Nimbuzz didn’t impress when it launched its VoIP and instant messaging app, but thanks to the evolution of mobile, the company crossed a new milestone: 100 million users. Now that we want to choose where, how and on what device to communicate Nimbuzz’s future sounds good.
Juniper Research of the U.K. released a report that shows that by 2016 nearly four-fifths of 640 million mobile VoIP users will be making calls through apps downloaded on their smartphones, while the rest of the calls could be over phone company networks.
What apps do mobile workers need to get their jobs done? A new Forrester report has identified eight “must have” categories of mobile collaboration apps. Here’s a run-down of all the categories outlined, together with some of our recommendations for apps to use in each category:
Nimbuzz, a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Internet telephony company says it has signed up 50 million registered users across the globe. That’s minuscule when compared to Skype, but it’s still significant milestone for the upstart company which signs up 100,000 new users a day.
Smartphones aren’t the sole domain of push notifications: the new Nimbuzz Ping feature shoots an SMS to feature phones when a contact wants to get in touch. Although smartphone sales are rising, the majority of global handsets are still feature phones, allowing for plenty of opportunities.
First, Skype and Nimbuzz reported how well they are doing. Then there was the spectacular launch of Viber. And now fring is telling us that they are seeing their quarterly revenues grow at a rapid clip. Mobile VoIP is finally seeing its day under the sun.
One in five broadband lines has a VoIP service attached to it, according to analyst firm Point Topic. They estimate nearly 22 percent of consumer broadband lines have a VoIP service. That’s about 112 million lines at the half-way mark in 2010.
Skype is making it clear that it doesn’t want third-party clients using its services. First, Fring for iPhone lost Skype support (though there was debate regarding who was in the wrong), and today, another popular multi-service IM and calling client, Nimbuzz, had its Skype privileges revoked.
Skype, the big daddy of Internet telephony, Skype is cutting off Nimbuzz, the upstart mobile VoIP company from Netherlands. In addition, the company is exerting a tighter control over its mobile ecosystem, especially as it signs up lucrative partnership deals with mobile phone companies.
Nimbuzz, the Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Mobile VoIP start-up says that different variants of its mobile app have crossed 150 million downloads. The service has over 30 million users. Nimbuzz users have talked for 3.65 billion mobile voice minutes since the app downloads began in May 2008.
