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Review : fring for Windows Mobile - pretty useless apart from the SIP part June 22, 2007 [General] | By Edward J. R. Fring is an application that uses Fring's intermediary servers to connect to Skype, Google Talk, MSN and Twitter. Apart from that it includes also SIP soft-phone. And all this is for free! 
While fring for Symbian may be a big deal, because it brings limited Skype functionality to these phones, the fring for Windows Mobile is much less impressive because already there is a very rich and sophisticated (and original - without intermediary servers) Skype client available for all Windows Mobile platforms!  While fring may be "free" in fact it is not, because users need to enter phone number of their mobile so that fring is sending an SMS (text message) with a download link: 
After installation users not only can do instant messaging with Google Talk and MSN, not only can do nano-blogging with Twitter, but users can also make phone calls fring-to-fring over the Internet (note: fring "signal strength" indicates bandwidth not cellular signal strength): 
... and also Skype calls (Internet-Internet and SkypeOut calls to regular phone numbers): 
... and also SIP calls over Internet to other SIP numbers or to regular phone numbers (provided credit for such calls is specified): 
Users can select one of existing SIP gateways: 
... or enter any SIP gateway of their choice. Unfortunately sometimes fring service (remember: it uses intermediary servers of fringe) is not online and then no voice calls are possible: 
From the main menu users can make phone calls to regular phones through regular cellular network (here: GSM), SkypeOut and SIP: 
Users can lock the screen directly from the fring application: 
... and settings menu includes configuration of services and disable of the auto-start (that is annoyingly switched on by default): 
Although it is the first version of fring for Windows Mobile: 
... it already is 3.x what indicates that some parts of this application were ported from other platforms. It is unclear what is business model of fring and one can only speculate about it because fringland Ltd - makers of fring - have no income revenue streams yet. Probably the idea is to offer elimination of termination fees for mobile operators - by using calls over the Internet rather than over regular phone networks. Furthermore fring is collecting forcibly (there is no way around it - otherwise one cannot download this application) phone numbers of users, what indicates possibility that texting (SMS) can be used for commercialization one day. Anyway lack of business model now means that fring service may cease to exist some time in the future, what clearly hinders development of the user base. Since fring is using intermediary servers for communication with original servers of various services, one cannot say for sure what is the level of privacy and security! The voice quality of fring is far from perfect but clearly it depends on both processor speed and bandwith. In practice it is almost impossible to make voice calls with fring over GPRS but EDGE already is enough. Obviously UMTS, HSDPA or even Wi-Fi are even better. While there is no Gizmo Project client for Windows Mobile, it is worthwhile to mention, that with use of special SIP gateway users of Windows Mobile phones can now also communicate over voice with users of Gizmo Project - all over Internet without paying! The Skype client for Windows Mobile is extremely good so the very limited Skype functionality in fring will not impress users of Windows Mobile at all, but if you have connectivity problems with Skype or you would like to run 2 Skype accounts at the same time in your Window Mobile phone, then fring may be the answer! All in all fring is a worthwhile application but users of Windows Mobile are spoiled by availability of original Skype client, so fring will not find many fans among them, but since makers/operators of fring are still searching for viable business model yet and since Windows Mobile is very well aligned with business models of mobile operators, clearly having fring for Windows Mobile is a must. Finally if you need simple and free SIP client for Windows Mobile - fring may be the answer! To learn more about fring or to download it, click here.  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 6 Comments ]
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