Comverse, the supplier of value-added software services to cellular operations, has announced preliminary research results that reveal a strong market desire to use new InSight-powered Total Communication and infotainment services.
InSight`s open environment integrating voice and data makes possible compelling new best-of-breed applications and services from both Comverse and other developers for next-generation users in 2.5 and 3G networks.
Comverse employed end-user market research to determine how best to create services that attain maximum mass-market attractiveness. Conducted by MORPACE International, the current research, still under way, was conducted in Germany, the UK, the US and Taiwan. After experiencing demos, study participants responded to surveys designed to measure interest in using these services. Key initial findings from Europe show that new InSight-powered services have strong consumer appeal.
InSight features incorporate many new services. The four services experienced by the test groups were:
* Multimedia Mobile E-mail: Handles a spectrum of e-mail messages and attachments, including correspondence, Microsoft WordT documents, PowerPointT presentations, and video and audio files from a PC-like inbox with familiar colourful icons.
* Record and Send: Users send voice messages directly to any person or group (whether or not they are voicemail subscribers) without interrupting them or causing their phones to ring. Record and Send notifies the called party of the new message, which can be accessed directly, through a single button.
* Visual Voicemail: Colourful information-rich visual inbox screens transform voicemail into an attractive, intuitive e-mail-like experience with easy message management.
* Voicemail Infotainment: High-quality audio infotainment messages - with interactive capability - from desired community, infotainment and direct marketing content providers.
Preliminary results of the global market research from Germany and the UK demonstrate a compelling market case for the new InSight-powered services. The research results indicate that:
* 89% of German respondents and 83% of their UK counterparts are "interested" or "very interested" in using the Multimedia E-mail service in the near future.
* 89% of German respondents and 95% of their UK counterparts regard themselves as potential regular users of Record and Send direct voice messages. More than 20% of the interested respondents envision themselves as regular users, predicting they will use the service "more than five times a week".
* 80% of German respondents and 81% of their UK counterparts are "interested" or "very interested" in using Visual Voicemail. Specifically cited anticipated benefits include the ease of using a visual interface, the ability to listen to and manage messages in any chosen order and single-keypress "reply" and "forward" functionality.
* 53% of German respondents and 67% of their UK counterparts are "interested" or "very interested" in receiving Voicemail Infotainment messages in the near future, either as pay-per-use or as an advertisement-sponsored free service.
Explained Benny Einhorn, chief marketing officer of Comverse: "There is an apparent market demand around the world for a richer experience that improves people`s everyday lives and takes full advantage of voice and data technology advancements, as well as new handsets, in a user-friendly way. These results confirm that subscribers are eager for attractive new enhanced services and are prepared to pay for a wide range of benefits. It is Comverse`s goal to apply the knowledge gained in this research to ensure that subscribers and operators attain maximum benefit from the many capabilities now at hand."
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Comverse InSight next-generation environment is based on a modular, standards-based, open IP architecture that integrates data network and smart handset capabilities. Core components, including the multimedia message store, address book, subscriber profile database, and media and presence servers, synergistically serve all applications.
InSight`s enhanced multimodal user experience, which is cohesive across voice and data services, is focused on an attractive single point of access to all types of messages and personal files, creating a dynamic open environment for new and exciting Total Communication and infotainment services from Comverse and third-parties - person-to-person as well as application-to-person - for communities, groups and individuals.