"AIM Call Out," the VoIP service offered by AOL, is shutting down on March 25, 2009. AIM Call Out allowed users to make long-distance calls from their mobile phone, landline, or through AIM, and was the successor to the original AIM Phoneline service launched in November 2007, with the intention of building not just a VoIP calling service, but one with lots of new applications created by a developer community.
In this case, the direction was solid, but traction apparently became an issue.
AOL launched an Open Voice platform, a developer's toolkit that allows developers to more easily develop products running on AOL's network. Of course, critical mass is really important when taking that approach, and AOL, like some other highly-used instant messaging services, simply wasn't able to establish that mass.
Yahoo Voice also failed to establish itself, and was sold to Jajah, for example. And anybody who has tried to build a robust third-party application development ecosystem can attest to the difficulty. Apple's AppStore has been phenomenally successful, but most of those apps are built for Web apps rather than voice.
Still, you can be sure the general approach is the right one. Lots of other contenders are using the same game plan, for the right reasons. Development of new apps requires the creativity only an open platform can unleash.
As the saying goes, "an API is not a business model." No, not by itself.
In this case, the direction was solid, but traction apparently became an issue.
AOL launched an Open Voice platform, a developer's toolkit that allows developers to more easily develop products running on AOL's network. Of course, critical mass is really important when taking that approach, and AOL, like some other highly-used instant messaging services, simply wasn't able to establish that mass.
Yahoo Voice also failed to establish itself, and was sold to Jajah, for example. And anybody who has tried to build a robust third-party application development ecosystem can attest to the difficulty. Apple's AppStore has been phenomenally successful, but most of those apps are built for Web apps rather than voice.
Still, you can be sure the general approach is the right one. Lots of other contenders are using the same game plan, for the right reasons. Development of new apps requires the creativity only an open platform can unleash.
As the saying goes, "an API is not a business model." No, not by itself.
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