Today TechDirt weighs in on the price wars between Yahoo, Gizmo and Skype. I don’t believe that price is the ultimate driver in the battle for VoIP supremacy, and the Level3 research I’ve seen, along with reports from Yankee Group seem to prove that out.
The price wars are just the start. What we will see is the commodity like play of price for voice, something client David Beckemeyer realized when he started TelEvolution and went in a different direction with PhoneGnome. He considers voice a product that you buy, not a service that you pay for over and over again.
Instead, you will see the model adopted by companies where features/options and additional services are the key. This is where another client, iotum comes into play too.
I’ve been on the bandwagon for about VoIP’s future being about the apps, and as prices keep going to almost zero, the apps are where the money will really be as we move into what Jeff Pulver calls Purple Minutes, or as I like to say VoIP 2.0.
Those “me different” apps are what matters, and the proof is in the way the market is moving.