Over the past year, Ribbit, a web-based service that provides a new way to manage calls, messages and phones, has had a flurry of activity, including their acquisition by British Telecom and most recently, their integration of several gadgets with Google Wave allowing voice calls, phone conferencing, text messaging and voicemail transcription. Today, Ribbit is at it again, this time with the launch of Ribbit Mobile -- a free cloud-based service that enables users to merge multiple phones, route mobile calls to other phones and answer their mobile calls on the Internet.
The service is being targeted at professionals who might be on the road a lot and could benefit from the constant connection that Ribbit Mobile has to offer, including: including voicemail transcription, smart call routing and Web-based calling. For example, a busy sales associate can use Ribbit's voicemail transcription to easily gain instant visibility into which messages are important and need immediate attention to close the sale.
Ribbit Mobile is similar to other services like Google Voice, but solves one of the biggest complaints that's surfaced from users - having to switch numbers. While Google Voice recently announced voice message services without have to change numbers, many potential users are still hesitant to lose their highly valuable personal contact information. I personally have over 500 contacts that use my phone number and having to switch to a new number would be a serious hassle and a waste of time. How many times have you got tweets or Facebook messages from people saying "I've changed my number, please send yours to me!"
With Ribbit Mobile, users don't have to switch numbers and still get all the capabilities found with other services. An additional bonus, if a user's device is lost, stolen or mobile service is unavailable, Ribbit Mobile includes a backup phone online allowing access to calls as long as there is an Internet connection.
Probably the most intriguing aspect of Ribbit is their open platform that will allow third-party developers to add features to Ribbit Mobile. The ideology behind this is to allow developers to innovate and extend the service to fit the specific needs. Ribbit has even launched a program to compensate developers for their applications - nothing like a bribe to keep the innovation flowing.
Important to note: Ribbit Mobile's "professional" package that includes the unlimited complete services is currently free in beta mode. When the official launch of the service takes place the professional package will then cost $30 a month.
