skype & voip with or vs mobile phones?
Skype and Wi-Fi/VOIP compatible phone featured heavily at the CES at the beginning of this month. The models varied, and some even looked like they could do well at retail (they look like normal phones - Netgear had a well featured design going). All very well and good, but if you will be out and about, it won't be a practical option to be carrying two handsets around (or is it just me who has small pockets?).
But to get this technology to be more widely adopted, surely it should be integrated into future mobile phone handsets - i.e. building a Wi-fi/VOIP enabled mobile?
Similarly, having full compatibility with vCard address book formats would mean that storing multiple data fields against each of your contacts would be easier, and supporting a widely recognised industry standard - this would facilitate the retrieval of email addresses, Skype IDs, maybe even work into it a viable IM client.
Barriers? Mobile networks may not be too keen to encourage people to start dialling and talking on networks that they do not have control over (or at least, have no way of extracting revenue from). As we have seen with IM clients on mobile networks, they are developed solely to lock you into the mobile provider's proprietary network - often at a greatly inflated premium.
However, if a company like Microsoft is starting to take this technology seriously, then you know that someone significant has recognised this technology isn't going to go away in a hurry.
But to get this technology to be more widely adopted, surely it should be integrated into future mobile phone handsets - i.e. building a Wi-fi/VOIP enabled mobile?
Similarly, having full compatibility with vCard address book formats would mean that storing multiple data fields against each of your contacts would be easier, and supporting a widely recognised industry standard - this would facilitate the retrieval of email addresses, Skype IDs, maybe even work into it a viable IM client.
Barriers? Mobile networks may not be too keen to encourage people to start dialling and talking on networks that they do not have control over (or at least, have no way of extracting revenue from). As we have seen with IM clients on mobile networks, they are developed solely to lock you into the mobile provider's proprietary network - often at a greatly inflated premium.
However, if a company like Microsoft is starting to take this technology seriously, then you know that someone significant has recognised this technology isn't going to go away in a hurry.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 19, 2006 at 8:21 pm.
