HelloSoft Converges on Nokia E-Series

Given that all I really care about is making a phone call, I like HelloSoft because they're greasing the skids for making phone calls without worrying about where the call actually happens. So even though I don't have a smartphone running Symbian -- at least, not yet -- I was excited by the company's news tonight about its HelloMobileCommunicator-FMC for Nokia’s E-Series handsets. HelloSoft's technology delivers seamless handoff between any access network -- Wi-Fi, WiMAX, WCDMA, EVDO and HSDPA/HSUPA. I know because I've used it.

With Nokia owning the largest single market share -- about 40 percent - of the mobile handest market, this promises a huge advance for end users. "We've leveraged Nokia's E-series to give the market more choices for Fixed Mobile Convergence," says Ron Victor, HelloSoft Vice President and General Manager for Business Development.

Expect to hear more from HelloSoft in coming months.

Carl Ford at Pulvermedia is right on in his recent post describing Voice 2.0 as Communications as a Service -- CaaS. It's all about 'what' instead of 'how' and it's what The Phone Company has been doing for a century.

Admittedly, being on the 'how' side of the product curve makes for more exciting conferences. But the 'what' end of of the continuum is where the money is made because most people only spend money on end results, not methods for getting the result.

A while back when I was talking to HelloSoft's Ron Victor about the company's dual-mode handset technology, he talked about why WiFi phones never really caught on. No one cares how the call is carried, they just want to connect. So why would you want a $200 phone that can essentially only accomplish the same result as a $40 landline?

Bottom line: VoIP is now where telephony was a hundred years ago and that's a good thing.