Don't forget about VoIP!

I know we're all waiting breathlessly (you can breath! remember to breath!) for the Apple iPad/iTab/table computer announcement, but we thought it would be good to remember that a lot of the tech we take for granted is still looking for mass adoption and refinement. Chief among them is VoIP telephony. Danie Crowther, a partner at consulting firm Deloitte, sees mobile VoIP as a big gainer in 2010.

“The rising adoption of mobile VOIP services could cause a fundamental rise in expectations as to what mobile voice can do.”

Google Voice has been kind of backended onto the iPhone, and Android (in Nexus One and Droid flavors) seems poised to keep mobile telephone technology in the forefront of people's minds. According to Crowther, mobile VoIP could be a $30 billion global business within three years. I'm willing to bet that's a lot more money than the Apple iTable is going earn. It's just something to keep in mind: Our core technologies--email, voice, Internet--may be delivered via ever and more impressive technologies, but they're still the star of the show. VoIP isn't as sexy as it used to be, but it's still a growing technology.