bother posting a voice recording to a social networking site when they could just as easily call their friend directly? Thor says the company sees a transition in how consumers are looking at their phones. “It’s about the telephone as a mobile microphone,” he says.
The idea is that people like broadcasting themselves. Even messages that could be relayed just as easily and efficiently through phone, text, or e-mail often make it to Twitter updates or Facebook posts instead. The service could also bring users who don’t regularly post on Facebook or Twitter into those communities, since all it requires is a phone, Thor says.
And there’s a business application of the technology that could have an even bigger impact, Thor says. Radio and TV stations could subscribe to the service to have listeners post voice recordings to their Twitter accounts, rather than using the traditional call-in techniques. Companies who monitor customer feedback and help lines via Twitter could also benefit from JawBite, he says. The firm is also developing the technology that relates to “personal productivity” functions, like e-mail and calendar updates.
JawBite is free to the individual consumer, because Thing5 plans to make the bulk of its revenue off the feature from enterprise-level users. The company is still pursuing its traditional telecom business, but it has high hopes for JawBite.
“The telecom side is still growing rapidly and will continue to be a large part of what we do,” Thor says. “[JawBite] has the potential on a per user basis to dwarf it, though. This is a one-to-many consumer product. Every person in our universe can use it. That’s the goal.”
