Know all of these great mobile applications that we keep seeing in the app stores? Especially the ones doing VoIP? Well, it seems like they’re not really made to stick – at least not if operators have their say about them.
While one of the most interesting news out of MWC was the fact that Nokia N97 comes with a pre-installed Skype client and able to run on both WiFi and 3G, operators O2 and Orange are not thrilled.
iPhone has now a bunch of VoIP applications in their application store, but most (if not all) are pure WiFi and cannot access 3G networks – at least not until you jailbreak the phone. The reason for that is mainly Apple’s dependency on operators to sell the iPhone through their channels. That requires them, as any other handset vendor, to comply with the operators’ rules. This usually means removal of any disruptive technologies that might affect the revenue stream of the operators.
I’ve written over at Talking Video that video calling clients cannot be downloadable. I believe that VoIP clients shouldn’t be downloadable either, so until operators open the door for such integration into the handsets, mobile VoIP will not be a mass market phenomenon.
And for that to happen, operators should embrace IMS and start deploying it. If they wait too long, Skype and other internet based VoIP service providers will get their way and the operators will become the dumb pipes they fear to be.
Tags: 3G, App Store, Clients, IMS, mobile VoIP, operators, Skype, Video calling, VoIP, VoIP client, wifi
Comments and trackbacks
1. Michael Leuker | March 19th, 2009 at 5:01 am
And for that to happen, operators should embrace IMS and start deploying it… that train is long gone and they are data pipes already when it comes to most smartphones. O2 and Orange may not be thrilled… but why should Nokia care? They’ll take their phones anyway as skipping them would put them at a serious disadvantage. And dumb or not… data revenues are higher than voice ARPU and it’s time for mobile providers to wake up to the new realities that they themselves helped create by having a good slumber for nearly a decade.
I object the thought that a video client cannot be downloadable as this is only true from an operators point of view where different platforms _have_ to be supported. If I can use Skype and video calling from the new N97 or iPhone then as a user I simply couldn’t care less if other Symbian or (previous) iPhone users can or can’t do the same. Granted, it would be nice to have a standard, but as you said yourself the devices are different and I (again as a user) do.not.want to have a crappy video experience just because operators have to stick to the smallest denominator.
This goes even less for VoIP clients! Why should we wait until the operators get their act together and implement this? I can have perfect calls with any VoIP enabled Nokia phone and the experience is seamless. Nearly any phone on the market today can at least run the basic codecs without a nightmarish adaption process. And while Apple (sat least for now) cares about the providers and their backward policies, other vendors leave it up to the user where and when to use VoIP. IM and VoIP software will completely destroy the classical milk cows in the smartphone market and there’s not a thing that providers can do about it in the long run.
2. Tsahi Levent-Levi | March 19th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Michael,
I share almost the same viewpoint as you do – today, users can do VoIP calls from most smartphones out there. Problem is – it requires them to download an application, install it and use it in a separate context than the usual way they do their calls – and there lies the problem for wider adoption by the masses. Techies will go for it, while the rest of the population probably won’t.
Tsahi
3. Michael | March 19th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
You are right when it comes to most smartphones. No matter how comfortable the download is there is a clear breach in how you usually place calls and it takes time getting used to. The best implementation that I have seen so far is on some Nokia phones where the VoIP client is integrated into the core OS and I am not talking “integrated” in the Windows Mobile sense either
There is no difference between placing a normal and a VoIP call once you have entered your SIP credentials: VoIPo3G works like a charm, the phone profiles are supported and the right speaker and echo cancellation are used. I think the average sponsored Nokia device user won’t get to use it like that as most providers choose to strip the functionality, but it clearly shows how things can (and will) work out even if providers decide to keep their eyes shut for some more years.
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed