IM's New Calling
How the marriage of instant messenger services and traditional phone networks will change the telecom universe-and simplify our lives. — Dec. 7, 2005 - A colleague had an interesting question last week. Her family is already overloaded with media and communications service plans.
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo’s addition of Skype-like calling to Messenger puts the telecom-facing piece of IM into consumer software, while the proposed Microsoft–Yahoo IM interconnection addresses the separate problem of fragmented buddy lists. Together, those moves make IM providers more relevant to households already managing multiple communications services.
The significance is not chat alone: the services are beginning to combine contact presence, messaging and calling in a single interface, putting the user relationship at the center of communications choice.
First-order effects
- Yahoo Messenger users gain a single client for IM and Skype-like calling, reducing the need to treat internet messaging and voice as wholly separate services.
- Microsoft and Yahoo’s planned network link makes each company’s IM service more useful to users whose contacts are split between the two networks.
Second-order effects
- Traditional phone providers face a more direct challenge for everyday calling attention as Yahoo and other IM clients place voice features beside contact lists and presence information.
- Interoperability shifts competition between Microsoft and Yahoo away from the size of an isolated IM network and toward calling features and the overall service experience.
Third-order effects
- If IM clients continue to absorb voice functions and connect across networks, communications services may consolidate around software interfaces rather than separate voice and messaging products.
- The emerging pressure point for carriers is whether they retain the primary customer interface or become the network underneath IM-led communication services.
The trend: Instant messaging is evolving from a standalone chat product into a unified communications layer, with interoperability and internet calling weakening the boundaries between software and telecom services.