No critical cocktail will force operators over to IP

The problem is that converting loads of existing applications over to a spanking new IMS system is going to cost loads of dosh. So when the INQ asked Marc Rotthier, general manager with HP's OpenCall business what applications could trigger an operator to convert, he had to hedge his bets.

"There's no 'critical cocktail' of applications," he claimed. No one specific application like IM (Instant Messaging) or location based service was going to swing the balance. However, operators will eventually work out that if they want to launch loads of new services, they'll have to move to IMS.

The main point is that HP makes billions - $9 billion in the EMEA region along - from flogging gear to telecoms companies. That's a huge chunk and it doesn't take into account how many printers they sell to Telcos on top of that as well.

The catch is that the standards that form IMS aren't complete yet. So claiming you've already got an IMS application out there - which the INQ swears Nokia' Bob Brace did at the recent HP sponsored IMS summit - is cheating somewhat.

Rotthier compared that claiming full IMS compatibility for a launched service was akin to planting a flag on top of your house, before you've even finished the roof. So he going to claim HP has loads of 'trials' rather than full roll outs, for example.

The IMS sector is going to prove very interesting indeed. It pitches the giants from the IT world - like HP, IBM and Cisco, squarely up against entrenched mobile telecoms suppliers such as Siemens, Ericsson and Nokia.

The event did confirm the INQ's previous story that you can launch an IM service without having to go down the IMS route. So there. µ