Category:
Next Gen VoIP

Competitors:
Jajha, Ooma, Truphone, TalkPlus, etc., etc.

Line of Attack:
The etc, etc. at the end of the “Competitors” line above is no joke: there are simply no end of next-generation consumer VoIP companies with new approaches and business models. Sure, Vonage may be embattled and Skype growing subscribers but not eBay’s share price. But vendors aiming to leverage IP voice services in innovative new ways don’t appear to be going away any time soon.

For instance, vendors like Ooma or Magic Jack offer low-cost hardware devices for residential VoIP-over-broadband calling. Jajah and Jaxtr offer embeddable call-me buttons, integrating VoIP, the Web and social networking. TalkPlus and TruPhone offer VoIP-over-wireless-broadband, bringing voice over IP to the cell and smart phone.

What differentiates this new group: a focus on features and functionality rather than mere price-cutting (though many offer some version of “free” calls – so price isn’t totally irrelevant to their approach).

“This really is a model that expands upon the notion that voice is more than just a commodity service,” said William Stofega, research manager-VoIP services at IDC. “Take Web-based click-to-call, there’s some interesting call control capabilities around that. Now add push-to-cell-phone or integrating voice with IM and things start to get real interesting.”

Best Defense:
This is one market probably best left to the startups willing to pinch pennies and chase low-margin advertising models. The danger, though, is just how popular such services will be with the Facebook-set. It’s already more likely that the prototypical teenager would put up a harder fight if you took away her MySpace page or cell phone than the second phone line her room. So this isn’t a trend to be taken lightly.