iPhone users love applications for their devices. There have been 1 billion app store downloads already (across an estimated 20 million iPhones sold to date); the Facebook app alone has been downloaded nearly 7 million times.
Now there are not one, but two iPhone apps for Google Voice – before it even launches. Both eliminate the need to dial in to Google Voice separately before making a call, which was the single biggest usability hassle.
The one with the early lead seems to be GV Voice (see it on YouTube); also strong, and with legacy GrandCentral support for slow upgraders, is VoiceCentral (read a comparative review).
These apps, no doubt to be echoed on Blackberry etc., make up a big early boost for Google Voice. iPhone users are always looking for cool things to do with their phones – and GV is, after all, most attractive to multi-phone users. (Though the cost savings and control features may eventually snag even people still on a single land line.) Some will no doubt be lured into Google Voice by the new apps, rather than the other way around.
Estimates of how many people will use Google Voice vary wildly; but with 20 million iPhone owners, most in the US, and two cool new GV iPhone apps, it’s easy to see Google Voice getting to 1 million users very quickly.
From there, it should grow rapidly – “You don’t have X yet?!?” is a very powerful viral marketing tool. Everyone who complains about juggling multiple phones, or the cost of a call, or a phone ringing during dinner, or who misses a message – things that have happened to just about everyone, at some time or another – can expect to hear: “You don’t have Google Voice yet?” from some of the million-plus Google Voice + iPhone users.
