News / Software
XMPP and SIMPLE compete in a 2006 IM discussion
A 2006 discussion of instant-messaging protocols asked whether XMPP could prevail, while recognizing that deployment scale and interdomain communication changed the answer.
No single protocol winner
Robert Sparks, identified as an organizer of SIPit, was cited as seeing XMPP as a good fit for medium-sized solutions. For large portals and interdomain use, the discussion pointed instead toward SIMPLE, which was also being promoted in work around OMA and push-to-talk services.
The author favored supporting both XMPP and SIMPLE in softphone or soft-client software. SIP was expected to handle early VoIP signaling, with SIMPLE, XCAP and possibly MSRP considered for later messaging functions. It is a technical preference expressed during an unsettled standards debate, not a claim that either stack became universal.