Friday, November 30, 2007

Lots of VoIP Apps, But...

There are lots of VoIP apps from TalkPlus to the latest one Voxcall (another voice app for Facebook). The one thing that these guys don't get: IT'S ALL ARBITRAGE PLAYS. In other words, mostly it's we'll save you money. That's great, but it's lacking.

College students today do not use cell phones for calls, but for texting and web surfing. Adults use the cell phone for talking (or powering their cars because in Tampa it seems people can't drive their mini-van without a cell phone glued to their ear).

Gary Kim says that Japanese usage of voice is decreasing. And the Japanese market, while ahead of the curve, is the model market used to predict what will occur in the US market.

So while all these VoIP plays are nice, they are missing the mark. People on Facebook use chat, IM and posts to communicate - not click to call. eBay was supposed to use Skype for C2Call. Has that happened yet? Is there a demand not being met? Not really.

The VoIP providers need to make voice more relevant and easy. How many have integrated TeleVantage? Or CRM? Or TAPI (Outlook hooks)? The PC and the desktop phone should be married by now.

International calls on your cell phone is a small market, because you need a phone that can load an app and has an unblocked data plan, since the cellcos don't like people bypassing the network (despite VZW's announcement to be open).

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