The beginning or the end for instant messaging?

Citation

(2002), "The beginning or the end for instant messaging?", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951caf.003

The beginning or the end for instant messaging?

The beginning or the end for instant messaging?

Instant messaging is growing as a business tool – not as a replacement for other (often asynchronous) technologies, but as a complement to them. The mobile phone giants and the major Internet players are both playing in this arena. Now, to ensure the interoperability of mobile instant message presence services (IMPS), Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia have formed the "wireless village".

This is an initiative to define and promote a set of specifications to be used as the basis of exchanging messages and presence information between mobile devices, mobile services and Internet-based instant messaging services. The standards are expected to play a crucial role in the development of 3G applications.

The ability to send an instant message to an always-on mobile will reduce the incidence of having to wait for someone to call back. It should make business communication processes faster and more flexible, and lower telecoms costs. When the "sender" of a message can see, at a glance, who is online, that person has the option of choosing the most appropriate form of communication – depending on the nature and urgency of the message. In the mid-term 3G future, virtual presentation rooms which offer always-on, always-available video conferencing and document sharing capabilities anywhere, will make SMS look prehistoric.

However, there are some that believe the technology has been over-hyped (did somebody mention bluetooth?) and is, in effect, a technology in search of an application. Sure it's great for Internet-aware kids to keep in touch but what are the real business application? However, the optimists point to SMS messaging – no one knew what that was for, it grew in the teenage marketplace but is now an established part of the business communication portfolio.

The real cynics suggest that business is only just getting to grips with the promotional and marketing applications of SMS. When it "finds its feet" it may create applications which fundamentally detract from the success of the technology – a simple, peer-to-peer, fully-targeted messaging medium. These cynics go so far as suggesting that it's good to know that business is already looking at screwing up instant messaging before it has really succeeded with SMS.

Of course, the "truth" is somewhere in the middle; we will probably see "public" messaging systems that carry advertising (and the same kind of dross we get in our junk mail) … but business will surely adopt "private" messaging streams to keep their business communications separate. Time will tell whether a six-lane highway goes through the middle of the wireless village!