 | | Snooze.. So in order for this to work..
You need a facebook account
Your friend needs a facebook account
You need the app installed
Your friend needs the app installed
You need to be logged in to facebook
Your friend needs to be logged in to facebook
Doesn't Skype and fring pretty much have this covered, with far less effort? | |
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 | Host:
Road Runner
PC gaming GAMES
PC gaming Tech
| Re: Snooze.. You need a facebook account
Your friend needs a facebook account
You need the app installed
Your friend needs the app installed
You need to be logged in to facebook
Your friend needs to be logged in to facebook You make it sound like those fairly simple requirements are the equivalent of scaling Mount Fuji. | |
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| |  La LunaSurvived AshrafulPremium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
kudos:3
 ·Vonage
 ·Optimum Online
| Re: Snooze.. said by Karl Bode:You need a facebook account
Your friend needs a facebook account
You need the app installed
Your friend needs the app installed
You need to be logged in to facebook
Your friend needs to be logged in to facebook You make it sound like those fairly simple requirements are the equivalent of scaling Mount Fuji. Exactly.
Most of the people who would use this are probably logged into FB 24/7 and use their phones to access FB. They are already set to go with this.
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The Alien in the White House
15,771 DEADLY TERROR ATTACKS SINCE 9/11 | |
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| | | | lol, ok I digress.
I guess my not-so-clear point is, where is the target market for this? I just don't see it.
*Casual users aren't going to bother - the younger crowd is going to stick with texts and IMs which are familiar, easy, and don't require extra steps
*Grandma in Florida is never going to figure this out
*Cousin Amalija in Serbia figured out Skype years ago and doesn't need a convoluted alternative.
It's neat, sure... but I just don't see the point, especially if I have to launch another app to use it.
And where's the benefit to Vonage? Are they trying to get name recognition? Forget it, triple-play bundles are going to continue to erode their market share. Are they going to use the Facebook application API to steal your email address and spam you? Are they going to show you ads..while.. um your phone is pressed against your face?
Sorry I like the idea, just don't see the feasibility. | |
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| | | | | Re: Snooze.. All that is true, but Vonage stumbled onto one hell of a marketing strategy: Facebook. All they have to do is get this into the hands of a few users, and they'll do all the advertising virally through their FB accounts. And the more people who get it, the more people who will want it. As for how they'll make money, they'll offer calling to mobiles and landlines for a fee. They could also offer you one or more phone numbers in whatever country they can get them from, all routed to your app.
IMHO, the biggest thing this will do is to decimate international calling and drive rates even further down. It's going to be hard as hell for carriers to compete with free. Some carriers will fight it, such as the ones in countries where there's a telecom monopoly, by blocking the service, but these countries do so at their own peril. Cheap international telecommunications is becoming something that people and businesses expect, and countries that try to hold back the floodwaters are going to wall themselves off from a lot of development opportunities.
But, as I said, it isn't because this app is revolutionary; it's because the marketing strategy is brilliant. The one thing that could derail it is if it doesn't work as advertised, and that could kill it in a hurry. Still, if Vonage can make it work reliably, they may have a winner on their hands. | |
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1 edit | Amen. Wake me up when this thing can call actual phone numbers using Wi-Fi, particularly while calling from another country. | |
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| |  AlcoholPremium
join:2003-05-26
Climax, MI
kudos:3 | Re: Snooze.. What's wrong with google voice? | |
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| | | | | Re: Snooze.. Nothing. But you can't make calls over Wi-Fi from your phone using google voice either... | |
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| | | | Well then wake up buddy!
The regular Vonage Mobile app offers free calling to domestic USA numbers via wifi. It comes with $1 credit which erodes at $.35/mo.
So let's say your in Europe and want to call your loved one in the States.
Go to a wifi area and dial them up using the Vonage app. Costs nothing per minute to call USA domestic numbers from anywhere on the planet where there is wifi. Also has very cheap int'l rates to numbers outside of the US.
This has been around for a year or so, but too few know about it. | |
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| bngdup
join:2007-02-20
Old Bridge, NJ Reviews:
·Cablevision
| Actually if you watched the educational video it shows that it works with Apple's Push notification service so it doesnt have to be running and/or logged in at all times.
With Android it just runs in the background. I downloaded it on my droid and it loaded up quickly. Should be pretty useful to call a few friends in the UK once they grab the app. If you want to kill it they put the logout button in the "My Account" section | |
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bdon78I didn't do it
join:2009-05-18
Decatur, GA | For the massess Guess the previous commenters missed the point.. Vonage is trying to strike at the masses, those who don't know what fring or skype is, but do know what Facebook is.. I can hear the conversations already...
"So, you just download this app and it lets you video call your facebook friends? I have to get that!"
Sound about right?
Of course it does. The idea seems silly to those of us who are educated in technology enough to read this forum, but consider what an everyday iPhone user with limited technical expertise might do...
It's not for me, but Vonage might be on to something by leveraging facebook (which a lot of people use and know) for getting their product (app) sold/used | |
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|  ptrowskiGot Helix?Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
kudos:4 | Re: For the massess That's what I was thinking. The majority of them will not care how it works, just that they can use it. It's a fairly brilliant strategy on Vonage's part. | |
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 newviewEx .. Ex .. ExactlyPremium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD
kudos:1
·Vonage
 ·DIRECTV
| Useless junk app Vonage, quit developing this crap and give me something I can actually use . . . like selective call-blocking. Your subscribers have ASKED for that for years now.
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The Rules of Spam | |
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 TCubPremium
join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
kudos:4
·Cox HSI
| Excellent! I just downloaded it. I simply wrote a status informing all the buddies I have with iOS or Android devices to download it now.
Sure not everyone I call will be able to use this, but why not utilize it when I can and save my precious minutes! Hell, I have unlimited data with VZW!  | |
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| Rob_Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL | Re: Excellent! I got sick of the outsourced tech support and the touch tones so I got rid of it.
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It's easier to ghost hunt then to find true love! | |
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 sup
@sbcglobal.net | It's not about calling fb friends... Don't think big idea here is the calling, but giving communiction services to existing 500M person community that has already grouped itself into sub communities by "friending" each other. I can see messaging, video and calling/text messaging to good old phone numbers in future. Can also see adding other existing communities, including contacts on phone. If it's easier and lets me pull together communities I'm already a member of and control with who/and how I communicate, why would I need an address book on my phone? To get a Skype account? Or to pay for anything but a data connection from my mobile carrier (when they are forced to eventually offer them!). | |
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