. .

culture

Not So Fast

August 13, 2010 11:11:22.414

Ian Hamilton thinks that an updated Touch with cameras and a microphone will be the beginning of the end for landline phone service:

An iPod Touch equipped with a front-facing camera is no longer an iPod Touch. It’s a device for making calls. Video calls. And with an app like Skype which uses the long-awaited multitasking functionality on iPhone to make and receive voice calls it’s also a fully functional phone. Apple could even build Internet-based voice call functionality directly into iOS for this very purpose. Goodbye house phones.

Yes and no. Inertia is going to play a huge roll in the transition from POTS service to IP based service - whether the phone companies fight tooth and nail is merely secondary. I figure that anone growing up now will be unlikely to opt for a landline - but the default will be mobile service, not skype.

What we really need to see is for services like skype to bring the same level of disintermediation to the wireless carriers that the breakup of AT&T brought to POTS service way back when...

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This