Om Malik prefers Truphone to the Gizmo project

I would have to agree with him too. I’m all for a service that works on multiple devices and not just select models.

Two devices don’t make a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Mobile VoIP revolution. Moreover, there are nearly half a dozen Nokia phones with WiFi and VoIP capabilities, but they don’t do Gizmo VoIP.

I wonder why Nokia has chosen to work with Gizmo Project, when most of Nokia’s devices come bundled with their own VoIP application. I think its because those VoIP capabilities are as useless as the built-in IM client Nokia bundles with most of its phones. (Some folks tell me that there are NAT issues that cause problems.)

To makethe Nokia VoIP app work with any other VoIP service, say Broadvoice, is so frustrating that it could soon have you reaching for those leftover holiday wines. (I tried it with an Asterisk-based5 service a friend rigged up for us, without success!) What is even more confounding is that Nokia is making VoIP work on an N Series device, targeting consumers.

VoIP should be a top priority on their E-Series smart phones: these devices are targeted at the business user, have WiFi, and are VoIP capable. Business users make a lot of calls, and could actually be the ones who could use the money savings offered by a Gizmo.

Source: GigaOM

Well said, and now in a later article he heralds Truphone as a champion solution:

I have two E-Series Nokia phones: the E61 and E70. I love them both, but I miss Gizmo on these devices. It would be nice to have incoming calling with my Gizmo numbers on either of these two phones that accompany me everywhere.

Thank god for Truphone2, which has actually made mobile VoIP on ESeries (and Nokia N80ie) work. (I was supremely skeptical3 of their abilities, and they proved me totally wrong.)

Truphone is a UK-based startup that has come up with a great mobile VoIP app that currently works on four devices – E60, E61, E70 and N80ie – and will soon work on four more Nokia models including N90, N92 and N93 phones.

The service was hard to set up the first time around I tried to make it work, but in past two weeks I tried installing it on two different devices, and everything went flawlessly.

Source: GigaOM

What does Nokia have to learn about this? Simple: make your product work on more than 2 phones and more people will use it!