DISQUS

hisyamhalim · 5 months ago

Great piece, confirms that the direction we're going next is the right one. Our backup & sync service rseven.com has gotta do a lot more than just that. So far we're just presenting the phone data in many ways (Timeline, Connections etc). We're now trying to merge some data from Facebook first, see what works, what doesn't.

Rich · 5 months ago

Do not forget the social network apps also doing this -

http://apps.facebook.com/mobileorganizer

drewie123 · 5 months ago

Very interesting piece. After reading it you can't help to thing that there's a convergence going on right now between our mobile phones address book and our social graphs. When that's a reality and we can truly choose our means of communications, todays carriers will only be "dumbpipes" providing us with wireless capacity.

Sarik · 5 months ago

Thanks for putting this together, Jason. Don´t forget the most comprehensive and successful address book right now:

www.cellity.com

VentureBeat reported about it here:

http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/10/cellity-to-be...

Sarik

Matthäus Krzykowski · 5 months ago

Hey Sarik,
we did not mention all competitors in the space as there so many out there. We counted at least 12 - including you guys - & not taking the iPhone/Adnroid app only solutions into account. By which measure do you think Cellity is the "most successful address book right now" ?

Matthaus

Jason Devitt · 5 months ago

Sarik, you are right, I should have mentioned Cellity, but I think Matthaus has a fair question.

Marco Ripanti · 5 months ago

Great to read this article .. Good job Jason.

But please let me put my to cents to the future of the adressbook.

What about the new release of zyb.com ? What about the iphone app of cliqset? What about our (in the next 2 weeks) firt iphone app of yiid.com? What about .….

You see? The world is full of solutions and our future is not a one and only universal adressbook, but a lot of them :)

Regards
Marco

Robert · 5 months ago

Good points but I feel google sync deserved a shout out. It has made my address book a lot more flexible.

Jason Devitt · 5 months ago

I mentioned Google Voice. I give only one shout-out to Google per article.

Sebastien Brault · 5 months ago

Hi Jason,

Great article ;o) We should talk sometime.

Cheers

Seb CEO at unyk.com

mjlambie · 5 months ago

I agree. i need to keep my contacts in the cloud, granting access to all my communication tools. I think google contacts and google voice are taking a step in the right direction. I also like iskoot, i think it's pretty clever. Also, more recently on my blackberry, the new facebook app syncs contact info and profile photos with my address book. how awesome is that.

KMitch · 5 months ago

There is an attempt by a consortium of mobile operators and telecom equipment vendors to head off the value erosion from over the top ASPs, Web 2.0, social networking and app stores: the Rich Communication Suite from the GSM Association. The subscriber's existing address book as the starting point for these interactive communications that make use of the 3G access network.

Larry Lisser · 5 months ago

Great article.

The address book is so at the heart of everything communication that often its importance is taken for granted. There is a reason though that so many companies are presenting their 'answer' to this problem; the more our contacts proliferate across platforms, the less obvious the answer becomes.

What's clear is that in some way the contact must reside in the cloud and not only on the device, notwithstanding that the device remains the simplest place for the user to manage them. But for the carrier, only the cloud presents the potential advantages you are referring to. I have watched many try to master the sync process and while it can be done in the smartphone market, the balance of the handset market presents barriers.

Mobivox is another player who has made the address book central to their focus by voice enabling access to cloud-based contacts and further enabling the user to complete a variety of communication process using voice activation and the stored contact book. Everything does start and end with a need for an address. One twist in that service is the ability to add to a contact book using voice - very well received to date. And yes, they have learned first hand how valuable the data can be.

PS. I am user of Skydeck. Very innovative. Well done.

Jason Devitt · 5 months ago

Thanks Larry. There are several interesting voice-based services that I could have mentioned: Dial2Do is another.

Sarah · 5 months ago

Great article! Just wanted to point out that FusionOne is no longer just backup. Mobile content portability- the idea of sharing your address book and other mobile content between devices and between web and mobile services- will be an important part of the future for consumers and carriers. A network address book that syncs between multiple services, such as the one FusionOne is working on with Verizon, can only benefit all sides in this battle.

Randall_Stross · 5 months ago

Very good article. I'm looking forward to using Palm's Pre as well.

Harel · 5 months ago

and Fring to the equation
http://talkingmobile.com/2009/06/03/fring-new-c...