A year ago, I published a report on why I thought RCS was dead , which also included some thoughts on how I thought it might be salvaged.
Since then, it has been reincarnated as RCS-e (e supposedly standing for "enhanced"), which takes out things like presence and focuses on IM and media-sharing. Less generously, I'd perhaps call it "reanimated" and RCS-z (z for zombie, as it's still shambling around despite being dead).
We're about to move into another season of marketing, hype and possibly propaganda for RCS-e, as the market has been promised launches from the European "group of five" major operators - Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia Mobile, with interest from other telcos in Europe, Asia and Middle East (and, perhaps, the US).
Coming up are events such as next week's Rich Communications summit in Munich and Telco 2.0's New Digital Economics EMEA in early November, which has significant RCS-e presence from companies like Vodafone. I'll be at both events.
Although I've been negative about RCS / RCS-e since Day 1 - and various operators have commissioned me to explain my views and demonstrate the "bear case" - I'll try and attend with an open mind. I'm conscious that this time, my skepticism is actually mainstream - the market as a whole seems to agree with me. That worries me, as I don't think I'm influential enough to have convinced everyone, and normally I believe that the Tyranny of Consensus means that the majority is wrong.
So I'll listen to presentations, watch some demos - and grill some of the advocates. But there's a very high bar to make me change my mind, as I've identified at least a dozen reasons why RCS/e is a bad idea, and I suspect that many (most) haven't been addressed.
Some examples: lack of support from Apple, lack of business model, the slow pace of evolution, risks of security breaches or unwanted "emergent" behaviours, and the ridiculousness of trying to intermediate between a user & their Facebook experience.
So it's going to take quite a lot for me to be bitten by the RCS zombie and get infected by enthusiasm for it. Either way, it's not going to eat my brain - I'll be taking plenty of very sharp and pointy wooden stakes with me, ready to put RCS-z out of our collective misery if it's still dead.
Since then, it has been reincarnated as RCS-e (e supposedly standing for "enhanced"), which takes out things like presence and focuses on IM and media-sharing. Less generously, I'd perhaps call it "reanimated" and RCS-z (z for zombie, as it's still shambling around despite being dead).
We're about to move into another season of marketing, hype and possibly propaganda for RCS-e, as the market has been promised launches from the European "group of five" major operators - Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia Mobile, with interest from other telcos in Europe, Asia and Middle East (and, perhaps, the US).
Coming up are events such as next week's Rich Communications summit in Munich and Telco 2.0's New Digital Economics EMEA in early November, which has significant RCS-e presence from companies like Vodafone. I'll be at both events.
Although I've been negative about RCS / RCS-e since Day 1 - and various operators have commissioned me to explain my views and demonstrate the "bear case" - I'll try and attend with an open mind. I'm conscious that this time, my skepticism is actually mainstream - the market as a whole seems to agree with me. That worries me, as I don't think I'm influential enough to have convinced everyone, and normally I believe that the Tyranny of Consensus means that the majority is wrong.
So I'll listen to presentations, watch some demos - and grill some of the advocates. But there's a very high bar to make me change my mind, as I've identified at least a dozen reasons why RCS/e is a bad idea, and I suspect that many (most) haven't been addressed.
Some examples: lack of support from Apple, lack of business model, the slow pace of evolution, risks of security breaches or unwanted "emergent" behaviours, and the ridiculousness of trying to intermediate between a user & their Facebook experience.
So it's going to take quite a lot for me to be bitten by the RCS zombie and get infected by enthusiasm for it. Either way, it's not going to eat my brain - I'll be taking plenty of very sharp and pointy wooden stakes with me, ready to put RCS-z out of our collective misery if it's still dead.
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