On Tuesday, T-Mobile and Google went public with the first ever open-source mobile phone. The G1 may not have the tech bling of the Apple iPhone (no multi-touch yet), but its openness should accelerate an e-store's worth of incredible apps. Can great consumer-friendly interactive video software be too far behind? Futuristic mobile IVVR technology is already in consumers' hands, but you'll need your passport stamped to see this technology in action.
Instead of viewing the G1 phone as a half-full iPhone, let's consider it mobile’s first truly open development environment. The G1 (technically an HTC Dream device) is just one incarnation of the Android open-source software. Apps that are developed for the T-Mobile device can also run on any other mobile gadget that supports the Android platform.
Designing for a platform rather than a particular vendor's hardware has been crucial to driving the IT software market. IMHO, open-source will also rapidly change the mobile industry and be a major factor in getting IVVR in people's hands.
What's on the horizon for consumer-oriented interactive mobile video? An analyst I spoke to last week on this question assured me that Europe has already realized some of the potential of interactive mobile video. Not surprising. A few years back old-world service providers leaped ahead of the US in mobile broadband when they rolled out their 3G UMTS networks.
Working off some tips that came my way, I took a quick virtual grand tour of the Continent and discovered UK and Dutch mobile banking trials. While the details are sketchy, both banks allow its customers to check balances, make transfers, and key in basic transactions from what is essentially a mobile ATM. When customers get stuck, they can download video and audio podcasts for help.
Most significantly, these services allow customers to connect by voice and video to a bank representative.
One-off proprietary systems show what's possible with IVVR and have undoubtedly given companies valuable data points on customer usage patterns.
With the iPhone and the G1 in place, wider deployment of 3G in the US, and a huge market for developers to sell into, we have all the elements for interactive video to enter the contact center and deeply change existing customer interaction models.
I've been told that US banks have started limited experiments with IVVR. Does anyone have more details on our domestic mobile scene?
