Look out, Skype! Fring and CounterPath each introduce VOIP apps for Android phones - FringOut for consumers and CounterPath's Bria Android Edition for the enterprise.
Skype fans with Android-running smartphones now have two new VOIP (voice
over IP) options that expand the features and options of that popular app and
may give it a run for its, err ... savings.
New from VOIP company Fring is
FringOut-an
app that lets Fring users, of course, place free calls, video calls and live
chats to other Fring users, but now also 1-cent-per-minute calls to non Fring
users over their choice of WiFi, 3G or 4G. And that's to users in the United
States or anywhere around the world.
According to Fring, there are no extra fees, no taxes and no operator
minutes used-it's straight-up data calling. Users can also choose to call with
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).
To download FringOut, visit the Fring site and
scan this bar code; point a phone's
browser to
m.fring.com and download it
manually. In addition, smartphone users can download the app from the Android
Market.
(iPhone users, if you haven't stopped reading already, in July Fring also
released
an
app for the iPhone 4 that enables two-way calling over WiFi or 3G.)
Are you an early Android-adopting enterprise user? On Oct. 4, CounterPath-which
already offers a Bria iPhone Edition for the iPhone and iPod Touch-introduced
an enterprise-grade VOIP app for Android smartphones that's set to arrive at
the end of October.
Bria Android Edition, for smartphones running Android 2.1 or higher,
supports any SIP-compliant server as well as multitasking, enabling users to
field incoming calls while using other applications. There are also PBX-style
options such as call holding, forwarding, rejecting, merging and splitting, as
well as attended and unattended transfers.
The features list goes on. There are a call history pane that shows dialed,
answered and missed calls; security settings, including audio encryption; easy
integration of user contacts; and customized branding features for graphic
assets and SIP settings. The app also integrated with enterprise infrastructure
from popular vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Avaya and Cisco.
"With 17 percent of the global smartphone market at the end of second
quarter 2010, up from 2 percent one year earlier, Android has quickly
established itself as a major force in both the consumer and enterprise
markets," Todd Carothers, CounterPath's vice president of product
management, said in a statement.
"With Bria Android Edition, enterprises, government agencies and other
commercial users now can extend their VOIP savings and productivity to the
mobile environment-quickly and cost-effectively."
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