Mobile data services — voices in the wilderness

Abstract

Killer applications or services tend to be a combination of inspiration, form, function and a solution to unmet need. The mobile phone and the iPod are obvious examples, but what will be the next killer application and why. Increasingly, convergence will add a new dimension to the quest for such an application. This paper considers that it may just be time for more than voices in the wilderness. IntroductionThere is no doubt that the first 'killer application' in telecommunications was voice, and after more than a hundred years, electronic communication is still dominated by voice.The telecommunications industry flourished by providing a technology-based solution to an unmet user need -the human desire to communicate in real time when physically separated. The industry grew up in a world where the connectivity and the service were implicitly linked -the PSTN telephone conversation.This success of voice was followed by mobility, effectively voice on the move but with a pervasive personal dimension -an individual personal terminal, personal address book, etc.However, there are signs that underpinned by ubiquitous, seamless connectivity (fixed/mobile convergence, etc), technology-based solutions will provide integrated services that will satisfy some additional unmet user needs. Section 2 sets the scene for this paper by considering what a service actually is. Existing trends and some recent history are covered in sections 3 and 4, which then make way for a more detailed look at some rapidly maturing service contenders in sections 5 and 6. Sections 7 and 8 deal with the concept of a service within a converged world, while section 9 fearlessly takes the crystal ball in both hands and identifies the authors' favourite candidate for the killer service. 2.