The value proposition behind talking email isn’t obvious. If you want to talk, why not just use the phone? And when the product in question is called Springdoo, scepticism would seem to be justified. The name originated, says Springdoo’s website, in the idea, “When something springs to mind, do it.”

Back in 1993 two-way text messaging protocol sprang to the minds of Jason Kerr (who is now Springdoo’s chief executive) and a couple of colleagues, who “did it” for Vodafone and became SMS text pioneers. Who’d have predicted then that sending text messages with a phone would take off the way it has?

So there may be a bit more to Springdoo than mere novelty value. The idea is simple enough. After registering, you record a message via your phone, at a cost of 29 cents per minute if you’re in Auckland (or 49 cents per minute if you’re calling the 0800 number). You allocate the message to one or more email addresses in your Springdoo contacts list. The person you’ve left a message receives a notification email, asking them to click on a web link. This takes them to the website where the message is replayed as an audio file, provided their PC has a soundcard and speakers. There are no attachments to annoy grumpy IT managers and no bandwidth-hogging files to download.

Springdoo was established in 2004 by Kerr — who founded the recruitment and applicant tracking company Staff CV — along with Michael Mayell, who created the motivational programme Aristotle and is the entrepreneur behind Cookie Time cookies. Refining Springdoo has taken around nine months from its concept phase, and Kerr says there’s about four months to go until “phase two” is complete (during which time the product will be expanded to incorporate personal digital assistants and other devices). Prior to that, two years’ work was put into the underlying architecture. All told, around $2.5 million has been invested to date, with around another $500,000 committed in order to get the company to the end of phase two.

Kerr believes the product’s business benefit will be in time saving. You can send a Springdoo in a fraction of the time it takes to type a message, and it allows you to be more productive when you’re away from your computer. “The recipient can listen to the message at a time that’s convenient to them, they can carry on doing other stuff while their email talks,” says Kerr. “And because the spoken word is easier to understand, you could potentially reduce miscommunication.”

But wouldn’t it be easier to just call them? “If you want an immediate response, sure, the phone is the best way to communicate. If you don’t want an immediate response and you want to be unobtrusive, email works better.”

Sometimes neither a phone call nor an email is effective, and that’s when Springdoo comes into its own, Kerr reckons. “We don’t want to replace the written word or phone conversations. We just want to reduce the time spent typing messages that don’t warrant the effort, while making emails more personal.”

Chief executives who like making evangelical speeches to their employees can record them a Springdoo — and employees who really want to brown-nose can save the speech to play back on their iPod. But even the most egocentric business leader is likely to ask why they’d pay for Springdoo airtime on top of phone calls. Kerr claims the cost of using Springdoo is low, compared with the opportunity cost of time saved and potential productivity gains. “If the 0800 number is used, or if the 09 number is used from a landline, the business only has to pay for Springdoo airtime.”

There are other talking email products, but most send messages as file attachments. While tech geeks might write off Springdoo as a gimmick, at least they won’t complain that it tries to send 8MB files through corporate firewalls. Spammers, though, may welcome Springdoo like a long-lost friend with a full address book. For while Springdoos can be sent to a maximum of 20 people, and only 899 contacts can be loaded into an account, Kerr acknowledges technology can be misused. “Yes,” he concedes, “Springdoo can be used to enrich spam, too.”

But it is early days for Springdoo. The progressive launch of the product on the international market began here in early June of this year. It remains to be seen whether people will click on Springdoo’s web links once the novelty has worn off and those notification emails begin to be ‘spoofed’ by virus writers, or for yet more malicious purposes.