The "Freeing" of Unified Communications?

Officials from Google, Inc. announced it would be unveiling a new unified communications service that would be free to users from the United States. In other news, Microsoft Corp. announced that it would challenge the validity of some of Avistar Communication Corp.'s patents that relate to unified communications.

Focal Points:

• Officials from Google recently announced the availability of a beta version of GrandCentral. Google acquired GrandCentral in 2007 with a service that would allow users to get one number for life. This recent announcement is Google's effort to launch its own world-wide telephony and voice services. The service is currently only available in beta to U.S. customers. Officials said the service works by routing a call to the central number to any other number the customer designates, whether that be a number they own or a number they are currently at, such as a hotel room or someone else's office. The service also includes "click to call" capability from an existing contact book, as well as the ability to record calls and selectively ban numbers (such as telemarketing) from being able to complete a call.
• Microsoft executives recently requested that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) office re-examine unified messaging patents filed by Avistar. Microsoft lawyers are challenging 24 of 29 Avistar patents. The patents are for technology related to instant messaging (IM), online collaboration, and video conferencing. Officials from Avistar were surprised by the aggressive move, stating that they have been dealing constructively with Microsoft for the past six months on how Microsoft might license its technology.
• The CEO of Avistar stated that he was concerned about potential changes to future patent regulations that could harm smaller companies such as his, which would have an adverse effect on technology competition in the United States. Experton Group finds the timing interesting, given the recent fines further levied on Microsoft by the European Union (EU) anti-trust commission, even as Microsoft officials announced an increased "openness" in its technology stack to third party developers. To date, four of Microsoft's review requests have been rejected for procedural reasons. Officials from the USPTO said patent reviews typically take between six months and two years.

Experton Group believes unified communications will grow dramatically in importance in the next two years, as companies become more comfortable using Web 2.0 technology and find ways to further integrated voice and data for new compelling business applications. Free and open development models are the ones most likely to be used by developers, since the Internet and Web browsers and the most likely channels to exploit emerging applications and the development stacks in this domain are largely open. IT executives should have application developers look for ways to exploit these new, open unified messaging stacks to increase the flexibility and reach of current business applications.