IMS Handsets

I came across Dean Bubley's "Disruptive Wireless" blog today. In a recent entry, he argues that lack of handsets may slow IMS adoption. I'll admit infrastructure solutions get the bulk of my attention. Judging from his "Google search terms" exercise, I'm not alone.

He further argues that standards organizations have focused on enabling technologies, but have failed to adequately define applications and services.

Now try & find anywhere that says how these phones should actually work in the hands of the user. How does the "IMS client framework" work with all the other applications on the phone? What are the standards for the user interface - telling the other presence user that your videocamera is switched off, or that the phone's in your pocket & you're using a Bluetooth headset? Does the phone need to be multi-tasking capable if you want several IM sessions, video-sharing and a buddy list working simultaneously? While listening to the MP3 player too? How should it behave differently if it's got WiFi in it? Should the applications be "bearer aware"? - Dean Bubley, May 2006

I'd have to disagree with him here. It's true that nobody defines how IMS phones should work or whether they should support multitasking, and that's as it should be. Standards should foster interoperability. They shouldn't promote uniformity of user experience. Innovative developers will differentiate themselves through their user interfaces and software architectures. Consider the iPod or Blackberry as an example of the former, and the Symbian OS as an example of the latter. Each of them set itself apart from a sea of otherwise commodity devices. The industry doesn't need standards to tell it how to integrate presence into their applications' user interfaces. Some applications will do it well and will prosper, others won't and will fail. We'll all benefit from the competitive process.

At any rate, Dean's blog has good stuff. I'll be checking it out from now on.


Categories: IMS, handset