Written by: Mikael E. Björling, Jennie Carlsten, Piotr Kessler, Erik Kruse and Mats Stille

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Players in the telecommunications industry can greatly improve person-to-person communication by paying attention to, and taking advantage of, known user behavior patterns and by taking steps to enrich voice communication and improve interaction between voice and data services.

Utility should be a key consideration when they plan and develop enriched communication services, such as Ericsson IMS weShare. How, for example, will the services be used and in what context? Which goals should be supported and what are the driving forces for enriched communication?

It is a known fact that usability helps determine the success or failure of mobile services. Poor usability is a significant barrier to diffusion. This was very evident for services such as the Mobile Internet (WAP) and picture messaging (MMS). At the time of their introduction, these services were simply too complicated: users had to configure the services manually, they were difficult to use, and their performance was lackluster.

For mobile services to succeed, users must find them easy to use and interact with. Therefore, a criterion for developing enriched communication services is coherent interaction and system design.

The authors describe research on consumer behavior as it relates to Ericsson IMS weShare Image and Motion; they explain how Ericsson has responded to issues raised by end users; and they describe how the Ericsson IMS weShare concepts fit into consumers' lives and in what situations they will want to use them.

Evolving communication culture
Mobile phones have had a tremendous impact on communication and lifestyles. Today it is no big deal for someone to own a mobile phone and carry it around in his or her pocket. In many parts of the world, this is actually the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, if anything, people now assume that everybody has a mobile phone.

"A mobile phone is like underwear. You can't go without it without noticing that something's missing." (Male, 19, China)

Mobile phones and the internet have had a tremendous impact on modern society.
Young people, in particular, have enthusiastically embraced these technologies and consider them an important element in their lives.

"My phone is like a second skin. It contains all my pictures, my memories, my favorite music, and so on. It has what I want and helps define who I am. I carry it with me everywhere." (Female, 22, Korea)

Mobile phones have created a sense of need: the need to be available to friends at all times, and thus the need to always have a functioning device. In some circles, constant accessibility has become the rule. So much so, in fact, that turning off one's phone might require an explanation. In this sense a mobile phone that seldom rings might also generate feelings of loneliness and isolation.

"If you switch your phone off, you feel cut off, excluded, from the rest of the world." (Male, 31, Italy)

"One day I left my phone at home and I was just so lost without it. I was, like, what am I going to do? I was so worried I might miss out on something important and that I wouldn't be able to contact others if necessary." (Female, 23, Sweden)

A new communication culture has sprung up. Today's communication is about so much more than just making announcements. It has evolved into the sharing of everyday experiences. The use of mobile phones has introduced several new social aspects. Today, for example, the majority of communication is about 

• micro-coordination (Where are you and can we meet later on?); and
• hyper-coordination - people use their phones to convey emotions and social signals, in particular, for cementing peer relationships.

Recent technological advancements have brought camera phones, MMS, video capabilities, and so on to market, triggering a need among consumers to add richer media to their communication. The good news is that present-day communication technology provides all the necessary tools for building the technical solutions behind new, rich services. With the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), for instance, one can create these services today. Combinational ser vices, which Ericsson implements through
Ericsson IMS weShare, are an important example. Ericsson provides a platform and toolbox called IMS Client Platform (ICP) for simplifying the process of creating new services and integrating them with handsets. Users can thus easily share their everyday experiences, the way they want, today.

"Services should be better integrated with communication. Today, they seem so separate. You can call your friends and ask, 'What are you doing tonight?' And you can send pictures. But you can't do both at the same time." (Male, 18, USA)