Facebook's WhatsApp adding voice calls

-

WhatsApp, the globally popular texting app that Facebook just acquired for a whopping $19 billion, is adding phone calls to itslist of services.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said the voice service will be free and begin rolling out to users within the next few months.
Currently, WhatsApp offers unlimited text and voice-mail messages between users. Its service is free for the first year, then costs 99 cents annually.
"We want to make sure people always have the ability to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones really affordably," Koum said in a speech at Mobile World Congress.
As reported by multiple news outlets, Koum also announced that WhatsApp now has 465 million monthly users and 330 million daily users. The latter is 15 million more than what was made public last week when Facebook announced the purchase.
Voice service will come first to Apple devices and Google's Android operating system, with Windows phone and blackberry to follow.
The move puts WhatsApp in competition not only with other messaging apps that offer voice but chat tools such as Skype and even mobile carriers. WhatsApp's unlimited texting has already helped establish it in places where smartphones and fancy data plansare less common.
It has 40 million users in India and another 38 million in Brazil, two countries highly coveted by tech companies such as Facebook for their large populations and emerging mobile customer base. WhatsApp hasn't released figures for the United States, where it is less popular.
Last week, Facebook shocked the business world when it announced it was buying WhatsApp for up to $19 billion in cash and stock -- by far the social network's 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
Koreans announced a new addition to the gear family called ( Fit) : Fit is a wristband  with a 1.84” curved Super AMOLED display. It packs a resolution of 432 x 128 pixels and alerts you of incoming notifications. The Gear Fit supports SMS, calls, emails and app notifications and weighs just 27 grams. It runs Tizen OS and features a heartbeat sensor on its down-facing side. In addition to measuring your heartbeat it can also measure how many steps you’ve made, thanks to the built in pedometer. Samsung will also launch changeable straps for the Fit in black, orange and mocha grey to let users express their individual style. The wristband employs bluetooth  4.0 LE as the connectivity protocol of choice to connect to a wide range of smartphones. Source
Read more

The pen phone and ipad

-
The Pen, Phone, and iPad: Obama’s Tech Push in U.S. Schools February 5, 2014 On a recent visit to a middle school in Maryland, President Obama “wielded an iPad to help make a point about how he hopes to do more for schools without more funding from Congress,” according to a Reuters report. Obama plans to modernize classrooms with technology, and Apple and other private companies have pledged to provide $750 million in tech products and services. Apple’s commitment includes donating free iPads to disadvantaged schools. Obama said technology like this “makes vivid and real math and science, in a way that is more interesting to the students.” Read more:  reuters.com
Read more

Blackberry: Mobile World Congress 2014: BlackBerry Forges Ahead with Introduction of New Products and Services

-
Image
The BlackBerry executive team is at Mobile  World Congress , this week, underscoring their strategy with a renewed focus on core strengths in security, productivity, communications and collaboration. There’s a lot to cover, including newly announced enterprise solutions, partnerships, and smartphone models that enable enterprises and individuals to maximize their productivity, communication and collaboration. In an overview, John Chen,  Executive Chairman  and CEO at BlackBerry had this to say: “We have engineered a  new strategy  to stabilize the company and restore our customers’ confidence in BlackBerry. The announcements made during Mobile World Congress demonstrate that BlackBerry is looking to the future and bringing solutions to market that matter most to our customers. These secure solutions emphasize our strengths in enterprise mobility, while empowering end users to become more productive with technologies that drive communications and collab...
Read more