I came across this article about Google recently launching its VOIP services. What I found rather interesting was that Google, with a flick of a switch, had provided "hundreds of millions" of its Gmail users the ability to use Google voice through VOIP!
Apart from making VoIP synonomous with Googling in today's tech vocabulary, a few parts of the solution are still missing. For one, the business VoIP that we know has still not been released. Google has said that the business VoIP offering wasn't ready yet but that they'd be interested in offering such a service in the future. Also with its Android operating system nearing ubiquity in the mobile sector--each plugged right in to a Gmail account--it's quite possible that with another flip of a software switch, Google would dominate the mobile VoIP world overnight as well.
The implications of Google providing VOIP products to desktop users and possibily in the near future through its Android smartphones eliminates the need for other desktop and mobile VOIP products. Also companies like Skype will be under threat by Google entering its domain. Finally this could mean another nail in the coffin for US telecom operators' declining voice ARPU (Avg Revenue Per User).
With its 600 million users, Skype is still the Number 1 in VoIP calling. By building the new calling functionality into every gmail account, google makes VoIP available to all its 200 million users.
ReplyDeleteOn August 9, 2010, Skype announced its IPO and only a couple of days later, on August 25, 2010, Google brought the new VoIP service to market. This is bad news for Skype. The new service might not be the Skype-killer, but for sure a serious competitor. This might force both companies to innovate much faster and lower calling rates, to the detriment of cellular phone carriers and to the benefit of the end-user.
The Google VoIP technology perfectly integrates with the contacts of gmail. However, for desktop users Skype smoothly integrates with the Outlook contacts. Personally I am an Outlook user and prefer Skype to Google VoIP, because Skype runs as a separate application. It will be interesting to watch how the two VoIP providers will upgrade their product offering and calling rates.