AIM "Call Out" Shutting Down

"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.

Fixya: Social fix-it Site

Fixya is a social site devoted to helping consumers fix their technology products, ranging from mobile phones and PCs to automobiles. 

Fixya is a community resource capable of providing relevant and up-to-date troubleshooting data.. 

Today, with over 12 million visitors and one million products in its database, FixYa empowers individuals to repair and improve upon their already-purchased possessions.

The company also offers business services to manufacturers and retail businesses through its custom partnership opportunities.

FixYa is a place where individuals can share real world experience and connect to provide each other practical advice. From fixing cars, to cameras, to iPhones, FixYans are part of a DIY revolution that helps empower techies, tinkerers and hobbyists across the globe.

FixYa is a venture-funded Web 2.0 company with offices in San Mateo, California. 

Toktumi Business VoIP Service

Toktumi offers a business IP telephony service costing $14.95 a month without contracts, activation fees,  termination fees, equipment to buy or per-minute charges. 

Click the graphic to see a large version of the comparison Toktumi provides.

Toktumi offers a dedicated number local number, an 800 number, or a ported existing number.

Features include call waiting, call transfer, caller ID, call forwarding, auto attendant, as well as a second number for a mobile phone that allows users to place and receive calls on mobiles using the Toktumi number. 

Instant conference calls for up to 20 people, including call recording, visual voice mail, customized greetings  for business and personal callers and PC-based calling are included. Directory-based dialing, unlimited calling, call forwarding, and conferencing to U.S. and Canadian numbers as well as other Toktumi users worldwide also are included. 

International calls cost $.02 per minute for calls to destinations including China, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Windows IP PBX in 10 Minutes?

Hak5 claims a Windows based IP-PBX can be set up in 10 minutes using software by 3CX. You might wonder why somebody who is fairly technical and in the "do it yourself" mode would not choose to use Asterisk. The answer is that some people will be able to create the functionality in Windows faster than they can using Linux.

Apparently 3CX offers a "free" download and then incremental payment for features such as unified messaging or call parking, for example. Hak5 reports the auto-provisioning to a Linksys Linksys SPA962 IP phone was flawless.

It's just another example of a sort of inversion of value in communications, where important communications functionality and value are very low cost, despite providing high value. It is conventional--and largely correct--wisdom that value is "moving up the stack."

That does not mean "pipes" and "infrastructure" such as call control are unimportant. People might not think electricity is unimportant, but watch the disruption when it suddenly fails. Still, even carriers and service providers increasingly are facing issues familiar to people working in the software business: lots of really valuable utility now is widely available at low cost.

So businesses have to built on incremental value using the still-essential but "utility-like" infrastructure. It's something like a million lines of code becoming an inexpensive foundation and value and revenue built on new apps that might, in some cases, require only scores of lines of additional code.

Setting up 16 phones took about two hours, including a firmware upgrade, Hak5 reports. Basic user maintenance apparently is simple enough that administration can be turned over to people who aren't IT staffers.

"I really would suggest anyone with a Windows machine lying around the house who has a need for a basic PBX for use with either a VOIP provider, or a PSTN gateway look at 3CX," says Matt Lestock, Hak5 contributor and a systems architect.

The analogy is the "freemium" business model, where basic and valuable features are offered "at no incremental cost" and fees support enhanced features.

Communications, Not Entertainment or Shopping, Now Dominates Online Use

As conventional wisdom has it, entertainment, rather than voice and data, will drive the communications business in the future. But recent research by Netpop suggests that even in the online world, it is communications, not shopping or entertainment, that drives usage.

Netpop | Connect Social Networkers 2008 Teaser

View more presentations from Netpop. (tags: advertising marketing)

Wireless Industry "Collapsing"?

Mobile subscriber penetration in the U.S. market is nearing saturation, no doubt about it. But it seems wildly wrong to maintain, as does Craig Moffett, Sanford C. Bernstein &  Company analyst, that “this industry is collapsing”

Slowing subscriber growth will lead to devasting price wars, he believes. To be sure, analysts always are worried about price wars. But "collapse"? Slowing subscriber numbers are a fact. But so is higher average revenue per user. 

Moffett notes that in 2008, wireless carriers added 5.9 percent more subscribers in the United States,  but he thinks they will add only three percent this year. A reasonable assumption, many might agree.

“The fourth quarter saw the lowest growth rate ever for the U.S. wireless industry,” Moffett notes. And yes, that is what happens in a maturing industry, at least on the subscriber front. But Moffett always seems to be more bearish on virtually all telecom companies than on cable companies, which also are losing video customers, though growing voice and broadband accounts. 

Small Business: TARP Failing

Small business customers are a key customer segment for many service and application providers, as they often are more willing to make faster decisions about new communication services and software.

To the extent that firm growth is a direct driver of software, hardware and communications activity, and given that up to 85 percent of new jobs are created by small businesses, perhaps somebody should be listening to them.

A survey conducted in February 2009 by online payroll service SurePayroll found that most small business owners feel the government should be taking a different approach to boost the economy during tough times.

Nearly three out of four small business owners disagree with the way the U.S. government has allocated funds in its Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), and believe tax cuts would be the ideal solution.

TARP was deemed effective by only three percent of respondents, while 72 percent were clear on their disapproval and 25 percent did not have a strong opinion.