Convergence is the name of the game

Each player in the mobile space has a different perspective. Carriers want to make money off of the services they offer, advertisers want to reach consumers directly and cost-effectively, third-party developers want to see mass adoption of applications or new services, and device makers want mass adoption of the handsets they deliver.

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In the middle is the consumer, interacting daily with the device, the service provided on the device through the carrier, the applications and add-ons from third-parties, and the content delivered by advertisers and marketers. In addition, the consumer interacts with friends, family and co-workers through their devices, and is limited or freed not only by what their own devices allow, but by what their contacts’ devices can do. (Just think about all the MMS messages you’ve tried to send friends who had iPhones, until recently of course).

Because of the variety of platforms and services, consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated by the multi-channel messaging they manage every day, and are looking increasingly toward simplifying this process. Convergence has become the latest idea to take hold, and many providers are taking note. GoogleVoice launched and will transcribe voicemails into e-mails and send to the user. It will also forward SMS to e-mail and allow users to reply from e-mail.

E-mail marketing can be reformatted for SMS, IMs can be sent via SMS and vice versa, and IMs can be sent on mobile phones, circumventing the SMS process all together. In theory, convergence will simplify communication, but in practice, so far, it can be more of a complication than a solution.

In an interesting article this week in ClickZ, an e-mail marketing expert talks about what he sees as the future of messaging, and this indicates the direction convergence will need to go in, in order to be effective:

“The answer lies in providing a single platform that enables real-time, interactive digital messaging across multi-channels with the ability to dynamically and seamlessly morph messages from one channel to another. In short, the industry needs a messaging platform that can mimic how consumers actually communicate today, can accommodate their channel preferences, and enables marketers to manage the flow of communications.

When you think about it, we’re entering an era where it’s not about what happens in just one channel. It’s about what happens in all channels. We need to be thinking in terms of communications being initiated in one channel and consummated in another. The future will be about managing the flow of multiple communications across multiple channels — all in real-time.”

In short, convergence will be a huge part of the future of mobile and online communication. The question is, how can we encourage convergence while meeting the needs of the disparate players in the industry and creating a flow of communications that works across widely different platforms and services?

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• Chris Brassington: Text Heard ‘Round the World: Marketers Embrace Mobile Messaging (huffingtonpost.com)