ABSTRACT
Voice is the preeminent application in the consumer market, and it is expected to remain that way for years to come. However, with the commoditization of the voice minute, network operators are looking at ways to supplement the declining voice revenue with data applications (or rich voice applications).1 While ubiquitous (mass market) services geared toward the entire consumer market (e.g., think calling line ID or SMS) will still be offered, these types of services will not be deployed at any greater frequency than is currently offered today.2 So, given the need to supplement declining voice revenues, along with the constraint of limited mass market services, this leads to the logical conclusion that operators must go after the numerous niche markets within the consumer segment versus targeting the entire consumer segment. As we have seen in earlier chapters, IMS provides an environment that allows services to roll out in a more rapid fashion, which in turn allows the operator or service provider to focus on different target segments. Some examples of these targeted consumer segments that we will explore further in this chapter are
“Soccer moms” ◾ Gamers ◾ College students ◾
In this chapter, several examples of blended services will be presented that could be geared toward the consumer market based on well-known functionality or services. These new service blends can take place by combining different applications or different services in combination with an enabler. The example services will be
introduced here using a known marketing description format called “A Day in a Life” scenario. In this format, a real-life scenario is envisioned to describe how a new service would be used by a targeted market segment-such as a consumer segment user. In the next three sections, we have created three separate vignettes (or scenarios) to describe how different IMS services could be used in a “real-life” situation.
