Tom makes a brief comment on the nuances of IM and SMS. There are a few good comments, so go read them.
But, if I may extend what Enrique (CEO) mentioned: SMS and IM are similar and different. Much like the other ways we can communicate with a mobile, such as voice, email, MMS, even a posting client, SMS and IM are part of a continuum. Yet, one thing that the mobile desperately needs that that IM has is presence.
I don’t IM since it’s really a PC-based activity and I am not usually at my PC. But, I wish my contacts on my phone had presence information*, information to tell me about the availability and communication preferences of the person I am interested in contacting. Therefore I could choose the best form of communication before I connect. And this presence has to be tied somehow to my profile as well, so that it’s easy for me to change my presence status throughout the day.
We’ve had IM and presence servers for a very long time. I remember pointing out the benefits of presence-savvy phones many years ago. I think the reason IM and presence is not more a part of the mobile network fabric is part multiple proprietary IM systems, multiple players (multiple service providers and phone manufacturers), and maybe a touch of benign ignorance or imagination.
Link: Tom Hume: SMS and IM.
Weirdly, I was chatting to a guy from a VC earlier today about exactly this. I’d never thought of it before, but I suspect usage of SMS and IM are rather different – one seems significantly more synchronous than the other. Can one replace the other – and will users want them to? I can’t exactly see them running side-by-side…?
*Nokia has a few phones with presence-savvy contacts, but I don’t know of anyone who uses it or if anyone in the ‘wild’ actually knows how to set it up.
