• Interconnection to other online devices. American wireless
users are only now starting to use phones that are capable of
two-way text messaging. One problem is that there won’t be
many other users to exchange text messages with until more
users have a newer SMS-capable phone. Connecting online
PC applications to wireless systems gives the wireless text
users an existing embedded base of PC-based IM users with
which to trade two-way text messages.
IM allows the wireless user to send and receive text messages
to any person logged into the IM system with either a
wireless device or PC. The online population of global IM
users is about 130 million, which increases the size and value
of the network.
Wireless IM requires the user to have the ability to connect
to an IM system. This connection can occur over a number
of different transports such as SMS, circuit-switched data, or
packet-based connections. Some of these methods require
the carrier to have or connect to an IM system that routes
messages between PCs and wireless devices and provides
presence information to users.