SMS, mobile e-mail, mobile IM and MMS are very big business. As Portio Research, a UK-based mobile research firm, highlights in their latest report, these four mobile messaging sectors were a $150 billion business globally in 2009. Here’s how the 2009 market sizes stack up:
Of note as well, the total market is expected to grow to $233 billion by the end of 2014, representing $83 billion of growth. So, to invoke a somewhat tired but relevant phrase, messaging has been and continues to be one of the key “killer applications” for the mobile device.
In spite of the clear importance of mobile messaging, the user experience begs for improvement. To pose the question in the above title — Where is the Unified View? Why do we have to access and send email, IM, SMS and MMS from four different applications on our mobile devices? In fact, the most advanced mobile device on the planet, the iPhone, doesn’t even allow a unified view of emails from multiple addresses, let alone integrating other forms of messages.
One Response
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
If you are really talking about a “unified view,’ you should include speech interfaces in addition to text-based visual interfaces!
This is especially appropriate for mobile access to any form of content (messages,information) when a user cannot look at a visual interface or content or key in text (driving), but can talk and listen. The reverse is also true for voice interfaces when a noisy environment or privacy concerns inhibit speaking in a public place.
That’s why we need the flexibility of “unified communications” AND a multimodal device to maximize individual user choice for any form of contact, inbound or outbound.
Art Rosenberg
February 2, 20108:32 pmThe Unified-View