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There are so many mobile voice apps I cannot even keep track. Some are convoluted. Some are callback services. Some are pure packet based VoIP that eat up data usage. Others actually use up minutes.

With all the hype about Skype on the iPhone, I have to wonder why you would need it. Most cellcos offer an unlimited plan. Are you making THAT many international calls on your cell phone? How many people could that possibly be?

Don't people work in an office at all? Couldn't or more correctly shouldn't important phone calls be made at the office? Here are the benefits of calling from the office: the background noise is less, the sound of flushing toilets is minimal, and no one can overhear your conversation. Oh, yeah, HD calling! At the minimum, you have better call quality than a cell phone at the office.

I know that people travel more than I do - Rich certainly does - but how much international dialing are you doing? It would seem that any domestic calling can be done via your cell plan. Conference calls? How about Google Voice or other conference platform that dials out?

It just seems like there are so many mobile VoIP apps and not enough benefit to the caller. Also, as Gary Kim writes here, this will likely result in more expensive data plans. What Gary didn't mention is that the cellular network is based on a finite bandwidth schema. Voice calls take up less than 10K. VoIP calls have to take up at least 35k, so every VoIP call is taking up about 4 voice calls. That's a huge displacement. Add in backhaul costs that have now quadrupled and the cost structure (or more precisely the RBOC profit structure) just went out of whack.

At the end of the day, I don't understand the mobile VoIP app.

The first SAAS vendor I remember seeing at Channel Partners was nGenX, a subsidiary  of Lightwave Group. nGenX was offering Microsoft Office on-demand as a white label product for agents to sell for commission.

Next up for agents and VARs is GreenAppx.

With branded SaaS marketplaces, telecom agents and VARs can help small to mid-size customers eliminate capital expenditures and licensing agreements. SMBs can access critical business applications such as Microsoft Hosted Exchange Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, GoodLink Mobile Email, McAfee Security, WebEx Conferencing, and IBM Data Back Up and Recovery. In addition to hosting and network infrastructure, GreenAppX manages all transactions, application licensing, and software updates.[thomasnet]

Lots of ways to add streams of income to your traditional telecom catalog. More agents should be selling data storage/back-up/email archiving, it's like AFLAC for your business.

I'm coming late to this discussion (here and here and here), but I'll still offer my opinion. VoIP isn't Dead; it got lazy.

We have been talking VOIP and Converged for a while. We have zoomed past the point where VoIP will save you a lot of money.

Consumers use their cell phone for long distance calls, not that the average consumer had a domestic LD bill greater than $25 in the last 2 years. (International is another story). Consumers have been dropping home landlines in favor of a mobile phone. The cellcos have added unlimited voice plans. So where's this money your saving me? Huh?

There are SOOOO many VoIP apps - Skype, Jaxtr, i2 - what good are they? IM on my phone? Why? Text messaging is easier. VoIP calls? Why? I have Unlimited Calling or at least a bucket of minutes large enough to fix the monthly cost. As I told a prospective client: IMO, there aren't that many folks making that many calls to International on their cell phone. So where's the market? On International, it costs more to call to and from a cell phone depending on the country - so the savings?

It isn't about savings. It's about convenience and efficiency and productivity and ease of use. Unless your product or service or app can Deliver that, don't release it.

VoIP got crowded and then lazy. There was too much "buzz", too much noise. The focus disappeared. It's about Mash-ups like the one Gavin Stark wrote for BarCampTampaBay with RubyonRails and Asterisk whereby you dialed the number, put in the room number, and the session titles were read to you along with session start times. Bingo! Useful voice app.

Newber - location aware phone app. If Apple ever releases it, everyone with an iPhone will be able to enjoy the ingenuity of that app.

Medical Scheduling apps that dial out reminder messages to patients about office visits allow for the doctor to have a clearer schedule (efficiency). It can also be co-opted to dial patients to remind them to take meds, get an annual physical, or to collect blood sugar or vitals from the elderly or the sick. This is VoIP at its best -- and we need more of it. This kind of app is useful and productive - and likely can result in lower healthcare costs. Hello!

It's not just the marketing Message, it's the whole product world view. We think VoIP, so we think cheap dial-tone. How about we remember that the new IP Phones (like the Aastra 35iCT sitting on my desk) are computers that happen to run voice apps along with other XML apps. That Voice is just the killer app alongside email - and unified messaging or UC is all about one inbox for voicemail, email, and other messages - on whatever device (IP phone, PC, net appliance or smart phone) you can access it on. It's about Click-to-call not VoIP. What does VoIP enable?  When the developers figure that out, the marketing message should be clear.

The discussion on VoIP: dead or Alive resulted in a podcast. Hear it here.

I am on quite a few committees that meet mainly by email and the occasional  conference call. Neither email nor conference call are highly effective collaboration tools for an ongoing committee. So I have been looking at other ways to work.

One idea that comes up is Yahoo! Groups (and Google Groups). It's basically email but with the message archive. It also has a file upload area; polling; and who's online. But you have to register (using a Y! account).

I have had a cursory look at Stixy. It has notes and to-do lists, which makes it like a wiki only better. (Most committees I work with don't like wikis and have tried to use Google docs instead). We may try this one.

Another one that looks good is Genius Room.  It has a good review here.

If you have other ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

FreedomVoice is still awaiting approval from Apple on their Newber app for the iPhone, a location based  there's a counter on MyNewber.com. DS Media is also still waiting for its approval. (I noticed that DS Media's front web page changed to Coming Soon. DS Media was a sponsor of BarCampTampaBay).

What's up with Apple any way? Like the company deciding they will not be attending MacWorld (or any other big conferences) starting in 2009.

In 2007, Cisco integrated Jabber components into its conferencing platform. Today, Cisco buys Jabber, "an open-source IM and presence protocol used by Google Talk and Gizmo, for an undisclosed sum".  On our panel at IT Expo, The Role of Apps in VoIP, we talked about Gen Y not liking to talk on the phone. My conclusion is that you will need to incorporate XMPP and XML to enable chat, instant messaging, SMS messaging to IP phone - all to communicate with employees, customers, vendors - without talking on a phone.

FreedomVoice unvieled Newber at CTIA. It is the beta version of the first location-aware business number. Newber Beta is an application that resides in the iPhone as a fully functional second line and uses positioning technology to locate and seamlessly transfer calls to nearby landlines, even during an in-progress call.

Newber Beta delivers an independent number that can be assigned to any phone, sparing the caller the task of dialing multiple numbers for mobile, home, work, etc. Newber Beta also allows a person to take business calls on their private phone without giving out personal information.

A highly anticipated capability of the commercial release is "Contact Finder". A Newber user will be able to simply tap a name on the contact list and all of that contact's 'numbers will be automatically dialed in sequence. Manually dialing one 'number after another will be a thing of the past.

"Plans are in the works to introduce Newber for other mobile smart phones," said Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVoice. "Newber is making business calls simple again."

"The Newber application adds a second business line to your iPhone that enables you to redirect incoming calls to any phone using built-in GPS technology. Simply key in a landline phone number at your location, then toggle between taking your business calls on that phone or your iPhone. Newber will automatically detect this phone each time you return to that location, allowing you to change phones with one touch. You can even swap phones in the middle of a live call without interrupting the conversation." [from the Newber website]

IntoMobile has the above video with a good description as well as a demo of Newber. Newber's functionality is similar to the Broadsoft Anywhere application.

Disclosure: FreedomeVoice is a consulting client of mine. Congrats! to Eric & Company.  And only yesterday I was complaining about all the iPhone news.

I see that The Mozilla project has added functionality to Thunderbird, the email client I use. With Sunbird calendar and Lightning plug-in. "Since it's an extension, Lightning is tightly integrated with Thunderbird, allowing it to easily perform email-related calendaring tasks." My question: Is anyone using this combo as a replacement for Microsoft Outlook?

My Outlook pst file is about 1GB and email contents date back to my start in telecom in 2000. Can T-Bird run with 1GB in email, contacts, hundreds of folders, thousands of calendar items and hundreds of tasks and reminders? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

TechRepublic has a great review of Microsoft OCS. "The verdict: For most organizations, Microsoft's current unified communications product will supplement-not supplant-traditional telephony systems."

OCS has 3 main weaknesses. One is 911.

OCS does not support enhanced 911 location information and not many (if any) third parties provide E911 services for OCS. E911 is critical in a college environment.

OCS does not provide for hunting or conference calling.

Maybe it will be fixed in SP3 or with the next version of OCS.

In a recent column in PC Mag, An Ode to Shrink Wrapped Software, John Dvorak talks about the ten weaknesses of online apps. It really comes down to this: "Using the Internet to return to the old model of mainframe computing is a misuse of resources and a dead end."

Everything else he says just comes back to either the model sucks or the security / reliability stinks. His argument is really about Control. He makes it sound like when you buy the latest version of Microsoft anything, you own it or have any control over it. It has as many security flaws as using an open, unsecured PC at an Internet cafe and leaving it for a potty break.