Mobile Instant Messaging

The last two phones I've had have featured MIM (Mobile Instant Messaging) software as part of their standard set up. Unfortunately this is not a feature supported by my network but it did always intrigue me as to how well such a service would work. Both phones were/are 3G phones so I didn't doubt that the speed could be quite fast but I was always weary about the cross platform communication between the phone software and the internet based IM network.

I was reminded of MIM over the weekend when I read a review of the new 3G iPhone, which will feature a new app called loopt. Essentially this is a mobile social networking tool with messaging and location built in. With a renewed interest in MIM I did a little digging and came up with two very interesting things:

1) A recent report by the Gartner group indicated that mobile instant messaging (MIM) is poised for massive global growth and could eventually replace SMS as the primary peer to peer tool of choice on mobile.

2) This fantastic video by Paul Barrett of One Degree