INDUSTRY EXPERTS ARGUEP2T'S FUTURE ROLE

Push-to-talk competition has barely started, but already analysts, vendors and carriers are suggesting the so-called killer app may just be the tip of a multimedia iceberg, the rest of which will be revealed if carriers are willing to look below the waterline.

This much became apparent at the Yankee Group's 2003 North American Mobile Messaging Forum last week in Chicago. During a panel debate on how push-to-talk (P2T) will evolve, Yankee Group analyst Adam Guy and speakers from Ericsson, Nextel Communications, fastmobile, Sonim and Comverse posited that the one-button application eventually will be used on all types of mobile devices as a single interface to many messaging and real-time communications apps.

“Will push-to-talk create new markets or simply be used by carriers to carve up existing market share?” Guy said. “We think it could be a bridge to new markets. It could become the uniform way of connecting to multiple modalities and technologies.”

That evolution could fundamentally alter the way users interface with their mobile devices. Instead of using the standard dialpad method, users could use a simpler push-to-connect (P2C) method to initiate multiple handset functions. Guy said carriers can drive this evolution initially by working to competitively differentiate P2T services from market leader Nextel, and with competitive pricing and marketing. Additionally, they should work to enable over-the-air client updates of P2T and P2C applications, and aggressively market devices capable of a single user interface for many applications, he said.

However, the experts on Guy's P2T panel disagreed over the pace and path of this evolution. Harry Eschel, co-founder and vice president of marketing at fastmobile, said the P2C environment is already here. This isn't a surprising view: fastmobile sells P2T, voice instant messaging and other apps downloadable from the Internet to Symbian-powered smartphones. “The P2C services you're talking about are available today in fastchat,” Eschel said, referring to fastmobile's premier application.

Meanwhile, Tal Kuttner, director of enterprise services at messaging technology vendor Comverse, said that evolution will happen much more gradually. “You don't want to overwhelm customers,” Kuttner said. “You have to start with something simpler, but still intuitive, like push-to-talk.”

Presence management, the ability to know when users on a group contact list are on or off the network and whether they're busy or available, is a service seen as extremely useful by some people and invasive by others. Dan Tillet, director of push-to-talk services at Nextel, said he isn't sure presence management is a feature fleet and blue-collar users need right now. “For a construction manager, if you Direct Connect and don't get an answer, you know immediately the other person isn't available. It could be more important for segments of white-collar users.”

Guy said the downside of presence management is the lack of privacy between supervisors and their employees. “Do I want everyone to know where I am all the time?” Guy asked. “Do I want my boss to know where I am when the cops come for me?”

Still, Tim Connolly, director of business development at Ericsson, said presence management will become more important to users as push-to-talk becomes more dominant. He added that P2T standards will provide an important stepping-stone in the evolution to push-to-connect. “We're all working with our own solutions,” Connolly said. “Interoperability is something you need for push-to-connect to become a reality.”