The Call 25 - 2/14/2005
From Michael Robertson, CEO and founder,
SIPphone.com
The Future of Voice is Applications
And how you can win $5000 proving it!
When I started SIPphone, I began with the core assumption that calls should be free. Whether across the street or across the globe, calls should be treated no differently than email, IMs or web pages. When you move voice into the world of the internet, there is no foundation for international calling plans, monthly minutes, or even flat rate calling plans. Would you pay your ISP more to download web pages from China or instant message people in Spain? Of course not.
But looking around the world of telecom and you would think the future of telecommunications is a flat rate calling plan under $20/month. Well, the future of voice is much bigger than that, and it goes way beyond cheap domestic calling plans. The future of voice is applications.
So forget the latest $2 drop in flat rate calling plans and imagine a world where calls are free. Now voice can take the next step to work a little harder. That next step, I believe, is applications. Applications are not concerned about how far your voice travels or the device you use to make a call. Voice applications instead focus on what you do with your voice.
The fundamental drivers of voice applications will be:
- ACCESS: the power to add your voice to a process precisely when you need it. My favorite example is OnStar, the voice assistant from General Motors that helps you when you are lost, have an accident or even lock your keys in the trunk. That is a good example of voice as an application, and voice where you need it, when you need it. But there are more examples. What about a button to quickly talk to an eBay seller before finalizing an auction?
- SIMPLICITY: Not only are their 2.5 billion phones in the world today, on which most of us are already "power users", there is also the added simplicity of using our natural language to complete tasks and gather information.
- EFFECTIVENESS: for some applications, using your voice is simply better and more efficient, like accessing realtime sports scores while walking down a NYC street.
But how much money is there in voice applications? A lot. In 2004, the global telecommunications market was $1 Trillion dollars. You read that correctly, $1,000,000,000,000. Of course that includes not just outrageously over priced calls on AT&T to my friends in Switzerland, but also all the equipment and software (and consultants) that makes things click. Voice applications combine the best of the global software and voice markets. So there is a HUGE opportunity in the market.
There are some great companies besides SIPphone who believe the future of voice is applications. My favorite is Tellme, started by a very smart guy named Mike McCue. Tellme is based in the Silicon Valley and for over 5 years has been evangelizing and showing the world the future of voice applications.
Tellme does two things really well. First they made a very simple way for people to write a voice application using a technology called Voice eXtensible Markup Language (or VXML). If you can write javascript, you can pickup VXML easily. Second, Tellme developed an amazing system to recognize and create natural speech. If you want to test out some of the cool things Tellme can do, just dial "411" from your SIPphone to play around with some of their applications. My favorite example is their game "Blackjack". But try "Sports", "News", "Stocks", "Movies", "Weather", "Traffic" and many more.
Together, SIPphone and Tellme think they can move things ahead even faster, so we have partnered to help developers all over the world create the next killer voice application. First, we connected our two systems together. So now if you go and develop an application using the Tellme Developers Studio studio.Tellme.com, you can test and even deploy that application for free on SIPphone developer.sipphone.com. It's easy to get started today, just develop your application with Tellme Studio and you can test your application using the SIPphone-Tellme developer access number, 1 (747) 555-VXML. When you are ready to deploy your application, we will help you migrate it to its own SIPphone number, help you publicize it, and even start earning money.
Here is the good stuff. I think there are so many cool ideas out there that SIPphone will choose our favorite VXML applications and award prizes of $100 to $5,000. And there is no limit to the number of awards we will make. If we like what you have done, we will send you a check. So use Tellme Studio to write a cool voice application, and SIPphone will help you take it to the next level and even kick in a little money to boot. If you need help, drop us an email at developer@sipphone.com.
Win $5000 for your killer voice app
If we select your application for an award grant, we will announce it to all of our users and put up a special page on our site to help you publicize your application.
Go get 'em!
**Michael Robertson
CEO and Founder
SIPphone.com
