OOMA Needs a Hail Mary

Om reports that OOMA is not dead yet and has hired a new Chief Marketing Officer.

What I love is the comment from Om about PhoneGnome, a company which I helped launch and remain an advisor to.

The continual comparisons, rightly so speak to the smarts and insight that TelEvolution founder, and PhoneGnome creator David (Mr. Blog) Beckemeyer has when it comes to the Voice over IP market.

PhoneGnome was developed for far less, cost less to produce and has likely sold more with a significantly smaller marketing and PR spend.

Beyond that, what's interesting is it sounds like OOMA is going away from their "Hollywood" star spokesperson approach, and starting to realize that its a retail game. Now lets see how much hey have to pay to the retailers to get onto the big box store floor. Given how every VoIP company from Vonage, to Earthlink's TruVoice to AT&T's CallVantage has paid the retail piper, and not really seen heavy return that makes them a profit, a retail play seems like someone has an uphill battle.