Real Time Collaboration and Web 2.0 tools, tips, and reviews

Awhile back, I wrote about Microsoft bringing VoIP via Communicator to their Mobile PC cell phones, and how it will begin a much-needed shakeup among traditional cell phone providers. Unfortunately for consumers, Microsoft's innovation will begin with their commercial accounts only. There isn't a date set yet for consumer users. Fortunately, better news arrived yesterday from a relatively tiny company.

On April 5, 2006, JaJah, a California-based provider, announced that it's VoIP service would come standard on a small but significant cell phone operating system called Symbian. Phones that use that system also utilize the Opera browser, and JaJah will become the default VoIP provider for Opera as well. While the share of Symbian phones is tiny, major cell phone manufacturers own a piece of Symbian. Once this technology gets into the consumer mobile phone market, even on a tiny basis, I predict it will create a ripple that cannot be ignored, and a serious pricing shake-up will certainly follow.