[asterisk-biz] Google's voice product [OT]

[voip-asterisk at maximumcrm.com]

Remember, Bait _then_ switch.

Either they'll find a way to monetize it when enough people are using the 
service, or they will shut it down in a few years along with other 
unpopular services.



On Tue, 17 Mar 2009, SIP wrote:

> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:26:05 -0400
> From: SIP <sip at arcdiv.com>
> Reply-To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
>     <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
>     <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> Subject: [asterisk-biz] Google's voice product [OT]
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?_r=1
>
> The Pogue article is, as to be expected, gushingly lavish with Google
> praise.
>
> Which leads me to a question:  how is this envisioned in the world of
> consumer VoIP (is anyone even still IN that business) ?  The article
> mentions that the entire service, single number, VoIP calling,
> transcription services, etc. will be completely free and ad-free. Where,
> then, is the business plan?
>
> As we've noticed in our several years of being in business, consumer
> VoIP users are, for a lack of a better term, fickle. While
> facilities-based VoIP has a certain amount of customer retention simply
> because it targets home installations, the rest of the consumer VoSP
> world seems to see a rather high turnaround of users. It's still
> reasonably newer tech, and those who have the knowledge to put it to
> good use treat it, rightly, as a commodity. As long as the service is
> tolerable and the price is good, they'll jump ship from one VoSP to
> another faster than you can send a SIP REGISTER packet.
>
> With this in mind, it seems that cost comes first and foremost, and
> service quality second. People jump for cost, but they will stick around
> an extra five seconds for quality of service, simply because the other
> players out there become an unknown.
>
> But here is Google, pushing VoIP tech (which will almost certainly
> integrate into their Google Talk services) to the consumer with all the
> trimmings of GrandCentral, plus some of Google's characteristically
> flashy, but likely very beta or late alpha services -- all for free.
>
> With its constant marketing steamroller, and its massive brand
> recognition, I don't see, honestly, how 95% of the non-facilities-based
> consumer voice products out there will stand up to it.
>
> But how long will it be the way it is now -- free of charge for basic
> services and ad-free? Is this a first salvo to slaughter the competition
> as cleanly as possible before the shift in business models? I don't see
> how even Google could sustain a product of this complexity and sheer
> cost without SOME method of making that cost back, and if common models
> of free to pay business marketing have taught us anything, it's that you
> can't build a sustainable business model around a service which is
> primarily free except for a few bits and pieces that might cost if
> people bother to use them.
>
> Ideas? Comments? Snide remarks?
>
> N.
>
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