Jajah Binks
Friday, March 30th, 2007I feel like I tend to hear about new web services before most of the country. Somehow, Jajah has reached two million users without me hearing a peep out of them. Has anyone used Jajah? How do you compare it to Skype?
Apparently, one of the things Jajah enables: you provide it your phone number and someone else’s phone number and it rings you both, connecting the call. At the least, I like that innovation is occurring around all these phones we have. Being attached to a computer to make cheap calls is not pleasant. Or, is it a bad thing that innovation is occurring around what we know as a phone today, meaning that consumers will continue to be saddled with the cost of phone service when there are cheaper ways to communicate by voice? If anything, I think plays like Jajah, Jangl, and Grand Central will provide pressure on incumbents to innovate on service and reduce costs. As an aside, I think Grand Central has a great name for what it is, although I believe Minor used to use the name for a different business. Maybe it’s a good thing that business didn’t work out.
I’m fond of raw innovation (e.g. Skype), but I’m perhaps equally fond of innovation around existing infrastructure (e.g. Jajah). Jajah’s creative offering reminds me of another piece of genius underway in Texas: powering the city during the day with energy generated at night from wind and stored in a gigantic virtual car battery.
While we’re on the topic of innovation around what we know of as phones today, I’m a big fan of the service I receive from SunRocket. Better sound quality than Skype without the irritation of expiring credits. And, I can use any standard cordless phone with it. To top it off, an annual contract is not required and they offer a plan for $10/month ($20/month is too much to pay for a home phone when already paying a fortune for mobile phone service). If you decide to sign up and give them my phone number, I think they’ll give you something extra in return.