April 26th, 2007
Vonage Text: cool but non-impacting
I'm trying to wrap my head around Vonage Text.
This is a new service from Vonage.
The catch: your Vonage voice mails get automatically translated to text, so you can read them right from your email. You can scan new messages to read the urgent ones first, as well as do text-searches within your incoming emails.
Of course you can then do other normal email stuff, such as responding or even forwarding.
A few current customers may opt to use this service in specific situations, but I don't see how the availability of Vonage Text applies to subscriber aquisition or even subscriber retention.
I mean, even if this 25 cents-a-translation service was free, do you really think that more than a handful of new customers would sign up with Vonage because of Vonage Text?
Or will stay with Vonage after thinking of leaving because Vonage Text will make them think twice about churning off?
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
