Blended messaging: straddling the silos

Blended messaging: straddling the silos published by Ovum, Ltd. in March, 2008. This report consists of 26 Pages and the price starts from US $ 2900.

Introduction

Although the range of mobile messaging services available has become richer and more diverse during the 2000s, ‘messaging' is still overwhelmingly dominated by a single, 15-year old service: SMS. Blended messaging refers to platforms and technologies that allow operators to evolve mobile messaging by presenting users with a single environment for all messaging - the handset and network transparently decide which technologies should be used to transport the message, according to its payload and the properties of its destination. We examine what blended messaging means, how it has developed so far, and analyse the pros and cons of blended messaging from the perspective of operators and end-users. We also consider the likely role of blended messaging in the development of mobile messaging during the next few years.

• Key messages
• Various blended messaging solutions, but limited uptake so far
• Blended messaging: what and why?
  • Away from ‘the next big thing' and towards ‘making this big thing bigger'
  • Mobile messaging development: standards and silos
  • Couldn' t this all just be ‘messaging' ?
  • The potential benefits of blended messaging
  • Obstacles to blended messaging
  • End users and blended messaging
• Cross-industry initiatives in blended messaging
• Common concepts, but multiple competing platforms
• Case studies: blended messaging in platform vendors' product ranges
  • 724 Solutions: Seamless Messaging
  • Acision: Intuitive Texting and Converged Messaging
  • Airwide: Mobile Messaging 2.0
  • Comverse: Converged Messaging and Instant SMS
  • Ericsson: Enriched Messaging
  • Openwave: Converged Communications Solution
• Mobile operators' messaging concerns
• Various operator needs to meet
• Mobile operators and blended messaging
  • Blended messaging has achieved limited traction so far
  • SMS maturity has not provided much impetus for blended messaging
  • O2: looking for ways to sustain a leading position in messaging
  • Blended messaging and fixed-mobile convergence

• Figure 1: Mobile messaging takes place in silos
• Figure 2: Mobile messaging silos: some unique strengths and some overlap
• Figure 3: Blended messaging hides the distinction between messaging types
• Figure 4: Growth rates in SMS have been sustained over seven years in the UK

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