VoIP developers fire up for iPhone

Steve Jobs' green light for third party apps for the iPhone--including WiFi based VoIP--is expected to see several voice widgets quickly come to market. U.K. provider Truphone had already released a demonstration model late last year. Over the weekend, they issued a careful statement acknowledging their interest and indicating they would be developing a fully fledged application. DSL Reports also wrote that video chat developer SightSpeed was working on a VoIP app, but that iPhone's camera placement was proving problematic.  

The big question is what Skype is up to. The sheer popularity of the iPhone--and the chance to share in the $100 million developer fund Apple and its VC partners have put on the table--makes it an almost certainty Skype will move quickly to be part of the play. Certainly that is what the expectation is from the analysts who closely watch Skype. The combination of iPhone and Skype would definitely make the cellular industry worried--if they are not already. But while some see Apple's VoIP announcement as a game changer, others such as ZNet's Russell Shaw cautions that Vonage offered VoIP over WiFi and dropped it. True, but that was pre-iPhone and we have already seen enough evidence to suggest the iPhone is the breakthrough product for the internet moving to the wireless space.

For more:
- Apple iPhone SDK and developer fund Release
- SightSpeed works on iPhone VoIP app Article
- VoIP on iPhone a possibility Article
- Truphone a starter for iPhone VoIP Blog

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T-Mobile offers $10-a-month calling Article
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