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NewMedia
July 23, 2001
From rented Time Square offices to the Arizona desert, a multitude of developers are working on ways to bridge the mobile instant messaging (IM) gap. With 90% of all persons online predicted to use instant messaging by 2004, the goal of interoperability between IM services in the wireless world is made all the more urgent.
IM has moved from being seen as simply teenagers chatting to a legitimate corporate communications tool. Over 180 million corporate employees will use instant messaging by 2004, according to IDC. Analysts see IM replacing much of todays business E-mail and phone usage. When Microsofts MSN instant messaging network went down for several days recently, hardest hit were businesses using IM to coordinate projects and keep in touch with far-flung employees.
The AOL Roadblock
Since the inception of instant messaging in 1996, the three major IM networks — AOL-Time Warner, Microsoft and Yahoo — have competed for a market growing faster than online shopping or investing. AOL has kept its IM lead by throwing up roadblocks to third-party applications accessing the companys popular AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) and ICQ chatting networks.
Analysts see that lead evaporating once AOL must share its networks as part of the government approval of its merger with Time Warner. There are a growing number of developers providing IM solutions to PC, phone, and wireless users.
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