As the use of video calling continues to increase, 81 per cent of European consumers see it as personally important for them that these communications technologies work together – or “interoperate” – according to a newly-released survey.
In a clear signal to industry, 86 per cent – 70 per cent strongly - want companies to agree to a common standard so that software and devices – including popular video calling programs like Skype, Facetime, and Google Chat – are able to communicate with one another. Unfortunately, that is still not the case in video calling, as opposed to speaking on the phone or exchanging emails, where interoperability has since long been the norm.
European consumers appear to have a very healthy appetite for video-to-video communications. In a survey of 1873 consumers, conducted on behalf of Cisco, nearly 40 per cent of those who use video calling said they will use video technology more often in the next twelve months, whereas only 4 per cent expect to use video calling less.
Not unsurprisingly, what particularly attracts consumers to video calling is that it allows them to talk face-to-face to friends and family across the world. However, consumers are just as enthusiastic – and sometimes even more – about possible applications of video calling technology to other areas, such as health, education, and in the work place.
Of those surveyed, 80 per cent see video calling as an important way for patients in distant rural areas to talk face-to-face to medical specialists in cities without travelling, while 69 per cent believe the technology has an important role in enabling teachers and other educators to hold live lectures and classes by video calling and to interact with students in real time.
However, consumers are even clearer in pointing out that they want multiple devices or programs made by different companies to be able to communicate with one another – a feature know as interoperability. Of those surveyed, 81 per cent state -- 35 per cent extremely so - indicate such communication to be extremely important to their use of video, an unambiguous indication that consumers have little tolerance for potential glitches caused by a lack of interoperability. Given in the size of its market share in particular, 78 per cent of consumers feel Microsoft should open its Skype video technology. 72 per cent deem Microsoft’s decision not to make Skype interoperable to be unfair to consumers.