Comments on: Mobile VoIP Startups Looking Beyond Cheap Calls

By: For Mig33, a Move to Asia — and Virtual Goods — Is Paying Off

For Mig33, a Move to Asia — and Virtual Goods — Is Paying Off — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:01:35 +0000

[...] The company is on track to break even by the second half of 2010 and be profitable by end of the year, CEO and founder Steven Goh tells us. What changed? “[W]e switched to social games and virtual content and that just took off,” said Goh, a strategy shift that coincided with Mig33′s move to Singapore. Until then, the company made its money selling cheap voice minutes. [...]

By: For Mig33, a Move to Asia — and Virtual Goods — Is Paying Off

For Mig33, a Move to Asia — and Virtual Goods — Is Paying Off — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:01:34 +0000

By: Nearly 300M VoIP Subscribers Seen By 2013 – GigaOM

Nearly 300M VoIP Subscribers Seen By 2013 – GigaOM — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:07:44 +0000

[...] the big numbers, I bet making money isn’t going to be easy for mobile VoIP [...]

By: Voip Setup

Voip Setup — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:56:52 +0000

VOIP Providers have reliased that giving away free voip calls is like robbing your own bank account. The valuations and the whole numbers game around users, have matured enough to realise that its not the right way for valuations. With this hard economy, these companies are stray dogs (mind my language). Voip Setup

By: Timoti Sanchez

Timoti Sanchez — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:32:09 +0000

Thanks, I think at the end of the day, there is still a lot of mileage in making money off of cheap mobile calls. The mobile operators have loan shark high profit margins, so even without extra apps and services, there is plenty a room for more players.movie download links

By: voucher codes

voucher codes — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:16:04 +0000

By: Malik

Malik — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:40:48 +0000

Truphone is no doubt the one of the best VoIP providers, I like its iPod App. I watched Press/Play of Telecom TV few days back, they provide the great information about mobile VoIPs as which one is the best and why? and also recommends Vopium and Truphone as the best mobile VoIP.

By: Cheap Advertising

Cheap Advertising — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:31:15 +0000

I am highly skeptical on the possibility of profit for those firms. Even likes of Skype, which was bought out by Ebay, is now facing problems with monetizing.

By: Flat Planet Phone introducing innovative mobile calling solution at Call the Cloud

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:13:42 +0000

[...] days ago I wrote about a GigaOm post that declaring that mobile VoIP startups need to "look beyond cheap calls"… These [...]

By: Moshe Maeir

Moshe Maeir — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:20:38 +0000

Om,
At the end of the day, there is still a lot of mileage in making money off of cheap mobile calls. The mobile operators have loanshark high profit margins, so even without extra apps and services, there is plenty a room for more players.

We are taking a little different approach by putting a LCR for mobile engine on a server. All you need to do is sync your cell phone with the server, no need for newfangled smartphones. I wrote more about it at http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/2009/01/23/the-last-frontier/ which generated plenty of interest. We are showing it at ITEXPO, so anyone who is down in Miami is welcome to stop by at booth 924 to discuss the future of “Mobile VoIP”

By: Truphone and iSkoot - AppStores of the future? at Call the Cloud

Truphone and iSkoot - AppStores of the future? at Call the Cloud — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:05:30 +0000

[...] and iSkoot show us two possible approaches. From a recent GigaOm post called Mobile VoIP Startups Looking Beyond Cheap Calls: By supporting Skype, Twitter and other communications services, Truphone is hoping to become the [...]

By: Shai Berger

Shai Berger — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:21:16 +0000

I think the key sentence in the post is “…develop a new platform for AT&T that would allow Ma Bell to offer iSkoot’s myriad services to its customers….” and then just remove the word “iSkoot”. iSkoot and mig33 are basically aiming to be the next generation “WAP store” for the carrier and at the same time, an answer to Apple’s AppStore.

AppStore showed us how compelling it is when you can discover, download and play apps from your device. And carriers have seen how much it lifts their data traffic. (iPhone trippled AT&T’s data traffic: http://www.shaiberger.com/?p=52)

So the carriers that *don’t* have iPhones want something similar for their flagship phones. And *all* carriers want to extend this concept to their lower priced phones.

But Blackberry can’t make an AppStore and neither can any of the carriers. Those guys don’t have the software chops. (Comparing Blackberry’s “Desktop Manager” to iTunes is like comparing Notepad and Word.)

So the answer is to bring in a 3rd party that has a system where games, chat, utilities, etc can be delivered do feature phones with a good user experience.

As Om put it yesterday: “I wouldn’t be surprised if they use technologies like iSkoot to create a new walled garden, though one with a perception of openness.”

http://gigaom.com/2009/01/26/iskoot-reboots-looks-at-a-new-mobile-future/

But, hey, AppStore is a “walled garden” too: They decide who gets in and doesn’t and they take a cut of all sales. Walls aren’t simply open or closed — it’s all about the nuances.

- Shai

Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/shaiberger

By: Vinay

Vinay — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:17:07 +0000

Personally, I do not see this happening anytime soon. Eventually most of the mobile VOIP Provider would consolidate or liquidate to form one big mobile VOIP provider, which I guess would emerge from Europe. We have seen most of the mobile voip action coming from europe only.

Fring atleast has an advantage coz they never positioned themselves as VOIP Provider and always stuck with the application arena which i believe will eventually do well on enterprise scene.

Even though we have strong VOIP sales numbers coming in business and individuals, I feel that many VOIP Providers will go out of business this year. Call it lack of focus or lack of innovation, it would eventually happen.

Vinay

By: Ben Barren - Confessions of a Mad Man » it’s all digital goods + asia

Ben Barren - Confessions of a Mad Man » it’s all digital goods + asia — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:37:43 +0000

[...] and what it does to the northbound RPU or whatever your preferred acronym for revenue per user is. Gigaom speaking to new CEO of Aussie Born Mig33 that the “company’s revenues have come from VoIP and digital goods, and that it will be [...]

By: Mobile Darwinism at work. | Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Mobile Darwinism at work. | Alec Saunders SquawkBox — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:26:02 +0000

[...] there a trend underway? Mobile startups everywhere are looking beyond cheap voice calls as generous minute packages have niched these players into providing cheap international long [...]

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:03:47 +0000

@paul

I think right now there is not a single killer twitter app on iPhone and no IM client that does the job. For now Truphone is doing what it says it can. It could be better and they better get better or they lose all value to me. I agree, though — the functionality needs to be focused and be very tight with whole concept of communications.