The VoIP industry is still evolving and its still some time before it matures like its traditional counterpart. At this point, we can only try to predict what the future will look like. This article tries to do exactly that. Let me caution you that the thoughts are purely based on the publicly available information and the writer's judgment; the same are not verified by any of the companies mentioned in the article.
The VoIP industry today is clearly divided in to three camps:
Enterprise VoIP – This is dominated by the likes of Cisco, Avaya, etc. They provide VoIP service to the companies, who are looking at reducing the telecom cost without compromising on the quality/features. The most important parameter for this category is quality, reliability and ease of use.
Residential VoIP – This is the other set dominated by Comcast, AT&T, Packet8, etc. They provide a substitute to the traditional landlines for personal use at a low cost. The important parameters for this category are quality and reliability at an affordable price.
Others – This category is highly fragmented and includes players with different strengths. They provide VoIP facility to casual users, usually without any commitments. This category includes players like GrandCentral, FreeWorldDialup, Voxalot, Tpad , Jajah,Rebtel, Nonoh, etc. The most important parameters here are price and quality.
The first two category are slowly stabilizing, whereas, the last category is witnessing a lot of action. This just goes to show that there is still some scope for improving the existing offerings. The assumption being companies will not just launch products if their products are not different (read better) than others already in the market. A lot of companies are coming up with good services separately, but are not able to offer a comprehensive solution. This is the area, I feel, that has potential to make the maximum impact on the VoIP industry. This category will define the services that would be present in tomorrow's VoIP offerings. This can be treated as a test bed for future comprehensive solutions. We already have features like web-callback, SMS-callback, IM-callback, VoIP on mobile, etc.
The real push for VoIP would come from outside the industry as this industry currently does not have any major player, who will go for disruptive innovation. All the existing players have vested interests in maintaining status quo or are not big enough to make a substantial impact. This is surely set to change in the near future.
Google's acquisition of GrandCentral, bid for wireless spectrum signals its seriousness about getting in the voice arena. Yahoo had acquired Dialpad long time back, but has not been able to make much headway. If Google enters voice seriously, can Yahoo be far behind? Microsoft has already started talking about voice. These players have only to gain from disruptive innovation and they are capable of doing that. If that happens, it will be very good news for the industry in general and consumers in particular. An entry of a serious player is always good as it gives a direction to the industry, which is desperately lacking.
The entry of a big player will trigger consolidation in the industry and many small players will wind up. It will also impact the other two categories, which do not have a serious competition currently.
We are surely in for some real excitement in the future. But, for the time being, let's wait and watch how everything unfolds.
This article is written by our VOIP News editor, Alok Saboo. Alok is student of PhD in Marketing at Smeal College of Business.
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