On numerous occasions I have said that IM could become the VoIP doorway for companies like Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo. In fact, I had written a piece about how Microsoft is planning to become a big player in the VoIP space. Today, I have this email alert from ABI Research which calls for large IM makers to buy out a VoIP business. Vamsi Sistla, director of broadband and residential entertainment technologies at ABI Research argues that “Millions of people use the big IM services. Some use their voice capabilities. But the experience is pretty horrible. You have to sit at a computer, use a microphone and speak loudly. And it goes over the public Internet, so quality is poor and security is suspect. Why aren’t they doing anything about it? They have an established presence: why don’t they buy out a Vonage, an Avaya or a Voiceglo, integrate their technology and start offering packages to existing and new subscribers? Isn’t that a huge revenue opportunity for them?” Well. There might be reasons: like pissing off partners like SBC for Yahoo, Time Warner for AOL, and Verizon for MSN. Or that FCC can meddle in your business or even state governments can start nosing around. But nice way to grab attention for analysts!
Yahoo and MSN are too smart to fool with this now. Buying VoIP players too early only lessens their options, and MGT doesn’t earn big bonuses by prematurely foreclosing on big opportunities.
And that would be, tie-ins with the RBOC’s and MSO’s. Until more certainty arrives in how this quad-play (awful term, btw) is going to shakeout, it best to just keep an eye on the little VoIPers and focus on the big picture, err money.
with INSTANBUL and LONGHORN, MSFT aint got to buy nobody……..
Dont come to a Gunfight with a Dull knife like Vonage……….
Skibare
It seems to me that IM in the past few years has been all about getting in a better position to use it to make money someday. VoIP seems like a perfect opportunity to better monetize IM and continue communication convergence. I don’t see why the IM players are offering fee services. Also, I would be surprised if Microsoft were afraid of competing with their partners. They’ve done it in the past.