The end of the phone as we know it
Andy Jagoe is zigging while the rest of the mobile world zags. Let everyone else chase the next hot iPhone app. He’s betting the next big thing is a twist on the same old thing: making calls.
He may be right. Jagoe, CEO and co-founder of startup 3jam, is one of several Silicon Valley dreamers who thinks he can reinvent the phone call. And really, let’s admit it’s in need of some Internet-style innovation. We’re in 2009, for crying out loud. Why isn’t call forwarding as easy as e-mail forwarding? Why don’t your voicemails live in a nifty little online inbox?
Remember web 2.0? It’s time for phone 2.0.
And it’s arriving. The most prominent example is Google's (GOOG) Google Voice, an invitation-only service that offers a free Internet telephone number that forwards calls wherever its owner chooses and delivers features like visual voicemail, call screening and transcription.
Mountain View-based Ditech Networks (DITC) has a similar invitation-only offering called toktok. San Francisco-based 3jam, which is open to the public and starts at $5 per month, adds tricks like convenient group text messaging.
Voice apps are coming
Not everyone is a fan. Apple (AAPL) caused a stir last month when it barred Google Voice software from the iPhone App Store, saying it duplicates features the handset already provides. But Jagoe thinks the services will prevail eventually. “It's going to be hard,” he says, “to prevent this kind of functionality from appearing on a phone.”
Indeed, people who use these services swear by them, and in Silicon Valley these days it’s a growing cohort. (At a mobile technology panel this month at Microsoft’s (MSFT) Mountain View campus, Google Voice users outnumbered Amazon (AMZN) Kindle users five to one.) The reason is simple: phone 2.0 is liberating phone calls the same way webmail liberated e-mail a decade ago. Now you can keep your phone number, your call history and your voicemails no matter how many times you move, change jobs or switch carriers.
Over a burger at a San Francisco lunch spot, Jagoe explains why this revolution in phone calls is happening now. First, it recently became more affordable for startups like 3jam to forward calls to landlines. Second, Neustar (NSR), a company that enables text messaging, this year gave Internet-based phone numbers a boost by allowing them to send and receive text messages. And third, mobile consumers increasingly crave better options for managing their conversations and staying productive.
Of course, even if the masses are ready for a phone call revolution, there’s no guarantee they’ll buy it from 3jam. If Google Voice opens up its free service to the general public soon, it will get a lot tougher for Jagoe to sell monthly plans. And then there’s the threat from the phone giants: Glenn Lurie, president of Emerging Devices at ATT (T), tells Fortune that he’s keeping an eye on Internet-based voice services. Clearly carriers would prefer to be the ones selling those kinds of features.
Regardless, Jagoe has a couple of things going for him. 3jam recently finalized a deal with Peek, maker of the eponymous e-mail device, where 3jam will offer phone numbers to Peek users. With those numbers, users soon will be able to more reliably send texts as well as e-mails, and even get voicemail transcripts.
Perhaps more important, Jagoe is running a lean operation, having recently cut 3jam’s full-time payroll from 25 people to 5. He says the company is on track to be cash flow positive by the end of the year, which should help him to avoid the fate of VoIP peers like Yoomba and Jangl that burned through cash before they could figure out a long-term business model.
In the end, the business part has to work. Even in the phone 2.0 world, if you can’t pay the bills, you get disconnected.
状语从句知识点总结:It be…since /before /when…从句归纳
状语从句知识点总结:状语从句在复合句中的位置
状语从句知识点总结:英语八类状语从句的用法归纳
状语从句知识点总结:as引导时间状语从句的谓语特点
状语从句知识点总结:状语从句的简化
状语从句知识点总结:英语从属连词用法分类详解
状语从句知识点总结:让步状语从句(三大方面)
状语从句知识点总结:目的状语从句学习指导
状语从句知识点总结:wherever引导的两类状语从句
状语从句知识点总结:so…that与such…that
状语从句知识点总结:even though和even if的用法区别
状语从句知识点总结:让步状语从句学习指导
状语从句知识点总结:英语条件状语从句的用法及有关说明
状语从句知识点总结: 这个where 引导什么从句
状语从句知识点总结:whenever引导的两类状语从句
状语从句知识点总结:结果状语从句学习指导
状语从句知识点总结:原因状语从句学习指导
状语从句知识点总结:基础练习50道(附答案)
状语从句知识点总结:时间状语从句学习指导
状语从句知识点总结:英语目的状语从句的用法及有关说明
状语从句知识点总结:目的状语从句(三个方面)
状语从句知识点总结:状语从句相关例句
状语从句知识点总结:地点状语从句的四个要点
状语从句知识点总结:英语时间状语从句的用法及有关说明
状语从句知识点总结:用一般现在时表示将来
状语从句知识点总结:让步状语从句的常用引导词
状语从句知识点总结:引导比较状语从句的常用关联词
状语从句知识点总结:状语从句的概念及时态特点
状语从句知识点总结:although与though的用法区别
状语从句知识点总结:原因状语从句(四大点)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |