To see or not to see, that's the question

I've bumped into many people that are divided in two camps:
- Video call: who needs it?
- Video call: a major addition in telecommunication.

I belong to the second category, and here's why:
- sales of webcam in Holland are higher than computer mice. The only reason is MSN, and therefore people want to see live video
- youtube: 65000 uploaded videos cannot be wrong; people want to share
- A recent trial we did with an operator of our Communicator mobile client showed that teenagers' first question was, Where is the video call button.
- Technically it is possible: whether circuit switched or IP, video on handsets is here.

Of course I don't expect anyone above 30 years old to start using Video calls, not even in the enterprise. Video simply adds a nice personal touch to the conversation. Mobile video will be used to:
- person to person to enrich calls and add a personal tuoch
- see-what-I-see: instant "push-to-Video": look at the BMW driving by

I personally do not see too much value in Group video calls outside the enterprise, as not too many people use it on MSN on the Internet, which means there is less demand for this.

The power of a simple user experience across devices

I was giving some pretty important presentation today to a mobile operator on the importance of a clear and smart strategy on IMS clients and why the user experience will determine a successful rollout. It appeared to me I kept on repeating myself using the same arguments which I strongly believe in personally (ie this might not be be the same opinion as my employer):
1- The easier the client and user experience, the more the user communicates
2-The more end-points available to the user, the more he can and will communicate
3-The more rich the user experience, the more satisfied the user, the more he will communicate

In short, the more he communicates, the more bills are sent by the operator. If you think there are even more important drivers, let me know.

Islands of end user services

In the last couple of months, I've been asked several times by operators on their launch strategy for IP Communications services. The main question is whether they launch services in "silos" or "islands of technology" (ie Video Sharing only or IM only) or whether they should launch integrated services (so an all-in-one client for all sorts of communication).

My personal opinion is that the user should have access to an integrated client. From one of our user experience studies it is clearly shown that one of the key dissatisfaction points of mobile messaging is that SMS and MMS and Email are all handled using different applications on a mobile device. Add to this the different call, video call and other applications, and a user needs to navigate through different applications on the device. As a PC user I have the same frustration that even prevents me sometimes from checking my emails, as I do not want to open different applications to check my email (browser, MSN, Email client).

As an end user I want to have an integrated end user experience, and not by opening different applications on a PC or Mobile. I understand the issues an operator could have by providing all the backend functionality, but think about how powerful it would be to have Voice, Video, and messaging all from one client.

Back to my all-time favorite: the easier it is for an end user, the more he will use it!