We’ve been doing blog entries lately regarding the addition of VoIP services to instant messenger clients –- a market that has been reaching unprecedented growth as telephone customers switch from traditional landlines to new internet powered phones.
Skype, AOL, and Yahoo are among the leading competitors in the market. Google recently released Google Talk, with an included VoIP feature that is expected to thrust them to the top of the charts as well. But Washington based Microsoft is sticking its finger into the Voice over Internet Protocol pie as well, as expected.
They’ve nabbed a California company -- Teleo Inc – that allows phone calls that are placed on computers to be routed to landlines and cell phones. The company’s product is not available to the public (a public beta test was recently discounted) but it’s expected to be similar to Vonage’s “SoftPhone service.
Microsoft says they’ll integrate the technology into their MSN Messenger application, expanding on their current free PC-to-PC calling technology that is currently available in MSN Messenger.
Financial details of the buyout were not disclosed by either party. Some industry analysts have speculated that Microsoft will integrate “click to call technology in some of its desktop applications, such as Outlook or Outlook Express.
My take? I see a world filled with serious challenges for the Seattle based software maker. Depending on how well developers at Microsoft integrate MSN messenger and VoIP into the existing suite of software applications currently offered by the company, they might just have a chance to compete with their much more innovative competitors.