VoIP and PC reunion
VoIP made its mark via PC in the mid nineties. Then it was applied to phone-to-phone environment and that took the glory. Packetization of international gateways. As we passed through the telecom downturn, VoIP effected a quiet revolution at the core of telecom networks. Packetization of the core. During those latter two stages end user VoIP took a back seat. When broadband helped VoIP push itself to the edge, we had the phone+ata take the glory. In parallel however Skype kept the PC interface alive and kicking.
With Voice 2.0, the PC is back. Most Voice 2.0 applications require interaction through web, which is best accessed over a PC. This is just a little bit of history repeating. Expect PC ergonomics to drive VoIP for quite some time till Voice over Wireless Broadband (VoWB) passes the VoIP torch to the new computing platform, the mobile phone.
PC ergonomics driving VoIP means more USB phones perhaps, VoIP optimized keyboards / laptops, new ATA form factors that tie in the PC and phone line perhaps etc etc. I think entrepreneurs need to look back and see what gadgets and add-ons PC based VoIP created during the late nineties. Reviving those gadgets and re-engineering them for the broadband world would be interesting to explore. There is one major challenge though. Over the last few years regulators around the world have applied uniform regulations on VoIP and POTS. So the quality standard and end user expectations with VoIP have substantially gone up. PC cannot afford to disappoint them.
