The IPhone and the WebTone

The WebTone is possible now because of the convergence of voice and data on the IP network. When your phone call is sent over the same network as your web browser pages, it is much easier to deliver voice and data in a converged way.

But one key component to making the WebTone a reality is the emergence of converged devices that could handle both voice and data at the same time. Enter, the Apple IPhone, billed as "Internet in your Pocket" (http://www.apple.com/iphone/internet/).

While phones have allowed you to browse the internet and do email in some fashion for years, the IPhone will take that experience to a whole new level. (Or at least that's what they're promising.)

But even now, Apple isn't rolling out a true WebTone--where your phone calls and data are tightly integrated. Out of the box, it seems that the IPhone really is just the "Internet in your pocket." You can surf, do email, search, and make phone calls from one cool-looking gadget.

The true power of the WebTone comes when you create business applications that use a converged device like the IPhone to improve customer service or enhance the efficiency of a critical business process.

And that, I believe, is just around the corner.

A world famous coffee pot

I first got excited about the possibilities of convergence in the early 1990s when someone showed me the Trojan Room Coffee Pot. (For a history lesson, go here.)

Using the network, these guys at the University of Cambridge could publish a near-real-time photo of a coffee pot located on another floor. And, since it was the Internet, anyone in the world could see that coffee pot.

Most of my friends in technology thought I was crazy, but I realized that this would revolutionize the world of broadcasting and publishing. It put the power to broadcast and publish content into the hands of the people, at least the people who could understand the technology. And now, look where we are: YouTube and MySpace allow anyone, from grade schoolers to grandparents, to publish and broadcast their own content.

What is a WebTone?

The term "WebTone" was coined by Scott McNealy back in the 1990s to describe how the IP network would one day be readily available everywhere, just like a telephone dial tone.

But the WebTone is a smarter, more powerful version of the dial tone. On the legacy phone network, the dial tone was your connection to voice services--inbound and outbound calls, voice mail, directory services and such.

But with a converged IP network, the WebTone can deliver those same voice services and applications along with them. The WebTone provides converged voice and data functionality. For example, with a WebTone,

• An incoming phone call received by a WebTone application can cause relevant customer data to be displayed on your browser at the same time.
  
• Back-office events can trigger an automated outbound call to a customer to collect data, and then immediately connect that customer to a CSR.

With the WebTone, it is now possible to tightly integrate your data into customer interactions in new and powerful ways. From a business point of view, that means better customer service and improved operational and transactional efficiencies. That's the power of the WebTone.