Almost every five years we see a significant evolution in technology lifecycles. In 2000, we saw IP-based communications (mostly desktop) go mainstream in the developed world. From 2005, it spread to mobile and then the adoption of smartphones exploded, led by the iPhone, and getting ‘stuff to things’ became mainstream.
But by 2010, apps were de rigueur, and there was a dramatic shift of customer conversations to social media (think Twitter and Facebook). We also saw the introduction and rapid take-up of chat apps (WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, etc. ), which have themselves become multi-device platforms for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video calling, messaging, content distribution, payments, and other services.
Interestingly though, a recent white paper – commissioned by IMImobile PLC (LON:IMO) – suggests the way consumers interact with companies is perhaps going back to the future.
In the early noughties, we were using voice and text over telco-dominated channels which then shifted online as consumers conversed more between themselves and businesses.
