CONVERGENCE OF APPLICATIONS
Web browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc. are the accepted client applications for Internet access. Most equipment manufacturers are providing web interfaces for management and control of their systems instead of product specific client application.
Most of the applications are developed with web interface so that the application can be accessed from a standard client application supplied as part of the operating system.
Another example of convergence of application is unified messaging system. There are many popular web service providers, for instance Yahoo, MSN and Google, who started with either e-mail or search engines, but are now providing a banquet of messaging services like email, chat, instant messenger, conferencing, file sharing and VoIP.
There are several applications that can replace multiple communication devices such as telephone, fax, answering machine, books, etc, with one multimedia computer. The number of such services and applications are increasing day-by-day. Broadband and Direct-to-Home (DTH) are some communication technologies which allow interactive TV services such as movie-on-demand, Internet access, video conferencing and e-mail, all through a single connection.
In a nutshell, any data that can be digitised can also be communicated through a converged communication system. The distinct division between telecommunication and data communication has faded into one converged communication system. Efforts are on to make more and more services IP enabled and networked.
