Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I create software for people that create software and I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

Adam Kalsey

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Products and Tools

Email as a model for future mobile phone service

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 11 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

10 Feb 2013

What if your phone wasn’t tied to your phone number?

I think the email model is a possible way to evolve voice telephony and make it more useful and enduring, especially in mobile. You could have multiple "lines" from multiple service providers, on a single device. At one level they would interoperate perfectly, but they might have separate special features or business models, in the same way that Gmail is different to Hosted Exchange or assorted others.

The author, Dean Bubley, knows a thing or two about phone networks and carriers. So this isn’t the wild dreaming of someone who doesn’t understand what’s technically feasible.

Today I might get a call on my mobile to my phone number, one of several Tropo numbers that redirect to my phone number, Skype, a SIP softphone, and probably something I’ve forgotten about. One device, multiple entry points. Messages are the same way. SMS, iMessage, Whatsapp, Skype... they all arrive on my phone.

We’re already doing this today, just the carriers haven’t caught on. If I want two AT&T numbers and a Verizon number, I need three phones. But I think this is coming, and fast.

Comments

Jim
June 2, 2013 10:32 AM

Wouldn't Facebook and Google + lose half their so-called users?

Rob
November 30, 2013 9:55 AM

I agree, I think all these services going mobile in the from of apps is changing the behavior patterns of how people use communication channels, and its becoming more instant.

This discussion has been closed.

Recently Written

Micromanaging and competence (Jul 2)
Providing feedback or instruction can be seen as micromanagement unless you provide context.
My productivity operating system (Jun 24)
A framework for super-charging productivity on the things that matter.
Great product managers own the outcomes (May 14)
Being a product manager means never having to say, "that's not my job."
Too Big To Fail (Apr 9)
When a company piles resources on a new product idea, it doesn't have room to fail. That keeps it from succeeding.
Go small (Apr 4)
The strengths of a large organization are the opposite of what makes innovation work. Starting something new requires that you start with a small team.
Start with a Belief (Apr 1)
You can't use data to build products unless you start with a hypothesis.
Mastery doesn’t come from perfect planning (Dec 21)
In a ceramics class, one group focused on a single perfect dish, while another made many with no quality focus. The result? A lesson in the value of practice over perfection.
The Dark Side of Input Metrics (Nov 27)
Using input metrics in the wrong way can cause unexpected behaviors, stifled creativity, and micromanagement.

Older...

What I'm Reading