Bubble Motion's Voice SMS rated in the top 10

I reckon voice SMS is brilliant. I’ve never managed to try it myself. But I’ve used Agile Messenger on the Nokia E61 which has a similar feature. You just press down on the handset’s joystick button and then speak — and then Agile transmits the voice recording to the person you’re instant messaging with — who can then play the audio using Windows Media or similar. It’s not quite as graceful as BubbleTALK….!

I got a bit of news in from the Bubble Motion chaps. Their service has been rated by Analysys as one of the world’s top ten non-voice services for mobile operators. I can well believe this. Wait ’til you read the bit below. Analysys, by the way, are global advisers on telecoms, IT & media issues. So they know a bit about the marketplace. Even without the Analysys report, I’d have put Bubble Motion there anyway.

Detailed in a forthcoming report ‘The World’s Top Ten Non-voice Services for Mobile Operators’, Analysys gives an insight into the best ways for operators to increase revenues. As operators around the world are searching for new ways to offset the decline in voice ARPU, BubbleTALK ‘Voice SMS’ has emerged as one of the easiest and most successful ways to do so.

The ‘Voice SMS’ service at Vodafone Egypt, launched under the name MiniCall, has been an instant hit with subscribers. The service allows Vodafone Egypt subscribers to send short voice messages to friends and colleagues in a similar way that they would do with text-based messages.

I love it. I think I’d use BubbleTALK like no-tomorrow if I had that facility.

Now, get this — if you’re a mobile operator and thinking about whether Voice SMS fits with your customers:

Bubble Motion typically implements its ‘Voice SMS’ solution within just three weeks and projects revenue of between $15-45 million per month within three months, making ‘Voice SMS’ a new core service alongside voice and SMS.

I’ll take two please.

Geez, that’s a bit good. I can absolutely believe those sorts of figures.

My kingdom for a BubbleTALK feature on my handset…