The mobile industry is due for a shakeup. The only question is, who's doing the shaking?
At the Citi Entertainment, Media, and Telecommunications conference this week, VoIP expert Vonage
CEO Marc Lefar waxed poetic about his new mobile applications. Vonage's next-generation mobile platform isn't actually for sale yet, so this is a 100% forward-looking initiative. The new product will roll free calls worldwide from one Vonage user to another, as well as its own messaging system and the usual calling plans.
If this sounds a lot like Skype, you're absolutely right. Lefar says that his service will be some 30% cheaper than Skype's per-minute rates. Vonage is also a full-fledged phone line alternative, while Skype wasn't designed for that. The mobile Vonage app taps into your smartphone's existing contacts list with a smoother user interface. "Skype is heavily invested in the Skype user name," while Vonage depends on tried-and-true phone numbers.
As for magicJack VocalTec
In short, Vonage believes that it has a unique all-in-one communications tool on its hands.
Not all of Vonage's big ideas pan out. Lefar admits that he spent way too much effort and enthusiasm on a Facebook product. "There is a certain kind of distance that people want to keep from those individuals and their contacts, and Facebook friends are not the folks that folks want to call on a regular basis via voice," he said. That's why the bog-standard phone numbers are so important in the mobile apps -- make Vonage behave like a regular cell phone and people will use it accordingly.
That idea should keep the top brass at AT&T
Whether or not this particular Vonage app tilts the established apple cart is almost beside the point. VoIP services will inevitably replace the reigning system of voice minutes. All the telecoms will be worse off when it happens, unless they provide their own VoIP services to head the exodus off at the pass. SMS text messaging is already sinking, replaced by cheap and simple Internet-based alternatives. Voice calls can't be too far behind.
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