Flash Phone Stirs Up Developer World

A report out of Seattle has a new company stirring up the telecom sector with a web based Flash VoIP platform.

The company called Ribbit has taken the concept that Gizmo Project has also tried, as have folks at Adobe and impressed one of the ZDNet bloggers.

The implications of this are very huge as Flash is so ubiquitous and easy to use. It is cross platform, and works with most, if not all commercially deployed browsers.

What's more, since Flash provides such a wide ranging visual interface design opportunity, calling can be incorporated into just about anything that is Flash enabled.

I'd say this is something to keep an eye on.

Comments

[omfut]

Hi Andy:
Its definitely a cool feature for flash deveopers community. I have put some of my thoughts about flash based voip,ribbit. Here is some pros and cons about this product.

Pros:
• Flash penetration in the market is phenomenal. Voice support was something that was lacking for a long time. Ribbit phone component fills the gap very aptly. You can call this as a Skype for browser.
• Using this component, flex developers can now create so many different voice applications. You can build a click- to-call, unified messaging, partial FMC (simultaneous/sequential ringing based on the configuration).
• You could even build a complete IM client that supports addition of contacts, groups, make and receive voice calls etc.
• Looking at the profiles of the management team, my guess is these guys are building their own voice network that becomes the backbone of Ribbit phone component. So any voice calls made between Ribbit users and any other external contacts shall use this network. Good marketing strategy. Still not sure about their business case. I can smell a Ribbit out and Ribbit in charges for voice calls when connecting to a PSTN network.
• Any Flash (flash 9) based application can now support voice features without downloading a new soft client or procuring hardware.

Cons:
• Browser based soft phone is not something new. For example Gizmo call, Busta and many other companies have products that support browser based voice calling. Not sure if these guys have really cashed on their browser soft phone.
• Goribbit’s success depends on the acceptance of the developer community to use Ribbit phone component as their voice interface. Not sure if Goribbit has a standalone voice product of its own, targeting social networking or any other community.
• Not sure if their Ribbin phone components uses existing standard signaling or proprietary signaling interface like Skype. If it uses a proprietary signaling interface, then it might become a bottleneck for their growth.
• I have read a lot of articles about adobe working on supporting voip as part of the Flash. If this is to be true, then everything blows over.

More info on my blog
http://latestgeeknews.blogspot.com/