Just because you've invented a communications service people want to use doesn't guarantee success. You need a critical mass of users before any communications service is valuable.
It's interesting to see how this is playing out with the mobile industry's Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). In most markets, there are a dearth of MMS capable (and appropriately configured) handsets and interoperability issues between handsets. So, MMS has been slow to take off.
What's happened? Some enterprising entrepreneurs have launched Voice SMS, an audio messaging service that's taking off because it actually works with any handset, old or new.
If you are interested, an article of mine, Voice SMS—Creating a Service People Will Adopt, has just been published in the NMS Telecom Innovators News.
Thanks for the article and it is very interesting how this has taken off in
Asia. In Australia, Hutchison 3G had a very easy to use voicemail system
whereby I could send a "voice text" to any other H3 user but it gets little
use. I guess being H3 subscribers only limits it. There are also several PC
to mobile phone "voice text" applications and I get the impression that
these are also only very marginal at the moment as well. The ubiquity and
simplicity of Voice SMS seems key to its success. Walter Adamson
www.imodestrategy.com
Posted by: Walter Adamson | February 04, 2007 at 03:17 PM
Thanks for the comment and for pointing me to you iMode strategy newsletter
which I hadn't seen before. (I've just added you to my Bloglines
subscriptions).
Do you have URLs for any of the PC-to-mobile "voice text" applications?
Posted by: brough | February 04, 2007 at 03:19 PM
The voice text - when I checked in detail I was mistaken, my model was www.springdoo.com which I now see does voice to emails which is OK if you get emails on the phone but not the same as "voice SMS".
Posted by: Walter Adamson | February 04, 2007 at 03:26 PM
Just want to mention that Skype provides voicemail service along with SMS, and call forwarding. And most of the Skype phones are MMS compatible.
Posted by: ash_k12007 | February 20, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Thanks. I use Skype, including voice mail. But I have to admit I've never used their mobile forwarding. Still there is one big difference in the user experience of voice mail vs. Voice SMS. With voice mail you call w/o knowing whether you will reach someone live or reach voice mail. With Voice SMS you know you are sending a message, not talking live. Also, at the receving end, you get one click access to your voice message without any of the typical voice mail prompts.
Posted by: brough | February 20, 2007 at 05:40 PM
dear sir,
i visit on your site for
communication.skype have a cheapest & highly qulitative Voice SMS, Network effects & many more as comapair to other sources. please visit on
www.skype.com
regards,
rahul
rahul_gajbhiye@hotmail.com
Posted by: rahul | March 22, 2007 at 03:50 AM
I have used skype for international calls to canada and france.And now I have also started using skype sms by which I can send sms to skype users as well as to other phones which are sms enabled and can even send the same sms to more than one friend at a time...this is the cool features ..skype always comes out with wise,smart features which people really enjoy using..good work skype.
Posted by: deffy | April 28, 2007 at 09:02 AM
I found following comments about voice SMS: "Experimentation and surprise remains the order of the day. Listen more, talk less" trying to explain its success. There are many solutions in the market, EMISARIO for example enable SMS to fixed lines and voice SMS from fixed to mobile or form mobile to mobile services.
Posted by: Marcos Gordillo | July 12, 2007 at 05:25 PM