Let’s play the long game

Alrighty, we waited a bit for the dust to die down on this one, but we just wanted to go on record to say that we don’t approve of public spats between companies – it’s pretty classless and does your consumers no good – what is the point of behaving like a guest on Sally Jesse Raphael? It just looks bad.

So what’s the 411 on the Fring spat with Skype? To us it doesn’t matter cause everyone has overlooked the bigger issue here – the long game of mobile VoIP or as consumers/users call it – mobile voice or wait.. free long distance, depending on which generation you ask.

I asked my mother-in-law and she says she is positive that “someone” has overlooked that it’s free so we should use it as much as we can before “they” shut it down. Interesting.

But, let’s take it back a step and look at what the frack we are actually talking about, if indeed we do know what we are talking about …. what is Mobile VoIP anyway? According to Nimbuzz, it all started when folks could make calls over the Internet (VoIP). And then well you know that old Internet caught on and you could get it on your mobile and then you could make calls over the Internet from your mobile phones (mobile VoIP), instead of via your mobile operator’s network.

So, we just asked Nimbuzz what they thought (and they told us, well to be fair, they told a bunch of bloggers):

Mobile VOIP is just a piece of the puzzle, which makes up the future of mobile communications. The future of mobile communications is a unified communications platform that gives users the freedom to have free and mobile calls, IM and all your friends as well as social networks in one place. And that means from any provider, anywhere in the world. This puts the user in charge of how they connect and communicate.

And, according to Nimbuzz, you can still talk with your friends and family over Skype via Nimbuzz. Their relationship with Skype remains the same and they continue to let people talk over Skype or any other instant messaging or social network, which ever they choose. Yay!

They go onto say: (we feel like jumping up and down shouting Yes Yes!)

Mobile VoIP is the start of something much bigger in mobile communications – and openness and choice are key components of this. Nimbuzz sees mobile VoIP as an entry vehicle to create the next generation of mobile communications. Delivering a unified communications solution to the mass market through the convergence of all the ways that users communicate today – chat/IM, social and online communities, mobile voice and SMS/text – for free.

We currently see companies battling for market share around features, but the future of mobile VOIP is not about SDKs, unlimited data plans, video or other individual features. It’s about building Value Added Services (VAS) around the user’s contacts or address book. Mobile VoIP is a true VAS. Nimbuzz believes in a global mobile community across all platforms, communities, devices and operators that gives users the ability to choose how they communicate. Calls will be free. Revenue will be generated from enriched mobile communications for all industry players, including users and operators. Simply put, it will become as ubiquitous as talking face-to-face at the same cost, free.

I think that is something my mother-in-law could get behind. – JLH

Related articles by Zemanta

• 100M Mobile VoIP Users by 2012 = a Fat & Happy Skype (gigaom.com)
• Fring-Skype iPhone slanging match: Telcos v freetards (go.theregister.com)
• Skype and Fring Go to War Over VOiP Video Calls (mashable.com)
• Skype rival Vopium raises $16.5M for VoIP (vator.tv)

Tags: Community, Connect & Share, Control, Free, Freedom, fring, Instant messaging, Mobile phone, Nimbuzz, Services, Skype, Telecommunications, Value Added Services, Voice over Internet Protocol

Tattletech Hot Seat with Vopium’s Tanveer Sharif

Shortly before Red Herring Europe, we had a chance to put Vopium’s CEO Tanveer Sharif on our Hot Seat.  Here we go:

Tattletech: What do you see as the future for conventional landline usage?  How much of that market share can VoIP absorb?

Tanveer Sharif: First of all Vopium offers a solution provides the cheapest call option to user may it be via VOIP, GSM or Wifi, or even landline. For landlines we have a service we call just dial, thus we are aiming for a bigger piece of the pie. The future will still see a decrease in landline usage, in most developing countries it is already no longer main stream. Globally alternate services like Vopium will see real growth as the trends shift to mobile only, low cost calling services.

TT: Considering the popularity of the GPhone and iphone, will Vopium be supported on those as well?

TS: Definitely, already we have an iPhone application pending approval @ app store whereas GPhone client is in development as we speak. Vopium has dedicated teams working on all the channels i.e. JAVA, RIM, SYMBIAN, Windows Mobile, Apple and Android too. Vopium is continuously adding compatible handsets on the market and support more than 500 devices at the moment.

TT: The name reminds us of opium, VoIP for the masses.  How did you come up with that and what is the association, if any, you’re trying to make?

TS: There is no doubt that Vopium is addictive. We came up with the name as we wanted to reflect the voip and addiction, and what could reflect that better than Vopium.

TT: Some of the rate discounts using your service vs. traditional calling are as much as 80% and 90% – how can you do that and maintain profitability as a company?

TS: The international call market is huge (approx 417 billion min as of 2008) and Vopium proves to be a viable business model given the market size and volume on offer. On top of that, the margin we make is substantial, despite the low prices.  So this is just a question of scalability rather than survival and be profitable.  It all makes a fantastic case vis-à-vis conventional calling services charging a handful.

TT: You have a deal sponsoring Team Saxo Bank in the 2009 Tour de France – will you actually have people from the company attending the race as well?  Are any of you cyclists?

TS:       As you know our HQ is based in copenhagen, and here you have almost more bikes than people. And we love cycling it is a healthy means of transportation, and enviroment friendly as well. Vopium is sponsoring Team Saxo Bank throughout 2009 and Tour de France will be one of the major events that some of us will attend. We in the company are not professional cyclists though it’s a hobby for some so I expect they will enjoy our association with Team Saxo Bank as do the users who will be given exclusive discount offers from time to time.

Tags: Voice over Internet Protocol