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

[Nitzan Kon]

--- On Tue, 3/17/09, SIP <sip at arcdiv.com> wrote:

> Where, then, is the business plan?

Grand Central never had one. Google Voice is probably going
to be the more corporate'd cousin and there will have to be
some sort of advertising or charging to get the cash flowing.

They say they'll be selling international calls and that's
going to pay the bills, but I can tell you for a fact it
will not. For starters there is no possible way they could
offer better rates than smaller VoIP providers - and they
don't accept SIP calls anyway. It's going to be a glorified
Calling Card system - and not a particularly cheap one either.
It'll fail miserably in paying the bills IMHO.

> With this in mind, it seems that cost comes first and
> foremost, and service quality second.

Yes and no. People are more than willing to pay a few extra
bucks as long as it's competitive - if they feel they are
getting a good deal and good value overall.

> But here is Google, pushing VoIP tech

Google Voice is NOT VoIP. There is no way to make a SIP call
through it. To make a free call through GV you'd need to first
call GV to begin with - making it a Calling Card system rather
than a VoIP provider. The simul ring features are nice and all,
but you still need to have some sort of phone service before
you can use it.

I think this is the biggest weakness in GV - it is not going
to be the main communications hub it's glorified to be- simply
because it is *not* a central point of communications.
Sure- people will use it for varying purposes, but the way it
is built by definition prevents it from being your MAIN phone
solution, which in essence makes it a niche product at best.

Is it innovative? maybe. Is it cool? sure. Is it game-changing?
absolutely not.

> 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.

Why? GV doesn't even compete with a regular VoIP provider
directly - they don't offer SIP and you can't hook up anything
to GV, let alone an adapter or IP phone.

-- Nitzan
http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com