The Features are coming, the Features are coming
In mid 2005, In Stat conducted a research study to grasp what people really wanted out of their phones. After chatting with cell phone users and some of the first everyday folks to truly embrace VoIP technology, the researchers put together a "big trend" outlook for 2005 to 2010:
* 42% of the respondents were very or extremely interested in voice activation for their wireless phones.
* More than 4 in 10 were very or extremely interested in buying a wireless phone with built-in Wi-Fi for voice and data.
* Just 12% had an interest in buying a wireless phone capable of receiving TV broadcasts
In Stat also discovered that:
"...end-users think about...location-based services, phones that act as your wallet for mobile payments..."Well, we've already started to see some of these predictions come to fruition. Voice activation and speak to dial, while not available everywhere, have become features on some cells and VoIP services, and watching TV on your iPod has clearly begun the on-demand television in your pocket- in the car-on a plane-etc. revolution. But what else is out there? What else are people looking for in a phone? You can already use it to find love, escape a bad date, and get sports scores, so what does the future hold? Ken Camp knows what he's looking for:
"Want to win my business in the next generation? Based on the plethora of phone calls I got yesterday, give me Caller IQ. I'll pay for that!"
Others just want VoIP to change the way we play video games against our friends across the country and the way we shoot videos here at home:
“‘The next generation of MMO and persistently casual games invite new methods of communication between players and the worlds they inhabit. We have enabled 3D positional voice communication in our platform to further extend the options for our Developers." (From Videogame Net)
A little green puppet once said:
"Difficult to see. Always in motion the future is."
He's right, of course. But as VoIP continues to grow, it's clear that its newest features will reach into virtually every area of entertainment and affect the way people do business. Now, if we could just get a phone that enables you to get paid twice as much for doing half the work, we'd really be onto something.