Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

14.4 WHY IS IMS IMPORTANT?

Having just discussed what IMS is, the next question to ask is why is it important? Obviously, any new technology that promises simultaneously to lower costs whilst enhancing revenue potential is important. However, IMS isn't just any new technology. To understand why, we have to look more broadly at the evolution of modern communications.

What is The Web? You might like to answer that one yourself first. Again, we can resort to all kinds of definitions. An IP person might talk about HTTP. An applications person would probably talk about browsers and AJAX. What would the marketing person talk of? Well, I think they're still working on it. Traditional marketing narratives don't seem to apply online, although that is a controversial topic in itself. To users, the Web is really a place. The way to access that place is via the browser. As we discussed in Chapter 5, the browser is unlike any other piece of computer software previously deployed. It was a major milestone in IT. Almost without exception, all other pieces of software tie themselves to a particular function and set of information. However, the browser is almost entirely function and information agnostic. It is a universal client. No matter what the information is, the browser can handle it: train times, email, health care, hobbies, tax laws, and so on, ad infinitum (8 trillion pages and counting!). HTTP and HTML allowed this decoupling. Similarly, IMS, with its SIP core (see later) has the potential ...