New poll results show that Light Readers believe businesses, not residential consumers, will be first to buy and deploy new services made possible by the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). (See IMS: What's the Use?.)

Of the 250 or so respondents to the poll, 58 percent believe corporations and other enterprises will be first to use converged applications such as unified messaging and dual-mode phone service. Only 42 percent of poll takers said residential consumers would be first to drive sales of the new applications.

The poll asked readers what the first IMS "killer app" will be, who will make it, and who will buy it. (See Cingular Picks Lucent for IMS and SBC Picks Lucent's IMS .)

Readers believe "converged" applications that leverage both wireless and wireline assets will be the first to make a difference in the marketplace. (See IMS: Simplify First, Add Apps Later.)

Thirty-one percent of poll-takers singled out unified messaging as the application most likely to sell. Unified messaging combines real-time communication modes like IM, voice, and video on a single interface. That interface also typically bundles in the user’s email client, as well as a contact database, calendar, and other organizational tools.



Twenty-five percent of readers think dual-mode phone service will click with business consumers first. The service allows a wireless call session to seamlessly convert to a wireline-based call when the user comes in range of the home or office LAN.

Another 15 percent of poll takers believe “presence” applications will be popular with business consumers. Presence management tools are often bundled with unified messaging services to show whether users are connected to the network, and which communication modes are possible.

The poll results suggest that “blended” applications, in which IMS-enabled operators orchestrate multiple services inside a single call session, may not be the first to be demanded by consumers. Rather, near-term sales of IMS-enabled services may center on applications that simply combine heretofore disparate telecom services. (See IMS Guide and LR Explains IMS.)

Readers were also asked what sorts of telecom companies would emerge as the key developers of new IMS-enabled applications. Most poll takers -- 42 percent -- believe that insurgent applications specialists like Ubiquity Software Corp. and Personeta Inc. will edge out legacy equipment providers like Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE) for market share in the IMS application development business. Only 35 percent of readers thought the incumbents would maintain a leadership position.

Only 11 percent of Light Readers believe that upstart softswitch vendors like Sonus Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS) and Veraz Networks Inc. will take a leading role in developing IMS applications. (See Sonus, AOL Team On IMS .)

— Mark Sullivan, Reporter, Light Reading