While individuals are adopting VoIP at higher rates, VoIP is witnessing a dramatic increase in the consumer and enterprise markets. As large technology companies like Apple and Google enter the market with their own products, the industry is attracting interest from telecom giants and Internet startups.
The highly competitive terrain in the VoIP world does not seem to prevent startups from competing with established companies. It almost feels like some new VoIP apps are launched every other week. Just a few days ago, Cable TV, a VoIP service first launched on mobile devices, was unveiled by Janus Friis, one of the original co-founders of Skype.
With a dark theme interface and customizable color options, Wire looks really attractive. It provides the basic functionality users look for in VoIP applications, including voice and video calls, beautiful online images, and integration of YouTube videos and SoundCloud audio clips. Any videos that people share with friends will appear online, but Soundcloud clips currently only show links that are open in the browser.
However, the launch of another VoIP application highlights the growing problem of data silos in the industry. Many of these startups are venture capital-backed, with no viable business model to generate revenue, let alone profit. In addition to user privacy and security issues, proprietary applications make it difficult for individuals to carry their contact list or network of friends when they want to switch between applications.
Hundreds of VoIP applications are littered in mobile and desktop environments, some of which are international. Many VoIP applications are only popular in certain geographic areas, but are hardly known elsewhere. What they have in common is that if users want to leave the service, they can't use their data. It seems that the company decided to lock users by maintaining data hostage, rather than implementing the future of standard protocols such as SIP or WebRTC for everyone.
True data portability means that consumers should be able to choose the user experience they like without having to switch networks completely. In fact, in the current situation, any VoIP application that combines privacy, security and data portability will have unique features that can help it stand out from the competition. We can only hope that such an application is coming soon, because WebRTC has finally begun.
Orignal From: New VoIP applications and data silos issues
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