Unified Communications and ICT integration

How do you explain the tremendous hype and true excitement about the iPhone? It is not a particularly revolutionary device in that its features all already existed in various places. It's key is integration - simplifying and streamlining the complexity of communications today. People are willing to pay for any device that does this well. Imagine a device you could wear that would serve as an accessory when not needed and morph into a phone, camera or other device form when needed. This sort of device is being developed now in research labs (Here's the video.). This unification of communications as a goal of cell phone providers sets up the broader topic of unified messaging.

Unified messaging is a hot topic right now. It promises integration of telephone, email, and various other ICTs into one interface with unified search, storage, and topic cataloging of content. The iPhone has captured some of the excitement around unified messaging through its visual voicemail feature that will unify the email and voicemail message streams. Additional release of enterprise level integration expect this June will further enable this device to capture all the needs of current users.  As a result, we are seeing increased business usage of Apple computers too!

Imagine for a moment the future users of the iPhone.  What will the ability to know the-axis motion and global location and other sensory data bring to the device?  Intel promises major new developments.  See this article for some ideas. 

Perhaps SMS will be unified with that interface too. People are hungry for ICT simplification,as the enormous popularity of the iPhone attests. And, we can expect this challenging area with be the focus of much research and investment over the next decade. By the way, this version of this post was edited on an iPhone. Speaking of iPhones and new technology enabling unified communications, consider this: there are huge amounts of resources being devoted to data center design and operation. Here is a nice pictorial tour of a data center if you have never seen one. It is basically a location in which one or more buildings and a lot of electricity are dedicated to running a bunch of computers that run the operations of the Internet.

Interesting sources on this topic:

• Popular Mechanics article on why the iPhone is generating so much excitement.
• IT edge article on popularity of unified communications.
• Engineering specifications and guidelines.
• Major Players and Their Efforts
  1. Microsoft Communication Server
  2. Cisco Unity
  3. IBM Domino
  4. Oracle Collaboration Suite
  5. Zimbra - an open source option

Other resources:

• video: "Experts Weigh In: The Compelling Business Case for Unified Messaging"
• video: "The Unified Messaging Waters: What you need to know before you dive in"
• video: "Myth Buster: Unified Messaging Requires Out with the Old and in with the New"