It is fun (and seasonal) to close the door on something as dead or being totally over. I have been playing with the concept that your phone is dead. There are two dimensions to this telephony question in my mind, technology and application.
It is great to speculate about some view of VoIP that finds it to be dead. You need to have a very specific view to make such a comment. VoIP, as a technology, is everywhere. That game is over– VoIP wins. As an application you could have a different view. Now all the pretenders, and they are legion, exploiting VoIP claiming to have invented some variation on perpetual motion are lining up to be declared dead. I am more amazed that some are still flourishing by any virtual measure. The search for greater fools to make a graceful exit becomes more difficult in the financial times we are mired in now. The grim reaper is stalking these operations.
From a technology perspective I think it would be hard to declare legacy (digital/analog) telephony dead as well. We would be speechless without it. It is a game that may be over in many ways, but gone it won’t be for some time. –How long has fax been dead? I rest my case.
From an application view I have been considering proclaiming your phone dead, or at least “over.” Almost every mode of communication is more useful, than a legacy phone call, that includes mobile. Of course we still talk, but the category of a “cold call” now includes your friends or almost any call. I find this to be the biggest story in telephony. Who made text so cheap to demand that we use it? Instant messaging and now Twitter variations and any other text mode is more useful. Where are you? How do you feel? What’s on your mind? Who would call to ask how are you? Your mother– we can count on that, of course.
While I am in a bashing mode I am pretty harsh on videoconferencing , but this is very different. I have been too close to videoconferencing since 1995. I was suspicious then and have seen it proclaimed as the next thing for so long, I could be tired of it. We have it integrated all over and that certainly makes it easy finally, but the value is still exaggerated. That is a subject in itself, but an unwelcome interrupting call is no more attractive because of video! Family, lovers and never-ending porn variations have real value. This does not make it a vital dimension of communication, no matter how much you love your mother. (A reference to porn and your mother is not good in the same logical sequence, but you get the idea.)