Net boom brings "message chaos"

NEWS The growth of the Internet has brought personal communications into chaos, according to the latest Ovum research. Mary Ann O'Loughlin, principal consultant at Ovum, says dealing with messages is becoming increasingly time-consuming due to the variety of media used, such as answerphone, email server and fax machine. "The growth of the Internet, more than any other factor, has fuelled message chaos," she states in Ovum's report, entitled 'Unified Messaging Services: Market Strategies'. O'Loughlin estimates it will take eight years before the majority of businesses use unified messaging (UM) services. UM gathers all personal messages into a single box, where they can be accessed digitally. O'Loughlin predicts that by 2006, the UM market will be worth $31bn, with 170 million mailboxes worldwide. It will be as significant a breakthrough as direct dial, she claims.