APIs and Business Models

It is true that the mere existence of an app. program interface, by itself, dictate any one business model. But it strongly leans toward a model embracing third party app development. There's no reason an API has to dictate revenue models for partners that use and build APIs. But it leans towards the collaborative. So it appears telco executives are starting to lean in the direction of formal APIs for development of future services and revenues. Or so it would seem, as survey results begin to trickle in from a survey now being conducted by STL.

There seems pretty clear consensus that adding call and privacy features won't help much. Nor do other "real time" services get much support. That's odd, since video is a real time service, but the results probably don't focus on video as among the real time services respondents are thinking about.

This perception might also be wrong. There should be lots of ways to use APIs and third party development to create calling, privacy and other real time features that would not ordinarily be developed internally. If short message service or ring tones are any indication, telco executives aren't good at predicting what users want and will pay for in any case. So there isn't a terribly compelling reason to think they are right about the paltry returns from using APIs to speed up innovation in the classic calling business.