Ifbyphone Launches on the iPhone
Hosted telephone application platform provider ifbyphone today released a new group message broadcast application that will enables users of Apple’s iPhone to send recorded messages to as many recipients as they wish without using any of their calling-plan minutes.
The ifbyphone telephone application platform, which will be available July 1, will deliver broadcasts either immediately or at a scheduled time set by the user. It will work with any iPhone running the v2 software. In addition, the Voice Broadcast feature will also work with the iPod touch.
After installing the ifbyphone broadcast application, which will be available via iTunes distribution, the voice broadcast message is then created through a few fast and easy steps:
1. Select the ifbyphone Voice Broadcast application on the iPhone.
2. Select the group of recipients from the iPhone’s Address Book and enter the delivery date and time.
3. The ifbyphone service then calls out to the iPhone so the message can be recorded. On the iPod touch, the user is prompted to enter the number of a phone he wants to be called on to record the messaage.
The recorded message is stored on and delivered from ifbyphone’s servers, freeing users from having to use their calling plan minutes to reach business associates and colleagues. The application is geared primarily toward mobile sales people at small and midsize businesses, bringing the power of an IVR within reach of everyone, says Irv Shapiro, ifbyphone’s CEO.
The application is free, but requires an active ifbyphone monthly subscription and usage plan.
In addition to the iPhone application, ifbyphone also released an enhanced Voice Broadcast scheduling application programming interface. This new API supports the integration of voice broadcast messaging into any contact management or customer relationship management solution and provides much of the core functionality of the ifbyphone iPhone Voice Broadcast.
Though initially available on the iPhone, Shapiro points out that the company is working to make the application available to many other mobile devices. By the end of the summer, he expects to have applications in place to support BlackBerrys, Salesforce.com, and Microsoft Outlook as well. "We’ll be bringing this to a whole series of phones and applications," he says.