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I’ve been puzzling over transcripts of a couple of recent speeches by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates where he discussed his vision for the end of phone numbers. But it wasn’t until today, when I learned more about Microsoft’s “Echoes” services platform for telcos that I began piecing together how Gates & Co. thinks Microsoft can do this.
This is from one transcript of an early May speech Gates gave in Japan:
“Right now the mobile phone, the desktop phone, the e-mail that you have on the PC, or instant messaging, these are all very different things, and the issues about how much of your information or your schedule, your current activity you share with people who communicate with you is not well designed…. By bringing together all of these kinds of communication, we can greatly simplify them. We can get rid of phone numbers, have it so when you say you want to contact someone, based on who you are and where that person is, they can decide whether to take the call or take a message about that, and so a great efficiency improvement that can be made there.” (emphasis mine)
So how does Microsoft propose getting rid of phone numbers? Here’s an overview, from the same source who originally tipped me on Echoes:
Starting with Echoes Wave 1 — the first iteration of Microsoft’s services platform for telco providers that is due out this summer — Microsoft plans to synchronize contacts. In other words, Live Messenger contacts will appear in a mobile user’s address book (if the carrier is using Echoes). The contacts will be synced via Windows Live Messenger, so duplicates are eliminated.
Messenger contacts will automatically appear in users’ phone address book, so that even if they don’t know one of their Live Messenger contact’s phone number, they still will be able to call it. Numbers will be able to ring simultaneously on multiple devices/systems. On the flip side, Echoes will help insure instant-messaging-to-SMS continuity. A user can send an IM to any mobile contact, and the contact can respond via a text message.
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It'd be better getting rid of SMS I believe. Phones that are in the "push email" type mode wake up when they receive IP traffic. All you'd have to do to make it work is have the phone register with IM, and then when you receive an IM message, wake the phone up and deliever it. The immediate benefit would be that users don't have to switch to a mobile mode... if they are actively working at their desktops, don't send the message to the phone. If the user has walked away, switch messages to their phone (unless they've selected not to be disturbed. Additionally, the user will no longer deal with 160 character limits. As soon as exchange was working like this, they should have started making IM work this way too.
Well, if we can start using phones like mobile IM devices for messages and voice using an IM like ID like what MSN has etc, then we wouldn't need phone #'s either.
Today people have loads of contacts on their phones, and you go with names either way, take that list out of a persons phone and they probably don't even know their best friends phone number.
thats kind of the point the removal of phone numbers... something i see as ikind of stupid to exist still considering our day and age... i mean thats like going from the Wii's gamer numbers for online gaming to XBL's gamertags... and we all know which of those work better... its easier to search the "phone bank" for "dominos on 7th street" than 5234144