I'll take the occasion of the Macworld 2006 exp to harp on Apple a bit for its latent posture regarding the matter of
Voice over IP, and do a bit of rumormongering myself. My believe is that Apple could probably be doing a lot more
with IP telephony than their excellent-but-very-vertical iChat AV application--essentially just an I.M. client with
support for AIM and Jabber protocols, voice chats, and video. It may even be the best free video-conferencing solution
on the market, and its value may be multiplied by the fact that it works with GoogleTalk.
But why isn't
Apple doing more in this space? The iPod proved that untapped markets speak to Steve Jobs. Perhaps the black
turtlenecked CEO of Apple isn't interested in the VoIP industry because it sees a hodgepodge of private and public
companies engaged in various marketing compaigns hocking international minutes for two cents a minutes and so
forth. That just isn't the sexy marketing appeal Steve Jobs likes to surround his product launches with.
Perhaps Steve's other problem with the VoIP service model embraced by Vonage and Packet8 is that, at least right now,
it is very difficult to turn a profit by selling VoIP minutes to residential customers.
No, Steve would
rather do a VoIP product that can stun Apple's opponents for upwards of five years or more, creating a near-term
sustainable product lifecycle that absolutely ruins the competition. Just like the iPod did. It's so far ahead in brand
recognition, product refinement, and iconic mainstream recognition that no other multimedia portable player can catch
it. In fact, no portable ever will.
Can Apple, or anybody, innovate a VoIP product that has the potential
to splash the way the iPod has?
Catchword that you read here FIRST:
VoiPod. I don't know what a VoiPod is, but I want one if it has an Apple logo on
it.... Beause that logo almost, almost always means it's going to be a damn good product.
1. I think it has almost Everything that you need Firewall, router, and two independent telephone lines, which are very important features for businesses who might be interested in using it (reccomended for small and medium business only). and the KTA3000 Router/ Terminal Adaptor to support multiple IP addressing methods, PPPoE, Static IP, etc allowing to protect your network through various IP security and firewall methods. So I really think they should be doing something by now, I have a feeling this is the next big hit.
Posted at 12:00AM on Jan 10th 2006 by award giving body