Billing itself as “Silicon Valley’s first phone company,” technology start Ribbit came out of stealth mode today, announcing a new telephony platform designed to let application developers integrate voice communications into a wide variety of software and online products—including anything that can run Flash.
“The world doesn’t need another phone company,” said Ribbit CEO and co-founder Ted Griggs, in a statement. “What it needs is new kind of phone company, one that liberates voice from its current confines—devices, plans and business models—and more readily integrates into the workflow of our professional and personal lives. We’ve been working hard these first two years to put together the right team, technology, and business model to meet this opportunity, and we’re finally ready to go to market.”
The heart of the Ribbit platform is the Ribbit SmartSwitch developed from a Lucent-tested CLASS-5 softswitch, paired with a Flash/Flex API that enables developers to quickly build applications that integrate into the existing POTS (plain old telephone service) or VoIP network. These applications can live anywhere: Web sites, desktop applications…even mobile applications. The idea is that any device that can run these applications gets all the functionality of telephones and voice communications, and creates an ecosystem where developers can both build and sell new voice-enabled services. You know, like Facebook widgets.
Ribbit clams to have over 600 third-party developers on board, ranging from traditional telephony providers and enterprise communications developers to open source advocates and Web-based developers. High-profile partners include Salesforce.com and Adobe, with Salesforce.com due to roll out Ribbit for Salesforce integration in the first quarter of 2008. (Ribbit has not disclosedthe terms of its deal with Salesforce.com.) About 30 business are testing Ribbit services; Ribbit expects the bulk of its revenue will come from in-house services offered to businesses and enterprises, but that it does expect the third-party developer business to eventually exceed its own in-house operations, and it does plan to offer retail services directly to consumers.
The open question for Ribbit is whether everyday consumers are willing to pay extra to have voice more tightly integrated with online or desktop applications: while the benefits for vertical enterprise markets are easier to see, Ribbit may have trouble breaking into the consumer marketplace—unless it (or a Ribbit developer!) can come up with the killer Ribbit application.
