Part 3, Shawn Barber of Acision

The Future of Voicemail

I’m delighted to bring you the third part of the Future of Voicemail video series featuring Shawn Barber, Director of Product for Voice Messaging at global messaging provider, Acision.

To say Shawn is ‘Mr Voicemail’ is to put it mildly. He lives and breathes the medium, although he was clear to point out that it’s no longer referred to as simply ‘voicemail’ but instead, ‘voice messaging’. Which is good news. Because that’s where I’d like the medium to as well. I’d like us to get away from the ‘mail’ aspect (i.e. having to dial in to retrieve messages in sequence) and move to some kind of messaging-based facility. But what does the future look like? Well, Shawn set out some rather stimulating points in today’s video — including discussing the possibility of simply providing operators with the building blocks to create their own voice messaging systems to fit any consumer scenario. So if you want the mobile operator to recognise that you’re driving and thus it should pipe the voice messages down to your car stereo, no problem. Or if you want to be called with my voice messages as a matter of priority, no problem.

I’d dearly like to see mobile operators offering something like this — something better than just the same-old-thing.

Shawn did a super job of answering my questions and I’m sure you’ll enjoy his perspective on the future.

Thank you very much for taking the time, Shawn!

Here’s the video:


Download M4V Video | Subscribe to Podcast | Embed video

Just a reminder, view the preceding episodes in the series here:

– Part 1, Olivier Sichel of Sofinnova Ventures
Part 2, Tim Rea of ePlanet Ventures

Recently Published

It’s ok, your moon photos aren’t fake, they are just enhanced – quite a bit

Have you taken a photo of the moon recently? I almost did, the other day, when I spotted a fabulous moment here in Dubai....

Don’t move! You’ll jinx it! This looks like a tiny bit of innovation in the mobile world

It has been quite a while since I’ve seen anything in the mobile industry that’s caused me to want to write much. Just look...

The new BlackBerry movie trailer is here

Were you a BlackBerry fan? Of course you were. At some point, almost everyone was. I still remember the days and the joy that...

Airalo: The easy way to roam globally with a data eSIM

Shortly before I began my FinTech & Banking Tour around the GCC, I popped into the Apple AppStore and searched ‘eSim’. I wondered if...

Etisalat: That’s fast

I was at the Mall of the Emirates the other day whilst I was in Dubai. I think it's almost obligatory to go there...

Oh… wait, is that the phone I’ve already got?

I am delighting in the fact that I am able to write again - mostly over at FinTech Profile or LinkedIn - as I...