The VoIP Integrated Client Environment is being touted as a mobile business application, mainly because it enables workers to remotely access e-mail and Intranets from an IP cell phone using a web browser.
The application likely would debut commercially in Japan or Korea, where tech-savvy consumers historically have been early adopters of new cell-phone technology, such as camera phones.
Oki spokesperson Naomi Takeuchi said the companies initially would work with customers in Japan and peg its first shipment for the last calendar quarter of 2005.
However, the system has been designed to also work in other country’s IP telephony markets and the companies are not limited to where they would sell it, she said. Our first shipment might be overseas, we just don’t know yet.
The system works on any mobile device, Takeuchi said. Target customers would be cell phone and PDA makers, as well as telecom companies.
The lure of VoIP-enabled mobile phones is significantly cheaper calls. However, IP cell phones are just becoming a reality in the US and elsewhere.
I would say IP phones are not full-scale in Japan yet, Takeuchi said. I don’t think a lot of companies are using them yet, but obviously the trend is going toward that.
Skype, as well as VoIP market leader Vonage, have expressed plans – but no products yet – to create their own software for mobile VoIP phones.
