Multi-Device, Multi-Network, Single Session?

Looking at content consumption and shopping, there seems to be a clearly established trend: people use, or will use, multiple devices to complete a single task, such as planning a trip or buying a product.

A new study by Google, for example, suggests people behave that way when consuming content or conducting search operations.

Those same trends, with a more immediate real-time element, might be said to be an issue in voice communications as well. Where the Google study shows people using multiple devices and networks sequentially, you might argue that people might also increasingly need to use multiple devices and networks to complete a single session, as when initiating a phone call on a mobile on the way to work and then transitioning to a desk phone while maintaining the session.

True, the average person is more acquainted with conducting travel research over time, on multiple machines and networks, and then completing the transaction, in sequential fashion.

Communications sessions often are real time, not sequential, but the principle is the same: multiple networks and devices might be used in the context of a single session. That, in a sense, is one illustration of how “unified communications” provides value.

The business issue, though, is which trusted entity hosts the sessions. Is it the business phone system, the fixed telecom network, the mobile network or a third party application?

In fact, as cloud computing architecture becomes more established, there will be few differences between those potential “hosts.”

John Lazar, Metaswitch Networks CEO, faces a challenge most suppliers to the global telecom business also face, namely how his own business, and that of his service provider customers, will change over the next decade or so. Some of those changes, such as a blurring of “over the top” and “carrier services,” will cause some potential discomfort.

The issue is not, as sometimes happens in IP ecosystems, that Metaswitch Networks would ever compete with its customers. The issue is that, over time, as cloud computing becomes the established computing architecture, and as Metaswitch software is crafted to run in a cloud environment, there is not reason why its customers could not include “over the top” application providers, mobile service providers or anybody else who believes messaging and voice services and features have value for their own businesses.

In other words, neither Metaswitch Networks, nor any other leading supplier, can permanently ensure any of its current customers that, someday, third party application providers, mobile service providers and others might well be buying and using Metaswitch Networks software.

In other words, when the world evolves further, and it is easier for third parties to run the equivalent of central offices in the cloud, some might well decide to do so. With a cloud-based infrastructure, an upstart competitor could create an almost-instant point of presence in a new market with less financial investment than in the past, and then scale operations based on how well things go.

That world is coming, Metaswitch Networks knows it is coming, and will tell anyone who really asks, that Metaswitch Networks intends to sell its products in that new market.

Over the past several decades, Metaswitch Networks has been a growing supplier of infrastructure to a growing range of service provider customers.

“The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior” study found that 90 percent of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smart phones, PCs, tablets or TV.

Of the 90 percent of media consumed on a screen of any type, browsing, shopping, trip planning and financial operations make sequential use of multiple screens.

Separately, a study sponsored by Kenshoo suggests multi-device behavior when shopping. Conducting research is something lots of people are comfortable doing on a variety of devices, according to eMarketer.

But actual transactions are more likely to be conducted on a PC. More than nine in 10 respondents said they preferred to buy using a PC, compared to three percent who would rather to do so on a smartphone and two percent on a tablet, the Kenshoo study found.

Both studies suggest the importance of “multi-screen” approaches to marketing, retailing and video services.

There are two primary ways people exhibit multi-screen behaviors, the Google study suggests. Sequential screening is when people move from one device to another to complete a single goal. Simultaneous screening occurs when people use multiple devices at the same time.

The study found that nine out of ten people use multiple screens sequentially and that smart phones are by far the most common starting point for sequential activity.

So completing a task like booking a flight online or managing personal finances doesn’t just happen in one sitting on one device. In fact, 98 percent of sequential screeners move between devices in the same day to complete a task.  

With simultaneous usage, the study found that 77 percent of viewers watching TV with another device in hand. In many cases people search on their devices, inspired by what they see on TV, the report suggests.

Sequential screeners will start interacting with an application on one device and then pick up where they left off on another, so making experiences seamless between devices is key, the study suggests.

It might seem odd, in fact, that similar behaviors are not yet already so widespread in the voice communications area. Starting a phone call on a desktop phone, then moving to a mobile and finishing on a home phone, would seem to be a logical capability that mirrors the multi-screen nature of shopping or content consumption.

To be sure, initiatives now are underway to enable more “sequential” content consumption, communications or shopping, where a single goal is pursued across a couple, or several devices, over time.