Further to my comments on Nimbuzz earlier in the week here is an article and link on Techcrunch:
MobileCrunch has announced the beta release of Nimbuzz Talk, a mobile/PC app that connects cellphone and PC users. The application supports voice, presence, conference calls, and SMS messaging between mobile devices, PC’s, and mobile to PC or PC to mobile. It currently works with MSN, Google Talk, and their own Nimbuzz chat client. It reminds me of another mobile/PC release, Talkster. Mobile-to-mobile calls placed between Nimbuzz users are billed at local rates, making for some cheap or even free international calls. Nimbuzz’s presence support allows users to place calls by selecting a contact off their buddy list. The service then connects users via an 800 number. MobileCrunch’s Oliver Starr says the mobile-to-mobile quality is “excellent”, but mobile-to-pc “leaves something to be be desired”. The new service also has a “Buzz” feature that lets an offline contact know you’re trying to get in touch. In their next release, this will cause Nimbuzz to wake up on the contact’s phone.
I have been having a play with Nimbuzz this week and it appears to work very well so far. I am interested to understand the business model for the product! Post more thoughts on my Nimbuzz experience in the coming weeks.
4 comments:
Hi Richard,
You state that you are interested in the Nimbuzz business model. Well here's the answer:
The first focus of Nimbuzz is in building a large global community!
Monetizing can come from several areas; mobile advertisement, voice revenue (Nimbuzz out, kick back), content selling etc.
The revenue streams/ models Nimbuzz will choose will always be in good co-operation with our customer base and cannot be in conflict with a seamless user experience!
Thanks for your observation sensemaker. Understand the approach you outline. It is my understanding that the large majority of the traffic on skype - the most succesful VoIP PC client provider to date bears no revenue. Here we are see an intersting extension to the mobile through the back door of a java application - which creates a deeper market penetration. However I would still like to see the business case for any new player in this field. Could advertsing ultimately be main revenue source? I suspect the margins on the revenue bearing voice traffic alone would not be enough.
Thanks, richardpolar
Comment on the IM sevice - its fast, and works well. Today we IM'd between a Nimbuzz mobile client on a SonyEricsson and a PC with the gmail site in session. IM was quick and faultless. Worked very well with Google's Chat service which now comes fully integrated as a web app in gmail. Also the chat is recorded as a conversation and stored in your inbox. A great app for discrete communicaiton and for note taking if, like me, you have a server running 24/7 where you can IM yourself notes from your handset or even one day use those notes to trigger applicaitons. I will certainly find a lot of use for the IM service that Nimbuzz offers.
Be interested to hear aboout the application that you can control through an im session. thanks richard polae
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