NEW MOBILE COMMUNICATION ALTERNATIVES

I have been adding new applications on my iPhone. It is interesting to see how a specialized browser for the mobile market, like Opera, is getting downloaded a million times in 24 hours! For more on the mobile market, read Lisa Barone's post, 4 Questions To Ask Of Your Mobile Site.

Here are three examples of mobile applications that could change the way we communicate in the future.

You could now use Skype mobile on a Verizon wireless smartphone. Here is an excerpt from John C Abell's post, Verizon + Skype Not Mobile VoIP Nirvana, But Closer:

The integration of Skype mobile does give Verizon one huge advantage — you can now receive internet calls spontaneously on a standard handset — but it falls far short of an implementation that would unleash the full power of Skype on a mobile device.

And it isn’t really internet telephony at all: Skype calls are routed through Verizon’s network, you can’t receive calls placed to your online numbers, you can’t use Skype (and its cheaper calling plans) to place calls to other telephones. Skype on Verizon doesn’t even work under Wi-Fi, where Skype sort of lives.

Still, it’s a bold maneuver by Verizon that would seem to benefit the original internet telephony upstart even more. Exposing people to the idea that you can use the internet to make and receive free and dirt-cheap phone calls — that you don’t need expensive calling plans and contracts — could be madness. Or, it could be a brilliant way of managing an inevitable shift that eluded other industries to their peril. In a way, this is just a continuation of the trajectory that saw telcos tack hard to wireless when it was clear the landline business was cratering. (Wired, 03/31/10.)

A new-generation mobile service called Nimbuzz. With this application, you could make mobile calls, do instant messaging, and communicate on different social networkings. From Andi's post, Trends and predictions – Worldwide smartphone application market:

Just a week ago we talked about VoIP in 2013: trends and predictions and how mobile VoIP users will be reach 288 million by the end of 2013. Today we come back with another interesting story about mobile world: trends and prediction in worldwide smart phone application market. (Nimbuzz Blog, 03/18/10.)

A network of communication and collaboration tools called GreenWin (formerly Sqip Com). [Editor's note & full disclosure: This is a referral link. It's free to sign up for the service.] For a background, listen to Nick Hetcher's interview (March 2009) with Christian Fortune, CEO and co-founder of GreenWin (Sqip), and then check out the latest webinar (04/14/10) with Christian Fortune.

Have you found some new communication tools lately? Do you think that these new applications will change how we work and interact during our spare time?

Related: My post, EGO IS NOW MOBILE FRIENDLY.