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To: Win-Lose-Draw who wrote (8845)	1/16/2001 9:13:24 AM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 34857

re: MP3 Messaging >> Now Hear This! MP3 Messaging By Deborah Méndez-Wilson Monday, January 15, 2001 Wireless Week MP3 and wireless seem to be making beautiful music together these days. Several MP3-enabled mobile devices have hit the market in the past few months, including the Samsung Uproar, a wireless phone with a built-in MP3 player. Now a San Francisco startup wants to sell Americans on the idea of MP3 e-mailing. TrekMail Inc.'s solution allows users to dictate e-mail from any landline or wireless phone. The company calls the solution a phone-to-e-mail gateway. Messages are converted to MP3 files and are sent to the recipient's e-mail box to be heard instead of read. The free server-based solution is among a slew of messaging solutions that have hit the wireless market recently. There are speech-to-text and text-to-speech solutions. One solution translates e-mail from English to Spanish. Yet another lets users dictate e-mail messages to a live operator. Developers say the idea is to give end-users a variety of ways to send e-mail, considered by many to be the killer app of the emerging wireless Internet. TrekMail founder and chief technology officer Brian McConnell says it's also about making it easier for wireless phone users to send e-mail without tapping out words letter by letter on their keypads. "This solves a fundamental design issue. Most [wireless phones] don't have keyboards. This allows users to send e-mail by using their own voice," he says. But, as with most new applications, a few questions remain: Will end-users embrace speech-enabled e-mail as another option? And, how will such solutions compete against short-text messaging and e-mail via pure-data wireless messaging devices? After all, messaging providers have a lot riding on the idea that consumers will adopt pure-data wireless devices with Qwerty keyboards to send fast, robust e-mail messages. If the experts are right, there's a lot to be said for wireless e-mailing. Demand for wireless access to e-mail is expected to explode over the next few years. The industry trade group CTIA says that 79 percent of wireless subscribers polled last fall indicated a preference for wireless e-mail access. Sixty-six percent preferred Internet access and the ability to send and receive text messages. For users who don't have immediate access to a wireless laptop, Internet-ready phone or a two-way messaging device, a quick "voice e-mail" from a garden-variety landline or mobile phone can provide at least one solution. In fact, speech-driven applications are expected to play a pivotal role in the emerging wireless Internet. Allied Business Intelligence Inc., the Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based technology research firm, says advanced speech/voice systems will provide features and applications that address "a plethora of new industries and markets." If McConnell has his way, wireless users will demand wireless voice e-mail, too. Such applications already are offered by dot-coms specializing in unified messaging, with the idea of having one mailbox for e-mail, faxes and voicemail. Competitors in that space include OneBox, TelePost and ThinkLink. TrekMail claims to be the first solution for users who want to send an MP3 audio file or voice e-mail over any landline or wireless phone to a recipient's e-mail box. "Look at how wireless data services are being used. E-mail is now and will continue to be the main application for the wireless Web," says McConnell, who hopes to sell his idea to wireless carriers and Internet service providers. For those who wonder why a caller would choose voice e-mail over traditional voice mail, McConnell counters that consumers will be attracted to voice e-mail by its ease of use. "The amount of effort to respond is a lot lower," McConnell contends. People often respond more quickly to e-mail than to voicemail and they may like being able to send a quick response rather than having to call someone back. The system also enables users to send a voice e-mail to 20 people at once with just one spoken message, rather than leaving a message on multiple voice mail boxes. While TrekMail's solution is speech driven, it does not rely on speech-recognition technology. McConnell believes that speech recognition has a few bugs that need to be worked out before it can fulfill its promise. But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for speech-driven e-mailing, he adds. Scott Slater, vice president of corporate development at Commtouch Inc., a provider of outsourced e-mail and messaging solutions for service providers and corporations, says such applications have potential in the world of unified communications. But they won't last unless they are simple to use and allow recipients to quickly reply. "E-mail and wireless are two important technologies. Everybody wants to bring them together in one way or another," he says. McConnell believes speech-driven messaging is user friendly and intuitive and will co-exist alongside text messaging and voice mail. There will be times when users will want to send precise, formal text messages via pure-data devices. But talking can be easier and faster, and recipients can more easily gauge the tone of the e-mail message if they are listening to the person's voice. "And you can walk and talk without bumping into things," McConnell says. Another benefit - you won't get stuck making conversation when all you really intended to do was leave a message. << - Eric -