Do you know your voice mail’s full?
A recent article published by the New York Times (Jill Colvin, "You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?", April 1st, 2009) announced the demise of Voice Mail and the rise of new technology and services such as Google Voice's Voice to Text and the iPhone's Visual Voice Mail.
According to the article, most people don't bother to listen to their voice mail messages and that the technology is obsolete.
Interesting article but Colvin's article misses the point: most of the new services she presents as examples of technology that is replacing voice mail are actually an evolution of voice mail technology.
Voice to Text, for example, which is included in Google Voice, is a voice mail message delivery mechanism that allows text transcription of voice mail messages. This means that you have to have a voice mail message to begin with. It is new technology that provides a better user interface to recover voice mail messages, precisely what Colvin points out is missing from voice mail.
Other examples in the article include caller id, which lets subscribers know who called them without having to listen to their voice mail messages. Most people are familiar with this service as provided by their mobile phones, but the voice mail platform provides an enhanced version of this service that covers additional scenarios that the device cannot: out of coverage, phone turned off, no voice mail deposit. The service is missed call alert and sits on top of the voice mail platform. Stand alone platforms are also available but they are integrated to the voice mail service.
Finally, visual voice mail is yet another service that sits on top of voice mail. Visual voice mail delivers voice mail messages to the handset through a mobile application that provides an inbox / e mail like user interface that allows the user to browse through the messages and select the message they want to hear.
The interesting question -and Colvin does address this- is how will mobile operators react to these new technologies? Mobile operators have introduced some of these new technologies including visual voice mail and voice to text but the fact is they have been slow to incorporate them.
Companies such as Comverse, Ericsson and Unisys have had services such as Visual Voice Mail, Voice to Text and Voice Mail to MMS for years but few operators showed serious interest until the iPhone was launched.
Voice Mail may be a mature technology but new technologies are breathing new life into this service that has been for many years the biggest VAS revenue generator for operators. Voice Mail has the potential to continue generating revenue for operators as it continues to evolve and adapt to new technologies: MMS delivery, e mail delivery, visual voice mail, converged messaging, web access, voice to text, missed call notification ... this and other variations can offer solutions for specific call scenarios and improved user interface that meet subscribers' needs.
We will continue to discuss and write about these options as well as the opportunities they represent for operators.
According to the article, most people don't bother to listen to their voice mail messages and that the technology is obsolete.
Interesting article but Colvin's article misses the point: most of the new services she presents as examples of technology that is replacing voice mail are actually an evolution of voice mail technology.
Voice to Text, for example, which is included in Google Voice, is a voice mail message delivery mechanism that allows text transcription of voice mail messages. This means that you have to have a voice mail message to begin with. It is new technology that provides a better user interface to recover voice mail messages, precisely what Colvin points out is missing from voice mail.
Other examples in the article include caller id, which lets subscribers know who called them without having to listen to their voice mail messages. Most people are familiar with this service as provided by their mobile phones, but the voice mail platform provides an enhanced version of this service that covers additional scenarios that the device cannot: out of coverage, phone turned off, no voice mail deposit. The service is missed call alert and sits on top of the voice mail platform. Stand alone platforms are also available but they are integrated to the voice mail service.
Finally, visual voice mail is yet another service that sits on top of voice mail. Visual voice mail delivers voice mail messages to the handset through a mobile application that provides an inbox / e mail like user interface that allows the user to browse through the messages and select the message they want to hear.
The interesting question -and Colvin does address this- is how will mobile operators react to these new technologies? Mobile operators have introduced some of these new technologies including visual voice mail and voice to text but the fact is they have been slow to incorporate them.
Companies such as Comverse, Ericsson and Unisys have had services such as Visual Voice Mail, Voice to Text and Voice Mail to MMS for years but few operators showed serious interest until the iPhone was launched.
Voice Mail may be a mature technology but new technologies are breathing new life into this service that has been for many years the biggest VAS revenue generator for operators. Voice Mail has the potential to continue generating revenue for operators as it continues to evolve and adapt to new technologies: MMS delivery, e mail delivery, visual voice mail, converged messaging, web access, voice to text, missed call notification ... this and other variations can offer solutions for specific call scenarios and improved user interface that meet subscribers' needs.
We will continue to discuss and write about these options as well as the opportunities they represent for operators.
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