Instant Messenger News

2010 will see an accelerated rise in the number of people across both the developed and developing nations who are using Windows Live Messenger to connect with their friends and family. When we look back at the hand of history its amazing to see the development of communication over the last 20 year

During the early 1990s much of international communication was based on landline based telephone, faxes and telephone faxes. The early 1990s then saw the rapid rise of consumer mobile phones and internet access. During the early 1990s the web browsers at the time which were Netscape Navigator, Netscape Communicator Mosaic and then as time progressed we saw the emergence of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (the developers of MSN Messenger) and today we see the emergence of Mozilla Firefox and its web based tool bar add ons.

However the increase of instant messenger services as a means to communicate with each other has been an incredible development within the communication evolutionary process. Today we have MSN Live Messenger commonly known as Windows Messenger, Skype Messenger for Windows, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Messenger also known as AIM instant Messenger, ICQ Messenger and Google Talk. All of these services are now rapidly used by literally millions of people of all backgrounds across the world.

The expansion of instant messenger services has further been fuelled by the rise of fourth generation cellular phones such as Blackberry Messenger, the Google Android Phone and the Apple iPhone. Such cell phones advancements further allow instant messaging to track people even when they are mobile. This means users are no longer limited to even having to purchase a computer to use instant messenger services, opening up instant messenger services millions of people in emerging markets where access to desktops and laptops is limited by ones financial means.

Another great feature of instant messaging is that some such as Skype Messenger give the ability to actually not only send text messages over the internet but it also allows people to talk over the internet and see each other as well. The gives Skype a significant first mover advantage over the likes of MSN Live Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messener (YIM) and AOL Messenger because the ability for people to see who they are talking to means that companies can rely on Downloading Skype Messenger rather than expensive video conferencing and web conferencing technology.

Despite the increased competition of instant messenger services, Windows Live Messenger is still by far the dominant messenger service in the world followed by Yahoo Instant Messenger. MSN Messenger has increased its global penetration by rebranding itself as MSN Live Messenger or Windows Live Messenger. AOL Messenger, ICQ Messenger and Google Talk are further behind in the pack but still have a strong loyal following.

What can we expect for 2012 and beyond. It is hard to see what further improvements can be made to communication technology but one of the most talked about emerging technologies is the types of virtual technologies we see in movies like Minority Report.