Will Google Consider Hosted Telephony?
By Matthew Nickasch on Sun, 08/10/08 - 11:48am.With the Google Apps platform taking off, the future features and applications of the platform can only be left to our imaginations. With Gmail, Google Talk (chat), Google Calendar, etc, it's no wonder that Google may be considering a VoIP-like application to add to its Google Apps platform.
While no official plans, or even rumors have been released, a Google-hosted VoIP environment may be incredibly popular for organizations that utilize Google Apps for all other collaboration needs. We've seen our fair share of free hosted VoIP environments, like Skype, Free World Dialup, etc, but Google has yet to venture into such a market.
There's no doubt that such a platform would be incredibly popular, integrating voice, email, calendaring, and even presence and follow-me features. With a great text-to-speech platform, a service of this kind could really put the Google Apps platform in the front of similar competitors.
What do you think? Would a Hosted VoIP addition benefit the Google Apps suite? Why or why not?
- About Considering Convergence
- Matthew Nickasch is an independent consultant and analyst in the IP communication and convergence fields. His current and previous consulting experience includes systems architecture, virtualization, telecommunications, and converged networks for the financial, education, and healthcare industries. In addition to his consulting responsibilities, he has been active in the research realm, recently publishing and presenting on topics including routing protocol security and ERP and transactional database auditing. While his interests include directory services and corporate compliance, Nickasch's focus is on converged networks and IP communications.
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