Motorola’s IM M.O.

Smart devices need smart applications, and Motorola (www.motorola.com) has introduced a doozy — instant access to the Web via multimedia instant messages (IM) sent to wireless devices.

Motorola has teamed up with communication solution developer Webhelp (www.webhelp.com) to offer consumers and businesses access to the entire Web using IM technology and a Palm OS device.

Instead of boring, simple text messages and attachments, imagine having a search engine in your back pocket, with real-time access to the entire Web, complete with graphics and photos.

“The solution that Motorola and Webhelp are delivering for businesses and individuals delivers the first phase of media-rich messages,” said Craig Peddie, general manager of Motorola’s Lexicus group, which specializes in the design and development of user interface software and input technologies for smart devices. “It will change the way we gather and receive information on wireless devices.”

Motorola’s iSketch compression technology and Webhelp’s mCRM Zero Latency Platform and customer-support capabilities enable interactive, instant responses to queries made via a Palm OS device.

With iSketch technology, users can write or draw requests for information in their own handwriting directly onto their PDA screen using a stylus. Requests are then sent as an instant message to Webhelp, where an online support agent receives the request and responds instantly, sending answers to the device in the form of dynamic multimedia messages.

The ability to direct a question to a human researcher vs. a database or traditional search engine eliminates the need to surf the Web. And if the user’s Palm OS device can support it, iSketch can deliver multimedia messages today that combine Web pages, text, hand-drawn images, annotation, bitmaps or photos, animation and audio dictation, allowing users to receive replies in the format that best answers their inquiry.

Palm-product users can download the Motorola/Webhelp software today by visiting PalmGear (www.palmgear.com) or Handango (www.handango.com). A pocket-PC version will be released later this year, as well as a wireless handset version.

According to Peddie, Motorola is already trialing a demo on its A008 smart phone, currently shipping in Europe and Asia. For this solution, Motorola is combining iSketch with its IM system, allowing users to draw a picture or send a cartoon as an instant message. iSketch compression technology is a critical component for transmitting instant multimedia messages. It can transfer multiple media formats and present them as one complete message at the destination.

Such capabilities will play a starring role in IM’s future. The wireless industry is moving determinedly, if slowly, toward multimedia messaging. And by combining the two, technologies such as iSketch should open up a whole new way of using IM, as well as a new way of communicating wirelessly.

“Up until now, you’ve either had to use voice or a keyboard, but we see touch-screen device becoming much more common in the future,” Peddie said. “People will want to be able to communicate like a Post-It note. The iSketch technology allows you to use that metaphor when you want to talk to someone.”

For example, if you have a digital camera as part of or an accessory to a wireless phone and you are visiting Paris, iSketch allows you to snap a picture of the Eiffel Tower, circle a part of the picture and make a note to a friend: “Here’s where I stood under the Eiffel Tower. Wish you were here.” Then you could send all the elements as a single, instant multimedia message to a friend’s desktop or wireless hand-held device.

This technology will be available by the end of the year, Peddie said, adding that Motorola has upcoming trials with U.S. carriers this year and early 2002, with commercial product availability by mid-2002.

As for carriers, he said, Motorola is trying to provide them with as many 3G-like applications as possible to help them to start generating new revenue streams as they move toward 2.5G and 3G. “IM will grow up to be able to do more than just text,” he said “You could instant message a picture, a voice note, a cartoon … iSketch allows you to capture you own handwriting directly, and compressing it enough to make it economical to send over an RF network makes that kind of communication possible.”