Videomail: Smile, and talk into the camera when you hear the beep

The race among service providers to be the first to launch 3G in Africa is on. Jaco Botha, technical manager of Comverse (SA) gives an idea of the type of 3G services that will be available.

Already demonstrating significant popularity in the Far East, video calling seems to be well on its way to becoming as commonplace the world over as voice messages.

With 20 commercial 3G networks, at least seven commercial networks, and several dozen video-capable handset models, the telephony world seems to be going video.

Consider some representative figures:

* According to AT Kearney, July 2004, Japan has already reached 64% camera phone penetration. By 2008, according to Gartner, 95% of all mobiles sold in Japan will have cameras.
* Four times more mobiles with cameras were sold in Europe in 2004 than the previous year. Globally, the number sold will reach 159 million in 2004.
* An estimated 28 million camera phones were sold in the US alone in 2004.

The steep global rise in video-capable handset penetration is reflected in the graph below:

Video calls create a need for videomail

Just as voice calls create a solid market for voicemail, video

Just as voice calls create a solid market for voicemail, video calls create a strong market case for videomail.

Videomail is likely to be as successful and as broadly used as voicemail because a larger percentage of calls - voice and video - are not completed. 3G users and operators alike share a keen interest in completing all video calls and triggering more return calls.

Videomail incorporates and builds on the most successful elements from voicemail, SMS and MMS to deliver the best possible user experience: speed, entertainment and ease of use.

When a video call is placed to someone who is not available, the caller sees an outgoing video message (see Figure 2): "As you can see, we can`t talk now, so smile and film us a video message - we`ll get back to you soon."

The caller records a message when prompted.

Outgoing messages can be highly personal and creative. They can be recorded on the handset and incorporate popular musical and humorous pre-recorded content from the operator`s multimedia offering.

The called party is notified when there is new videomail. A simple keypress plays the message directly without time-consuming menus or navigation.

In addition to the option to view the videomail immediately, the called person can also access videomail through the "single" inbox, which coordinates messages of all types (voicemail, videomail, e-mail and fax) as provisioned by the user. The inbox is accessible by PC or handset, has similar appearance and functionality on both units, and facilitates forwarding of the videomail and storage in folders.

In these early days of video telephony, when video handset penetration is likely to still be relatively light, videomail will have an important role reassuring callers that every video call will quickly reach the eyes of the called party.

As camera phones and video calls become truly commonplace, videomail, a central 3G call completion element, will prove to be a significant revenue generator, just like voicemail is today.

If videomail is fun and provides functionality for users, and is profitable for operators, it will be an integral element in a full-service 3G environment.