So I was brushing up on industry news and something struck me. Whether you work in hosted VoIP PBX or not, everyone in the communications industry is in app frenzy. It’s insane!
Check out this excerpt from an article posted today on FierceWireless. In this commentary, they are providing perspectives on the Mobile World Congress currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain.
Not surprisingly, “open” was a common theme at the show. In a keynote address Tuesday morning, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao touted his company’s openness to content providers, app stores and application developers while also chastising companies like Google and Yahoo! for what he considers their potentially monopolistic hold on the Internet search and advertising market. And Vodafone was not alone. Newly minted GSMA member Verizon Wireless also pushed its open message during a press conference with Skype announcing a custom Skype Mobile application for its smartphones.
This paragraph caused me to quickly formulate an opinion. Of course people are upset that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have a hold on the Internet advertising market. These companies are smart and have a vision. Because of this, they have made tremendous profits and will continue to do so. Working hard and pushing their vision has allowed them to get where they are today, and just because they are getting a bigger piece of the pie than others, does not mean that we should get angry and demand a share. They earned it.
Ever read the book Atlas Shrugged? It’s pretty good, but way too long. There is also way too much romance for my taste but that is neither here nor there. The point here, and in the book, is innovation and smarts need to rewarded, in every industry, in hosted VoIP, and out of hosted VoIP. So let companies reap the rewards of what they sow.
Now let’s take this conversation to the application arena. Can you believe the willingness of big companies like Verizon and Vodafone to open their doors to the world for collaboration? It’s really amazing. What it all comes down is that they’ve seen the success Apple, Blackberry, and Google have had by creating app markets. They recognize this as being a similar opportunity train to that which came chugging down the Internet advertising rails. They want to get on board early, so that they can ultimately end up at the forefront of the application revenue stream.
All in all, the open collaboration opportunities now being presented by communications giants are encouraging, but will clearly come with diminishing returns. With so many app markets and applications, consumers will be confused if not overwhelmed, and have no idea what hosted VoIP app to purchase to support their business VoIP service. Now may be a good time to launch a hosted VoIP app review site so that consumers know which app or app store is worth a darn. Actually that is a good idea, run with it if you like…
What do you think about all the open collaboration taking place? Tell us your thoughts below!
