect to have instant

communication with me:

• office phone
• mobile phone
• fax machine
• 2

  personal email accounts

• 1 work email account
• secure work instant messaging
• personal instant

  messenger

• sms
• mms

and it seems many people also have:

• multiple personal

  instant messenger groups

• email aliases like ‘info@company.com’
• home landline phones
• voip call

  services like ’skype’

• multiple personal networking sites like ‘linked in’, ‘myspace’, and ‘facebook’
• push-to-talk service
• video chat or calling

The convergence of all of these methods of instant communication

facinates me. We now have mobile devices that let us receive instant messages, email, voip calls, multimedia messages, video calls, and yes even the

rare telephone call. Some devices even offer integrated interfaces to personal networking sites. We are all expected to be available on these

channels all the time. God forbid anyone snail mail something or just stop by to say hello!

Products of marketing

In

2003, before it was cool, I carried a t-mobile sidekick. The device has a qwerty keyboard, a large display, and an always-on connection with push

email – long before the RIM Blackberry took over the US market. I could browse the web on the same GPRS/EDGE networks that the iPhone uses. I could

connect to instant messaging and always be in touch. I could snap photos and email them to anyone on the spot well before the MMS network was

established. Oh, and unlimited data cost a mere $20 / month. The novelty of having my pocket vibrate every 3 minutes wore off after, well, about 3

minutes.

These ‘new’ breakthrough devices are products of marketing, not advancements in technology. Text messaging was around in

1998 – and believe it or not, it was initially free. Streaming audio and video codecs are nothing new. I might even venture to say that sms/email

bridges are enjoying undeserved popularity considering their maturity.

The convergence of these various communications technologies is what

provides value and innovation for the mobile consumer, but like any good software engineer I have to take a step back and look at the functional need

before we determine a technical solution.

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT: Global mobile communication. TECHNICAL SOLUTION: The mobile

phone.

When you need a way to communicate with everyone else on the planet on-demand, the most effective way to do it is with a mobile

phone. In January 2007, there were 2.7 Billion mobile phone users on the planet. That absolutely dwarfs any other communications medium. Oh, and

mobile phones can also connect to the 1.3 Billion additional landline phones in the world.

So therefore it makes perfect sense to start with a

mobile phone and then design these mobile devices with enhancements that may entice customers to purchase products and services. Yep, that’s

marketing. That’s also not to say that these enhancements aren’t useful – broadcasting a text message to 20 people sure is more effecient than

calling each of them. But before we get carried away, let’s remember the functional part that led us to the mobile phone in the first place – voice

communications.

Don’t get me wrong – I like multifunctioning devices. I use my camera phone much more than I initially thought I would. I

use the voice recorder in my phone all the time. I even use the phone alarm clock daily and sync my calendar, contacts, and to-do list multiple times

per day. They certainly are useful, and undoubtedly we’ll see more an more useful features packed into our personal mobile devices. I recently saw

one with a high-intensity LED camera flash that doubled as a flashlight – not a bad idea considering how many times i’ve hit the backlight on my

handset to find my way up a dark staircase, waving it around like a torch.

The killer app called convergence

The next

killer app might be convergence of these dozen or so communications methods that we’re all expected to adhere to. It’s already happeneing in limited

fashion. Helio has a range of devices with a unified messaging inbox that collects all incoming emails, chats,

texts, mms’s, and whatever-else in one place to be sorted and processed. OneBox has tried – for about a decade –

to convince us to unify our email, fax, and voice communications. We all have various forwarders and auto-responders built into our email and chat

systems, and I can forward my office phone and my instant messenger when I want to get calls and notifications on my mobile. It’s inevitable that

each of these channels need to be redirected from time to time.

What about a fully-connected system that translates all incoming communication to

a specified medium? What about being able to direct all communications to one channel of your preference.  With location-based services, now the

mobile device that is with me always knows where I am – and if I’m at my desk, in my car, on an airplane, or out to dinner, it can determine if and how

I would like to be communicated with autonomously.

Suddenly, I’m free to give my attention to as many or as few devices and interfaces as I

choose, and anyone can use any channel they wish to communicate with me. Until that happens, can we all agree on just one or two channels?…