Mobile Europe: Keith Gibson, CEO, Colibria (pictured). At February's Mobile World Congress there seemed to be a general view amongst the instant messaging providers that mobile instant messaging is too limiting a term to describe the functionality that Presence technology can now bring to the mobile user experience. Would you agree, and how has that vision of Presence-enabled service expansion evolved to date?
KeIth Gibson: I absolutely agree. The traditional perception of mobile instant messaging (MIM) is as a mobile version of PC-based instant messaging, but this a red herring in terms of what MIM and Presence-enabled services can actually do for mobile users.
MIM provides operators and service providers with one of the largest fundamental business model and service opportunities since the millennium. It is in line with how social communication has evolved with technology as consumers now demand not only the delivery of spontaneous and engaging group-based dialogue, but also enhanced functionality and usability of existing mobile applications and services. Combined with Presence (a status indicator which shows the user the availability, context and location of all contacts) it will unleash a new wave of innovative and compelling applications and services. Furthermore, it will serve as a catalyst to the development of mobile communities and could enable mobile social networking to eclipse the success of online social networking.
Dramatic growth in digital multimedia, user-generated content and group-based networking is driving a surge in interactive communication across a variety of new contexts – effectively giving mobile users more reasons to communicate. This is creating a new growth phase for the mobile industry that we've highlighted as part of our 'Contextual Messaging' model. By combining MIM and Presence-enabled services with a variety of new and existing applications, Contextual Messaging enables the telecoms industry to serve, fuel and support the consumer demand for greater levels of interactivity and personal expression.
Operators too now realise that MIM isn't simply another medium of communication, but is an enabling service building block. When the spontaneous group-based nature of this messaging medium is placed in the wider context of feature-rich applications and services, the pervasiveness of the mobile handset and the power that Presence provides to mobile users, it is easy to see how it will create a fundamental step change in the services delivered to consumers.
ME: How do you envisage MIM and Presence being combined with other applications to enrich the user experience? Are there any good examples of where this has happened?
KG: To fully understand the potential of MIM and Presence, you have to consider the technology in the wider context of services and applications. Certainly, an obvious application is mobile social networking but other applications, such as chat and dating, also lend themselves perfectly to MIM. If you consider that 60% of our day-to-day communication is conversation based within small groups, then it makes perfect sense that MIM enablers can create compelling new services, as well as enhance existing services such as portal-based offerings.
The meteoric rise of Facebook has shown the appetite amongst consumers to communicate their Presence information. It is no wonder that everyone wants to be a part of a market that Informa believes could be worth $52bn by 2012.
We predict that Presence will play a huge role in enhancing how and why we communicate across mobile and PC domains today, as it provides a stimulus to communicate. The culmination of Presence on the handset will be through the address book, which is being helped along by new initiatives such as the Rich Communications Suite (RCS) initiative. Presence should, and we believe will, become a standard enhancement to mobile communication.
This will transform both the user experience and messaging as we know them today, as mobile users will have visibility of much richer status information, such as availability and location.
Imagine being able to see, with a glance at the handset's idle screen, which of your friends are closest to you and are available for coffee. Furthermore, you could instantly message all of the likely coffee drinking buddies at once, including a picture and geotag of a coffee house that has been recommended by a friend. In a sense, this kind of service blurs the boundaries between the virtual world of online social networking and the real world of actually meeting your friends.
ME: Is it becoming apparent that most MIM will take place not within a dedicated IM application, but as part of chat and discussion around, say, video and TV viewing, or social networking sites, or other areas of mobile social interaction?
KG: MIM is not simply about messaging, but about bringing users, or groups of users, together in a variety of new contexts. Experiences shared are more enjoyable and entertaining than those experienced alone. We therefore believe MIM will add significant value to a whole host of data services that will extend across devices and services; these could be TV and gaming for example. We also believe that MIM will drive the emergence of strong mobile communities and tribes by enabling users to connect and share experiences with those with similar tastes and interests in a way that hasn't been possible before. As well as enhancing existing services, such as dating, communities will by definition act as a catalyst for tighter social entities and higher levels of connectedness.
Enriched with Presence, MIM will evolve the way consumers see mobile communities – it is an enabling service that will surpass any preconceptions based on experiences with traditional Internet IM services.
ME: Operators and their suppliers and partners now talk in terms of subscriber or customer-led experiences – giving users the ability to control their own experiences, profiles and online identities. Do you think the tools are now in place to genuinely support this model, or are operators still hesitant to let go of the reins entirely?
KG: Traditionally, subscribers have had very little control over the way they are contacted – aside from having their mobile switched on or off. However, Presence puts the power back into the hands of the subscriber by giving them the ability to manage how, when and in what context they are contactable. Imagine, for example, being able to control your mobile identity so that you become unavailable to your friends when at work, or unavailable to your work colleagues when at home. This helps control your identity in different situations and contexts. If you start to add in new generation IP capabilities you can start to show identity and availability across different devices and also route communication to the device and in the best format to suit the situation.
Communication shouldn't be all or nothing – it should be flexible according to the context you're in and your ability to communicate. By providing the flexibility for customers to control their experiences and identities, operators will earn greater loyalty and build stronger ties with their subscribers. However, as a word of warning, the services still need to be simple for the subscriber to use and interact with.
ME: Do you think the current discussions about Contextual Messaging, Presence-enabled ID management, Messaging 2.0, etc are running some way ahead of the reality of most operator MIM implementations, which to date have been mainly about hooking up existing desktop based communities to mobile usage?
KG: I would say that there has been significant investment by operators – not just in hooking up with existing desktop based services but also in launching their own services. As a global vendor we have been deploying both types of service for operators – for example, with TMN, MTN, Maxis and TeliaSonera. Operators now understand the potential of MIM and Presence – those first steps taken in launching an operator MIM service or Internet IM Gateway service are part of the evolution towards a new growth phase for the messaging market. Last year we were involved in the launch of many operator-owned services as well as the interconnection of those services – so subscribers can share Presence information and communicate via MIM across networks, which is a key indication that the momentum for MIM is starting to snowball.
One of the most interesting deployments we've been involved in is the launch of MTN's 'noknok' service in South Africa – where the market for MIM is relatively advanced. Low PC and broadband penetration has spurred on the development of third party services and operators are now competing with compelling applications, which combine MIM with Presence information. These are real examples of how the evolution of messaging is creating a new mobile experience. This is only the beginning however and, while new IP based IM technologies based around SIP are also opening up the opportunity to evolve service and infrastructure models, it should not be ignored that the new services must also have the ability to interwork with existing messaging services such as MMS and SMS.
ME: What has happened to the GSMA's PIM initiative? Are operators still following a two-tier strategy, building their own IM-enabled communities as well as providing gateway access to existing IM communities? Or have other priorities such as enabling social networking communities for mobile taken over?
KG: I spent some time with the GSMA at Mobile World Congress and know that the PIM initiative continues to build momentum and is well supported within the mobile operator community. There are now 31 operators with live PIM services in 15 countries – and 50% of these operators have launched their service in the last six months. A further 50 operators worldwide are considering launching PIM services and the GSMA expects to see a significant growth in the number of commercial launches in 2008.
We believe that some operators will continue to follow a two-tier strategy, especially in markets where large PC-based IM communities already exist. However, in 2008, we expect to see an increasing emphasis amongst operators on the promotion of their own IM services and the development of interoperability between these services. Operators are looking to fully leverage their existing mobile messaging communities and their unique capabilities to offer new and richer person-to-person communication services.
Many operators recognise the synergies between social networking and messaging services and see these as a key opportunity to offer consumers compelling new services based around own-branded IM services, especially in the youth market. As a result, I know that the GSMA expects to see MIM services worldwide evolve even further as operators exploit the functionality and capabilities of IP-based networks, enabling richer mobile Presence features and integration with other multimedia services.
ME: What is the actual state of play regarding interoperability between communities? Is it in fact necessary to provide interoperability between different communities?
KG: Interoperability is key. History has taught the industry that those services that can interconnect and interoperate succeed and those that don't have limited success or even fail. Adoption of MIM and Presence, as well as the services and applications they enhance, will be dependent on complete interoperability; not just between different messaging services within an individual operator, but also between different mobile devices and, more importantly, between different mobile networks. Operator interconnect solutions are a key focus for us as we see these as pivotal to the success of MIM – we've already been involved in a number of interconnects including interconnecting the major operators in Malaysia.
The ability to manage traffic effectively, not just for messaging but also other new generation IP based services, will also become increasingly important in this era of converged communications. This includes interoperability between mobile services and fixed line, cable and IMS environments. For IM to be introduced beyond traditional devices such as mobile phones or PCs and become a key enabler of other mainstream services such as IPTV, new generation management infrastructure, sometimes referred to as hubs, will become increasingly important. This is an area where Colibria is investing focus and resources.
ME: Is it necessary for operators to have a dedicated "next generation" messaging strategy in terms of its marketing to users? Some operators have used SMS2.0 or SMS+ for example in branding IM-type services. Or is it enough to provide the functionality and underlying technical support, and let the users decide how to use it?
KG: It is key that operators invest in a next generation messaging strategy and I believe that most are. Look, there are several important factors here; SMS is in a 'cash cow' phase in many markets, that is, it is generating revenue but is mature and will not deliver the growth needed in years to come. Messaging is a core service building block for an operator's business and so having a strategy that fully takes advantage of the potential for MIM and Presence is crucial while also planning for, and investing in, new IP-enabled services based around protocols such as SIP is key to truly enable convergence across services and devices.
The marketing and positioning approach of operators for new messaging services such as MIM very much depends on local country conditions, the market habits and demographics of consumers. Many of the first services embraced the SMS evolution concept and it is important to proactively market a new service to the right target market, such as the youth segment. It is also important to support network marketing approaches, such as 'bring a buddy' campaigns for example, and we will see new approaches and new models emerge as the market enters this new growth phase. The key is to invest in marketing, especially at a growth phase within a market, and also drive the tighter integration of functionality into the handset to ensure service functionality becomes convenient and easy to use. It is also important that new services interact with existing services, such as SMS and MMS. Interworking plays a significant role in any MIM service launch and is something Colibria always recommends and can enable.
ME: Is there still a worry that SMS revenues will be impacted by the above approach? Or do operators now realise that they can't afford not to play in this space?
KG: We've moved beyond the cannibalization argument now. We're being approached by operators worldwide that understand the potential for revenue generation and service differentiation, and are now looking to deploy MIM services. Furthermore, as innovative third party services emerge, the creation of MIM services will be crucial for ensuring control of key service elements such as an operator's business model, marketing, user experience and ultimate service development while strengthening their market position. SMS growth is now beginning to plateau as part of its natural market lifecycle, not as a result of MIM.
ME: What are your thoughts about Presence enabling VoIP – could it be that the technology being mobile IM as we know it, in fact gives operators a stake in retaining VoIP traffic, rather than losing minutes to third party clients?
KG: Presence could certainly be a key differentiator for operator owned VoIP services. Those operators with mobile and fixed assets have a great opportunity to launch Presence enabled VoIP services and offer a truly converged service that can be supported across multiple device types and bundled with other types of service, most obviously MIM.
We're currently working with mobilkom austria group (MAG) to Presence-enable some of their existing services, including VoIP. This is one of the world's first commercial next generation Presence-based service deployments.
ME: What are the implications of the RCS initiative announced at MWC for the evolution of mobile messaging and the industry?
KG: The RCS initiative is good news for the industry and is something Colibria is involved in. It has a great deal of synergy with our own product enablers that have new generation SIP IM and Presence as key to driving new address book and messaging models. Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung all recognise that rich communication services such as IM, content sharing and, most importantly, the address book will create a new mobile experience for the user. We believe the initiative will be a major driving force behind the adoption of MIM and Presence.
ME: What is the opportunity and role for SIP based IM and Presence and does it have to be deployed in an IMS environment?
KG: Having been driven by the OMA, a body we continue to support, standards for SIP IM and SIP Presence are now mature. The opportunity that SIP enablers provide is the ability to remove the walls between telecom services and add the capability to share data, such as contact information and service information, so that new service bundles can be created and uniformly accessed across different devices and mechanisms.
Many believe that convergence is only possible within IMS topologies, however convergence can be implemented as part of any SIP based network. The flexibility of Colibria's solution portfolio enables operators to implement SIP IM solutions together within their traditional networks, as well as an IMS, as an evolutionary step.
ME: And to drive mass market take-up within these new service environments, how do you think the user experience needs to evolve?
KG: In order to drive mass market take-up of MIM services, operators must deliver a compelling user experience and make all of the complexities invisible. It is vital that MIM services appear as an integral part of the mobile handset menu, to make the first-time use for the user as easy and as intuitive as possible, and that today's clients are compelling and come packed with strong features – incorporating group and buddy lists, typing alerts and photo sharing capabilities for example.
Address book integration will ultimately provide the familiarity of SMS tools and we believe that this will represent a further evolutionary step in the market for interactive communication.
The bottom line is that the messaging market must adapt in order to satisfy consumers and drive service revenue growth. The opportunity is there and it is now time to grab it.