Word that mobile phone makers (and some networks) want to embed WiFi and VOIP into phones brings up a crucial point about the VOIP market, and about how technology works in general.

There are two major threads of VOIP software out there. Most, like Vonage, work along a standard. Then there's one who doesn't.

But that one is Skype.

Guess which of these two "standards" leads?

Skype. By a bunch. This puts another twist into the whole discussion of VOIP, and VOIP-cellular in general. Because there are multiple models to choose from:

• You can have a system that only works in certain hotspots, chosen by the phone provider. I'd call this a WiFi-carrier centered phone.
• Of course you're going to have systems that work with only one type of mobile technology. Call this a mobile carrier-centered phone.
• Then there's the choice of which VOIP system to put in there. You could have a standards-based set-up, or a Skype-based set-up.

Either way, you mix-and-match these various business models and it's obvious what you don't get. You don't get a "super phone" that roams everywhere, gives you the best price all the time, and lets you beat the mobile company out of all its money.

The folks out there who are bound to save the most here, by the way, are businesses. They can buy what works with their WiFi set-up, they can run the calls through the PBX for billing purposes, and they get to choose the carrier and phone of their choice. Big law firms, in particular, are going to save big and still bill bigger.

A shared VOIP-cellular phone is giving subscription revenue to the cellular or mobile carrier, as well as to the VOIP outfit whose software is in the phone.

It all may or may not be a deal for the consumer. And does it spell the end of anyone?
No. What it spells is the beginning of a new kind of competition, one even more complex than what we've got now. And given the number of phones and payment plans being offered to the market already, I'd say that's plenty complicated.