Project Gizmo challenges Skype
By Tony Lock, Bloor Research
Published Tuesday 5th July 2005 09:14 GMT
IP Telephony is on the brink of becoming mainstream in both the
business sector and for "personal" communications. Indeed, when it
comes to "personal" usage — by which I mean a small number of people
talking together using relatively simple systems rather than
corporate solutions — IP telephony has already made an impressive
impact. Indeed, amongst the analyst community, and in many other
areas of everyday life, IP telephony is growing rapidly.
At the forefront of much individual usage has been the solution
supplied by Skype. So successful has Skype been that the company name
has already started to transform into a verb — "To Skype". However,
Skype's current pre-eminent position is now facing a serious
challenge with the launch of Project Gizmo, the latest brainchild of
Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com and Linspire.
In many ways Project Gizmo at first appears to be very similar to
Skype. By making a free download of its Beta release software, users
can make free telephone calls to others on the Gizmo system utilising
whatever IP connection they have in place, typically broadband. The
software delivers good sound quality and also offers free voicemail,
the ability to take part in conference calls and call recording
facilities.
In addition, the Gizmo CallOut service enables users to initiate
calls to landlines and mobile phones from 1.8 US cents per minute
using CallOut Credits. Gizmo also provides a facility to allow users
to receive calls on a traditional phone number from mobile phones and
landlines. The Gizmo CallIn service, which costs $5 per month,
supplies a phone number from one of over 50 cities in the US and UK.
The major difference between the two, lies in the fact that Project
Gizmo has been built using an open source philosophy around the
emerging SIP standards. In addition to being based on the SIP open
standard, Gizmo has publicly stated that it is committed to
interconnecting its IP telephony system with those operated by other
organisations. Gizmo already has links to several other VOIP networks
including certain Asterix-based systems.
Project Gizmo IP telephony software is currently available in beta
versions for Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000
platforms, with a Linux version due for release in the next few
months. When loading the software and registering, users are supplied
with two identifiers—a Gizmo name and an SIP number. Using the SIP
number, VoIP networks can reach Gizmo accounts without charge.
There is no doubt that 'Voice over IP' Telephony is growing rapidly.
It is equally certain that it will grow even faster as the solutions
continue to develop and as ever-expanding populations of potential
users come into contact with the concept. Skype has pretty much ruled
the roost for the last year or so as IP telephony finally hit the
Internet. However, it may now face serious challengers, especially as
SIP matures.
Project Gizmo could do very well if it can attract users quickly
enough. Indeed, Gizmo is even asking for suggestions on a "cooler"
name under which to operate.
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