Digital Common Sense

Friend and colleague, Om Malik, writes an extraordinarily upbeat piece about a new service this morning.

Ooma wants voice to be free
Voice over the Internet, so far, has been a game of cheap minutes,
shoddy quality, and unreliable connections. It’s also been a
money-losing proposition. The promise of voice being free has remained
just that - a promise. Palo Alto-based startup Ooma promises to resolve
those frustrations in September 2007 while offering free voice calls
for life.
[Read Om's full post]

As I read among the blog commentary, and there are many comments, it sounds like Om is the only one briefed on Ooma thus far, It also sounds like they’ve taken the route of selling smoke and mirrors to the business people before talking to the industry technical analysts.

As you read about Ooma, I’m going to temper my comments as I’m probably the least favorably inclined or impressed by this of anyone you’ll read. Certainly the most negative reaction of any I’ve read.

Another colleague, Aswath, has the most accurate response I’ve seen in my own view.

Ooma? No Ma
If you have not read about this new service that is couched as a product, you can get more detailed information from Om Malik.
Apparently he has been briefed on this and likes what he has seen,
because he has written uncharacteristically gushing post on it. Of
course many others have written up and I am sure your RSS reader has
located many of them. Since I have not been briefed about it and my
source is just Om’s description, my understanding of this product is
very limited and prone for error. Still, I am decidedly negative and
let me share my reasoning.
[Read Aswath's full post]

Aswath and I share a legacy of experience in the telecommunications industry that dates back many years, Many years. He and I understand some nuances of telecommunications that are oft overlooked and disrepected by companies introducing something “new” in the hype cycle.

Ooma looks to be a poorly articulated, but highly funded, variation of PhoneGnome at best. An ill-conceived “me too” of technologies and ideas tried repeatedly at worst. There is nothing new here at all. Nothing innovative that I can see on the web site. Read Aswath’s explanation for how it seems to work. I’m on exactly the saem thread as he is.

For a vendor bringing nothing new to the market to denigrate 100 years of telecommunications as lacking innovation shows graet hubris. They only thing they left out in lacking innovation was to say - me too.

With respect to Willy Wonka:

Technorati Tags: Ooma, PhoneGnome, me too technologies

Filed by Ken at 11:55 am under VoIP/Unified Communications