KIller App From Horselist>
News article received, Wednesday, July 28, 1999 10:32:01 PM EST
Wireless Instant Messaging: a 'Killer App' for the Mobile Information Appliance
Market
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jul 28, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE via COMTEX) --
Mobile Insights Forecasts Instant Messaging Market to Reach
175 Million Users by 2002
Mobile Insights (MI), the leading information source for the mobile computing and data communications markets, today announced
that the worldwide market for instant messaging will grow to 175 million users by 2002. Instant messaging, sometimes referred to as
online "buddy lists," is used by over 50 million PC-based users and is now becoming available to users of handheld computers and
mobile phones.
This technology allows users to view a listing of people with whom they frequently communicate, determine if these people are
currently available, and send/receive messages instantly. Instant messaging created somewhat of a cult following of savvy Internet
users when it was launched two and a half years ago. It is now a mainstream Internet application with a variety of PC-based versions
such as America Online's (AOL) Instant Messenger; Mirabilis' ICQ (I Seek You), recently acquired by AOL; and a host of others from
the likes of Yahoo!, Microsoft and Excite. Instant messaging is growing at a phenomenal rate. Mirabilis, pioneer in this field, grew its
user base to 12 million users in less than two years and now has over 38 million users. This user community has grown primarily by
word-of-mouth, and according to America Online, its Instant Messenger application and Mirabilis' ICQ have a combined user base of
63 million users sending over 750 million messages a day.
Versions of ICQ have been available for the Palm Pilot and Windows CE-based handheld PCs, but have not been widely used
because integrated wireless communications -- the critical missing link for this technology -- has been slow to take hold. The Palm VII
is the first of many mainstream handheld devices that will incorporate wireless data communications. Additionally, recent
announcements from America Online suggest that it will work with 3Com to integrate this technology into future versions of the Palm
platform. As integrated wireless communications becomes mainstream on all mobile information appliances, instant messaging will
become a standard feature.
"Integrated wireless communications will be the catalyst that leads to the pervasive use of mobile information appliances," said
David Hayden, Senior Industry Analyst for Mobile Insights. "Instant messaging on these wireless handled PCs and mobile phones will
become as commonplace as voice mail in only a few years."
"Five years from now the interface to most cell phones and wireless PDAs will include a buddy list," stated Jerry Michalski, President
of Sociate, an industry analysis and consulting firm based in San Francisco. "These buddy lists will transform the way people
communicate and help them to avoid the necessity of making real-time two-way phone calls to handle simple communications."
Instant messaging offers a level of convenience and flexibility beyond that of traditional phone systems, which promote common
problems including telephone tag and a backlog of voice mail messages. Providing more convenience than traditional phones,
mobile phones have begun to address this issue. Additionally, advances in unified messaging (providing a single number for work
phone, mobile phone and fax) have greatly reduced this telephone tag dilemma. However, neither of these communication
mediums provides the ability to know someone's availability without initiating a call. Furthermore, email interaction is generally a
batch process and a poor medium for real-time interactions.
Instant messaging presents users with immediate feedback on a potential recipient's availability and provides a medium for short,
to-the-point messaging between users. Another compelling advantage of this medium is that it uses the Internet as a delivery vehicle
and can be much less expensive than a traditional phone call, especially for international communication. Instant messaging can
also offer added enhancements such as the ability to update schedules, provide notification of an email with the subject and
sender's name, and a host of other short messaging features. As this technology is made available to the hundreds of millions of
wireless telephone and wireless handheld users, instant messaging will become even more useful and pervasive. Most digital phones
are already equipped with SMS (short messaging service) and there are few technical hurdles to overcome to integrate instant
messaging with this feature.
Two recent announcements point to the future of wireless instant messaging: America Online's announcement of its AOL Anywhere
strategy and Tegic Communications' announcement of its embedded instant messaging software for wireless phones. AOL Anywhere
will bring AOL content, email and instant messaging to users of mobile information appliances. A key piece of this initiative was an
announcement made late last month with 3Com to provide AOL email to the Palm Computing platform.
Tegic Communications, a company known for its T9 text input technology for handheld PCs and smart phones, announced yesterday
that the new version of this software for wireless phones will be available with an embedded instant messaging or "chat" application.
Tegic's instant messaging technology will allow wireless subscribers to easily send instant text messages to people on their buddy lists
as well as to see at a glance if individuals are online, either by wireless phone or PC -- all via the subscriber's wireless phone.
"We believe individuals will want Tegic's instant messaging application on their wireless phones and mobile devices for the same
reasons they want it on their PCs," said Bob Hart, President and CEO of Tegic Communications. "It's fun, immediate, unobtrusive,
and with the extension of this service to mobile phones, instant messaging now fits in your pocket."
The need for doing instant messaging is profound. Often, a simple one- or two-word comment is required in daily correspondence.
"On my way," "Yes," "No," and "Call me" are short phrases which can easily be selected from a list included on mobile phones,
pagers or palmtops, or via numeric keypad using Tegic's T9. In the future, as voice recognition and text-to-speech technology
improves, instant messaging will be seamlessly integrated with voice messaging, leading to an exponential growth of users.
Mobile Insights believes that instant messaging will become a key element of unified messaging. Businesspeople today may have a
business phone and home phone number with voice mail, several email accounts, mobile phone, fax number and now an instant
messaging number. Several companies are working to bring some or potentially all of these numbers together. In an upcoming
MobileTrax report entitled "Messaging in the New Millennium," Mobile Insights provides an in-depth analysis of the future of instant
messaging and unified messaging markets. For more information about MobileTrax, visit the company's web site at
www.mobileinsights.com.
About Mobile Insights
Mobile Insights is the world's leading authority on mobile computing and data communications. Established in September 1994, the
company provides professional services to vendors of hardware, software, and services in the mobile computing and data
communications industry. In addition to market analysis, consulting, and publishing, Mobile Insights' service brands include: Mobile
Letter, anelectronic newsletter that provides reviews of new products and offers industry insights; MobileTrax Online, a syndicated
continuous Internet information subscription service publishing 50+ reports annually; the Mobility Awards, which are given annually
to top products and services in 27 categories; Go Mobile, a new conference for leading Information Technology decision-makers;
and the flagship Mobile Insights conference, an annual conference that brings together 400 to 500 of the mobile industry's key
vendor executives. Mobile Insights' clients include 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), AMD (NYSE:AMD), Compaq (Nasdaq:CPQ), Dell
(Nasdaq:DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Qualcomm
(Nasdaq:QCOM), Toshiba, and more.
For more information on Mobile Insights and its services, visit the company's Web site at www.mobileinsights.com.
Note to Editors: Brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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