It seems like everyone wants to clone Nextel’s Direct Connect. The aspiring copycats are basing their versions on VOIP, theoretically allowing cross-carrier and cross-continent communications, but otherwise it’s the same old crap.
I hate Direct Connect, it forces users to choose between instant interuptions from loud-as-hell voices or the traditional beeping / vibrating followed by “I’m here, please repeat whatever you just said because I had the speaker turned off.” Everyone chooses the former mode of operation, which is more convenient for them but highly annoying to anyone else within 50 feet of the damned phone. Especially during a movie or a business meeting.
Direct Connect inappropriate for environments where shouting is not the normal mode of communication.
Instead of re-inventing Nextel’s square wheel, these companies should be building products that better suit the business world. Build me a phone that stores the last message received, so I can be alerted and listen at my convenience without the whole world hearing. Better still, have the network store messages when my phone isn’t available.
Instead of “Instant Voice Messaging”, think “Instant Voicemail.”
On a related note, infoSync reports on Running Voice IP Light, an inexpensive VOIP package for LANs / WLANs consisting of a PC server with PC and Pocket PC clients.
How many years until PDA battery life is good enough to make products like this practical?
To comment on my own post, the “Instant Voicemail” approach to Push-to-Talk should basically work like SMS when “Instant Voice Interuptions” are disabled. Let people who really want a glorified Walkie Talkie have it, give the rest of us a tool that remains useful in situations where politeness is expected.