Vonage Makes Free Facebook Phone Call App

crimeandpunishment writes "Vonage has developed a new application for the iPhone and Android that provides free phone calls between Facebook users. Vonage's CEO says 'Essentially, we've given Facebook a voice.' Users sign in, see a list of Facebook friends who also have the app, and if they tap on a name a call is placed ... and it will go through even if the app isn't running on the friend's phone. The calling, which works over cellular broadband and Wi-Fi, doesn't use calling minutes but will use up data."

Re:The great tradeoff

[butterflysrage]

sure, if you can actually FIND an unlimited "unlimited" data plan.

Re:The great tradeoff

[caffeinemessiah]

So, now, if I get all the people I want to call on Facebook and get them to use this app, then we can call each other be buying the $10-15/mo unlimited data plan and buying 0 min/mo. Heck, it's a lot cheaper.

Which is precisely why you can't buy a plan that has no voice and only data. The ultra-cheap $15 data plan is in addition to the clusterf**k that is your monthly base price, plus the tons of fees added. Sure, you can get a broadband card, but try sticking one of those things in your shiny new iphone. Every phone operator, pretty much the world over, is a thieving a-hole.

We know how this is going to end up, right?

[boneclinkz]

"Hello. This is automated announcement from Fraternityville. Your friend M-A-L-C-O-M-B request that you send him a one case of beer. The cost is 10 fratbucks. Authorize?"

Re:Going to far?

[Anonymous Coward]

You left the "t" off the end of your subject line.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I thought people used Facebook because they did NOT want to talk in person, but rather receive information in an asynchronous....

That's an odd assumption to make about millions of people on a service with a popular chat service and mobile phone apps.

Re:The great tradeoff

[Anonymous Coward]

I think most people are just afraid of the ridiculous overcharge fees. If it blocked access and required a phone call or tap to go over, limited would probably be a lot more popular.

errr

[jDeepbeep]

That you called it a 'universe' might answer your own question.

Facebook's voice

[mark72005]

red rum! red rum! red rum! red rum!

Re:Java app would have been nice, but...

[mdwh2]

Hear hear. I wonder what goes through the head of these app writers. It's a choice of:

* Write for J2ME, and have a market of two billion Java phones, capturing near 100% of the market (basically everything except those phones that can't handle it, like dumb phones and Iphones).
* Write for Symbian and get the largest "smartphone" market share - the largest platform after J2ME.
* Write for Blackberry, and get the largest "smartphone" market share in the US.
* Or ... write for Iphone, and get a whopping 3% of the market.

At least they included Android, which has the point that it's growing fastest. But that can't be said for Apple, who are now fourth place, both in terms of actual sales, and the rate at which those sales are increasing ( http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1741954&cid=33130584 [slashdot.org] ) - and there's no excuse for Symbian and Blackberry to be ignored so often.

It's especially frustrating when public funded organisations like the BBC or UK Government only release Iphone apps. When they only supported Windows (e.g., BBC's Iplayer), there were uproars! And at least there they could say that Windows was the largest platform, with over 90% market share! But yet when they release only for the Iphone, covering just a few per cent of users, and one of the smaller platforms, apparently that's perfectly fine...