Monday, January 16, 2012

Innovation Applied to Existing Technologies

It rains a lot in Oregon so wipers are pretty much a necessity. Watching them go back and forth one afternoon got me to thinking, “I wonder how many cars are made today that do not have intermittent wipers?” I suspect that the answer is very few if any. Were Low – Medium – High not sufficient? Certainly better than On/Off as an option. How many of you would trade in your intermittent wipers for a “standard version with 3 speed settings? Yeah, me too. I like my variable speed option.

I am certain that there are a great many other examples of “industry standards” that were vastly improved and became the new “standard” in an industry. I bring this up as this is the situation with text messaging.

Text messaging continues to experience explosive growth in spite of the rhetoric of industry pundits that suggest it is “old fashioned” and “out of date” technology. Tell that to the growing base of consumers who are increasingly dependent upon text messaging as a primary communication means. The automobile industry shot down the idea of intermittent wipers for a variety of reasons including claims of consumers being “very happy” with their Low/Medium/High wipers. Surprisingly, the carriers and handset vendors today are saying the same thing about text messaging with a Reply-All option – “the consumers are very happy with the current technology and we do not see any need to improve things.”

To be fair, I have had some conversations with technologists who claim that the plethora of web-based group text services are the way of the future. I point out that such claims were made of the instant messaging world and look where that industry is now.

What is really encouraging is that of all the consumers to whom I have introduced the concept of Reply-All text messaging, not a one has told me they did not want it on their phone. Most said that were it available to them, they would seriously consider changing phones. Seems maybe the idea is too obvious to be valuable to the vendor community?

Smashtalk is the patent-pending technology that has the capability of providing every mobile phone user with the capability of enjoying text messaging with a Reply-All option while maintaining full backward compatibility with existing text messaging technology and infrastructure. Smashtalk is running today on PCs and Macs and is suitable for inclusion in any mobile handset.

I’d like your ideas about how to awaken the handset vendors and carriers alike to the modern day version of intermittent wipers; Smashtalk. How much more useful would text messaging be to you were you able to hold actual multi-party conversations via text messaging. The technology exists. Those who can put this technology in your hands don’t think it’s an innovation that is wanted by the consumer. I think they are wrong. I am hoping you agree.

If you would like to have the Reply-All option on your phone, I ask that you do something each time you send a text message and think, “I wish I had a Reply-All option right now.” I ask that you tweet the following:

I want Smashtalk so I can have the Reply-All option for my text msgs . #ATT #Verizon #WindowsPhone #Android #Motorola #Smashtalk

Thanks for your help in awakening the mobile industry.

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