EQO

Phoneboy dumps on EQO’s new strategy

by alec on September 15, 2008

Phoneboy dishes on EQO this morning in a piece titled Why I Think EQO is Doomed.  I agree with him that the hardest mobile strategy of all involves convincing carriers to put your software on their deck.  Carriers move slowly, and view the deck as a distribution platform that the software developer should be paying for.  Never mind that many services live in the cloud, and the software is simply an enticement to use that service.  Never mind that there are many models for getting paid for the service that don’t involve an upfront payment.  Never mind that there are far more applications for mobile than can possibly be put on the handset deck.  To a carrier that’s all moot.  Most carrier’s thinking around business models for the deck hasn’t progressed past 1995 when PC manufacturers first started charging for access to the desktop.  Today the practice is widely decried in the computing industry, and PC manufacturers are starting to move away from it.

The one ray of hope in all of this is that handset manufacturers will start to emulate Apple’s App Store approach.  It’s been shown to be a clear advantage for Apple, and as a result many others are starting to copy the Apple approach. Hopefully EQO and the other pioneers in this space can hold on long enough to be able to benefit from these developments.

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EQO shows Rev 3 progress

by alec on May 27, 2007

Third time's the charm, they say.  After reading Joanna Stern's recent review of EQO, I decided to try it again.  This is the third version of EQO I've tried since first meeting Bill Tam and his team at DEMO 2006, and it's pretty good.  Gone are the problems with dropped data connections. It synchs well with MSN and Google Talk,  although nearly 4000 contacts in my BlackBerry address broke the contact importer.  It's also an acceptable multi-headed IM client for BlackBerry, which I could easily see using a fair bit. 

Thursday my BlackBerry started playing an odd ringtone, which I didn't recognize at first.  It was Bill calling me using EQO.  Voice quality was good, although there was a slight echo (audible to me only) whenever I spoke.  Unlike schemes which transfer the voice over a data connection, EQO is using the PSTN.  When you make a call using EQO, it finds a local dialing number, connects you to it, and then transfers the coal to EQO's VoIP network, where it's delivered at the other end.  Business model wise, EQO is disintermediating the long distance carrier, just as a calling card would, or a VoIP service like Skype or Jajah. 

Net net: I had a few hiccups getting it rolling, but all in all it wasn't a bad experience. If you have one of the supported handsets, you may want to check it out. 

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Vox for Skype

September 11, 2006

Montreal based VoxLib took the wraps off their Vox for Skype application today.  This little number gives you access to Skype from any mobile phone, anywhere, without having to install any software on the telephone. It gives you the ability to see which of your Skype buddies is online,  the ability to contact them, and the ability [...]

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