By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
SINGAPORE–From a technology perspective, talk is cheap already — if you take communications to mean literally voice alone.
Unified communications, as a concept, basically means more than just voice, but spicing it up with other means like instant messaging or other PC-based applications like Skype. As a concept, though, it would depend on how which vendor is selling it — Microsoft sees it from a software perspective, HP more on integration of these various applications.
Ericsson, meanwhile, is taking it from a mobility perspective. Or in simpler terms, UC makes sense if you can do all these things outside of the office.
Rhajiv Bhatia, product manager from Ericsson in Sweden (pictured above during an interview with journalists) thinks of UC as way for companies to utilize existing fixed lines (that one sitting on your desk) more by merging them with mobile networks. He thinks carriers need to shape up and shift focus away from voice and look for ways to drive revenue out of data.
Bottomline, with unified communications, you will be doing more than just talking to your boss or colleague on your mobile phone. It will make the mobile phone of the future a lot smarter than it already is today.
