Talking email speeds up communication

It took Jason Kerr more than three years and $3 million to create Springdoo, a service that combines email, voice mail, internet and mobile technology - but now he's ready to try to change the way we communicate.

"All of these things are about convergence," Kerr said. "In the next five years I wouldn't want to be a telco selling voice. You're going to be pretty pale."

Springdoo allows users to send a talking email from a landline or mobile telephone and, if Kerr's future plans play out, a computer or personal digital assistant.

Users set up a Springdoo account with contact email addresses, then for 29 cents per minute call an 09 number, record a message, use the telephone touch pad to select the target addresses and send their talking email.

Landline users outside the local number area also pay toll call charges to the carrier. Similarly, the variety of mobile call plans can make using a "free phone" 0800 number for 49 cents per minute a cheaper option.

The recipient receives an email with a link to the Springdoo server where they can listen to their message.

Because messages are stored on Springdoo's server and streamed in real time rather than sent as attachments, Kerr says the service avoids virus and spam problems.

"You can't send a malicious email through Springdoo because you're not sending anything with Springdoo ... you're [only] sending a link."

Springdoo is already available in New Zealand and Australia with the US and UK launching tomorrow.

More than three years ago Kerr and Springdoo co-founder Michael Mayell started work on technology for delivering voice-based applications on the internet.

Kerr said his frustration with messaging services and transcribing dictaphone tapes, plus friends wanting to leave voice messages for travelling relatives and colleagues needing to add tone to sensitive emails, showed him a potential market.

"All these things really come back to one thing," Kerr said. "You can do all this stuff now, just not easily. Springdoo was really about how can we make the way that people communicate naturally, which is by voice, and make it as easy as to send an email."

He added the availability of mobile phones and computers made them logical devices to use.

Kerr says his initial target was the corporate user "who would rather spend the 29 cents per minute to leave a two-minute talking email than sit there for half an hour and write one".

However, he says he now has 100 new users signing on each week, which is revealing a wider demand - including the elderly and visually impaired, for whom using a keyboard can be difficult.

A new computer-to-computer service is expected to launch in November, Kerr said. Whereas the phone-to-email service is dependent on individual agreements with national telecos, a computer-to-computer service can be launched in a multilingual format globally in one hit, he said.

Computer users with internet access will be able to use a microphone plugged into their computer to record messages and email the link in much the same way as the telephone service.

Further expansion to include personal digital assistant devices is planned to follow the computer service launch.

Kerr has a goal of one million users for the computer service within its first year, and the key to achieving that, he said, is with a user-friendly front end.