Where's The Beef?

A few days ago while I was at DEMO pal David Beckemeyer pinged me about his post that asked where are the Voice 2.0 Developers.

I'll ask the question another way. Where is the innovation in Voice? It sure isn't with the carriers, even the so called next generation ones. Last summer AOL launched AIM PhoneLine and had a very neat Developers' Program intertwined that two clients, MyNuMo and iotum were a part of. From the very start of the program AOL was looking to innovate. The same is true with the plug in programs at Skype and Yahoo. As service providers they want to do things differently.

But the cable, DSL and other broadband providers who are all looking to move customers from 1.0 phone service (PSTN) to VoIP are not really innovating. When's the last time Vonage or Packet8 really added a 2.0 type feature? Maybe that's why The Deal was speculating yesterday about what moves they need to make.

I've been saying that too for a long time..Vonage is nothing but a different bill and a different wire. There's nothing 2.0 about Vonage. To me, Vonage is Voice 1.5, and barely that.

Companies need innovation leadership. The first company to start that, and to successfully implement will be the winner.