Handsets may yet be IMS blocker
A lack of defined standards for application performance on handsets could delay the returns operators are hoping for from IMS services, industry analyst Dean Bubley has warned.
Bubley, who carried out a survey of over 300 industry specialists in the area for his company Disruptive Analysis, says that without a defined user interface, or methods of IMS applications interacting with each other and with non-IMS applications, there is a risk SIP enabled devices will step into the breach.
If so, these “naked SIP” handsets risk cornering revenues operators had earmarked as part of their investment case for IMS.
Despite his findings, Bubley said he had encountered “an impressive lack of concern” around the readiness of handsets, as operators have instead expanded their energies on IMS compliant infrastructure and applications development.
“The ways in which these [IMS] applications behave from a user point of view has not been standardised. There is no defined way of creating a push-to-view service, for instance, or a standardised user interface, to ensure interoperability and define how applications will work with non-IMS related applications on the phone,” Bubley said.
“From a useability point of view the implications of IMS are huge and I think have been underestimated.”
Bubley said the industry body dedicated to application performance standardisation,the OMTP, was still “only thinking” about standardising requirements for IMS. “And if they're not doing it, then I assume nobody else is doing it,” he commented.
“Once again, the telecom industry seems to have under-estimated the complexity and time involved in getting the phones right, before investing billions on new infrastructure. Not only that, but the gap is likely to be filled by 'open' or 'naked' SIP-enabled mobile phones, which will enable 3rd-party providers — such as Internet VoIP and IM specialists — to exploit a huge mobile user base with their own on-handset software applications.”
“The evolution of SIP- and IMS-capable mobile handsets”, is available from Disruptive Analysis.
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