Line2 gives you a second phone number on your iPhone or iTouch complete with its own contacts list, voice mail etc. The company behind it, Toktumi is confident that early adopters of this app will distribute their Line2 number to business contacts while they distribute their iPhone number to friends and family.

They provide users with an 800 number or users can transfer an existing number. Their software is almost the same as the iphone’s software – same visual interface, voice-mail features etc.

OK, so you’re saying, “Well, OK, I have a second line on my iPhone. What’s the deal?” Here it is:

# 1: Apart from making regular calls on the AT&T services as usual, it is possible to use the Internet to make calls using Line2. So, if a user is in a wireless hot spot, Line2 will use the Internet to make calls instead of AT&T’s network.

#2: Cellphones typically tend to have the worst reception indoors and there where most Wi-Fi tends to be. so, Line2 will actually give you better phone reception indoors.

#3: Line2 can also be run on the iPod Touch. Bear in mind, though, since the Touch is not a cell-phone, it will work as a phone only when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot. AT&T does not make a single $ out of this.

#4: What else? There’s more… It turns out that Wi-Fi calls don’t use up any AT&T minutes as these calls are over the Internet and not on AT&T cell-phone channels.

#5: The Line2 service also lets you call overseas phone numbers for 2 to 5 cents a minute to most countries. Calls to the United States from overseas hot spots are free.

#6: Line2 can also place calls over AT&T’s 3G data network, where it’s available and these calls don’t use up any of your monthly voice minutes. what’s also cool is that Line2 switches seamlessly between 3G and Wi-Fi if it enters a hot spot.

#7: If you’re on a call with someone and the two of you are both Line2 subscribers, Line2 kicks you into high audio-quality mode.

#8: Line2 is the first app that can receive incoming calls via either Wi-Fi or cellular voice, so you get the call even if the app isn’t running.

#9: If you’re on a Wi-Fi call and someone calls your regular iPhone number, Line2 will offer the chance to decline the incoming call without losing your Wi-Fi call.

#10: The Line2 service also has  neat call-management features, visual voice mail and conference calling with up to 20 other people.

Bonus #11: The Line2 service costs $15 a month (after a 30-day free trial).

Big Con: It’s not possible to send or receive texts over the iPhone.

But, other that that Toktumi offers a whole range of Google Voice-like features like  call screening and voice mail messages sent to you as e-mail. Toktumi haven’t dome much marketing to propagate this tool so I’m guessing that they’re hoping for a strong word-of-mouth effect to spread the word about Line2. Bear in mind, that there are many VOIP apps on the iPhone, the reason that Line2 has stood out is precisely because of all the pros outlined above.

A quick caveat: Apple’s rules prohibit App Store programs that look or work too much like the iPhone’s own built-in apps. For example, Apple rejected the Google Voice app because according to Apple it worked by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls. It’s highly possible that Line2 could go that same way or will it? Is this Apple’s way of trying to dominate the digital space – maybe they’ll just buy Line2 sometime in the future. Something to think about.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Here’s something I wrote last year about my thoughts on Kindle having limited sales prospects. Needless, to say, I’ve already eaten my share of humble pie.

Kindle despite its early success will ultimately goes the way of the Apple Newton. The reason for this is that we live in a world where convergence is valued. The iPhone is spectacularly successful because of it’s ability to provide multi-functional capabilities. Mass acceptance of the Kindle will not occur for a while because many folks still prefer reading books in paper format as opposed to the digerati who flaunt their kindles at airports or coffee shops.

Somehow, Jeff Bezos’ hubris led him to spend millions of R&D resources in the hope that he could create the next…iPod for books? I don’t think he knew the answer yet and neither do I.

What I know however is that today’s wired or is it wireless, world prefers the convenience of a multi-functional single device containing all the technologies that users require in terms of social networking, business tools (Outlook, Excel et al) and entertainment. So, give me Facebook mobile, my pictures, videos and cool im/text messaging on my iPhone and I’m golden. And, I assume that most users will think that way too. Who would want to lug yet another device around along with a phone, laptop and now the electronic book gadget?

But, as novel as the ebook option sounds, most seasoned readers will admit that there’s nothing like browsing through the pages of a book. So, I wonder who was the target market for this device? Was it a sub-segment of the million of Amazon shoppers i.e. those who purchased books maybe? Was the thought that they would achieve a certain penetration target and then let those early adopters drive this into the mainstream? I can just see book club users sitting around a room discussing a NYT bestseller, Kindle in hand.

So, was it the printer or video game model that Amazon was trying to follow to build some sort of customer retention model? Or the iTunes model. Problem is not only does Apple have a cool brand – it’s also got cool products. Amazon, while huge is scale is still a reseller – A good one though.

I think Jeff Bezos should be grateful that his pet project didn’t turn into a disaster and get him fired like Steve Job’s pet project did when he was usurped by John Scully and the Apple board back in the day. (Jobs’ return, of course, is the stuff of legends)

So, in conclusion, despite that hype about Kindle in the blogosphere (nice guerrilla marketing by Amazon), I agree that inadequate vision, poor product design and lack of adequate marketing strategy led to the creation of a mediocre unsuccessful product.

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In April 2009, analysts estimated that the Kindle and Kindle book downloads could generate between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion by 2010. Currently , the Kindle sells for $299 and can handle 1,500 books, many costing about $10. A thinner, faster version, called Kindle DX, was released in February and cost $489. Great job, Jeff and Good luck!

Cmon folks! the basic financial principles of ROI, in-store traffic, conversion of visitor into a sale, cost per acquisition, demand generation strategies were applicable to brick-and-mortar institutions who had metrics in place to determine the effectiveness of a physical location. Why couldn’t those principles be applied to the web even then?

Oh well, mistakes made. Hopefully, everyone has some analytical tool that they’re using to quantify the success of their web initiatives. Back in 2000, many folks were talking about how ubiquitous the web would become and how it would proliferate every sphere of our daily lives . Today it’s everywhere – cell phone, TVs, at the airport, faster speeds- FIOS etc. etc. So, with this penetration, marketers have increased opportunities to reach customers. The drawback is that traditional models of marketing have been shaken at their foundations. For e.g. the 4Ps of traditional marketing: Price, product, placement and promotion suddenly have looser structures. Marketing goals are still the same : Deliver the right product to the right customer at the right time and place but today’s mechanism of delivery has changed. The Internet demands a stronger analysis and a deeper understanding of customer’s needs and desires.

Pew research did a survey of Internet thought leaders and analysts and found that they anticipated the phone to become a primary device for online access given the increased accessibility of the Internet through more and more channels.

Predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020 included the following :

- Phones will be used by most people globally to access the Internet in 2020.

- Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.

- Intellectual property law and copyright protection will face newer challenges as copyright violators will find will find ways to copy and share content illegally.

- The next-generation version of the Internet to improve the current Internet architecture will more likely result in building a new network from scratch.

All this means that as the Internet progresses, more and more people will visit or stick to their comfort-zone communities of interest. It’s easy to pick them out; there’s Facebook for friends and more, there’s Amazon for shopping, there’s Google for web searching, there’s Yahoo or CNN for the news, there’s Youtube for entertainment and there’s Hotmail or Gmail for webmail.

What companies need to do is partner with more and more of these sites and leverage their understanding of different market segments. For e.g. You can run polls on Facebook targeted towards a very specific target audience. Dell used to have its product reviews and ads on CNET and ZDNet and utilize these websites’ relationships to improve its customer acquisition economics. Almost all major brands have their own Twitter accounts and various Facebook Pages and Groups.

The commonality of the Internet doesn’t mean that the landscape is getting more and more confusing.Rather more and more opportunities are being created to cross utilize various mediums of product delivery so that the customer can have it at their fingertips. In Sweden, some garages now accept payment from the digital wallet of a Sonora cellphone. Borders book stores send emails to customers with coupons that they can use at their brick-and-mortar stores and tracks the same through the use of a Borders card that a customer can get for free – that’s a good example of a company using the facility of easy customer access to their advantage. In short, change will keep occurring consistently and it’s up to marketers to up their savvy levels and adopt ( if not predict) this change.

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