AOL to Open AIM Phoneline to Developers

AOL is embracing third-party developers who would like to extend its AIM Phoneline service or build new products on the platform.

The Dulles, Va.-based ISP plans to introduce new APIs (application programming interfaces) to facilitate the creation of higher-end offerings for the Voice over IP (VoIP) service of its AIM instant messaging product.

In conjunction with the rollout of the new APIs, AOL is introducing its Open AIM Phoneline initiative, an outreach program for developers.

The APIs should be available this quarter. In the meantime, AOL will be exhibiting value-add devices and applications built with the new APIs to give consumers, businesses and developers interested in the new product a taste of its potential.

AOL's move also represents a shift in its VoIP strategy. The company has abandoned its residential offering, TotalTalk, in order to target small and medium-sized companies, as well as consumers interested in higher-end VoIP services.

"What AOL is doing is what you would call a 'voice 2.0' story," Jon Arnold, principal with J Arnold & Associates, told TechNewsWorld. Its earlier stab at VoIP, he said, was the 1.0 version. "AOL sees the writing on the wall as to how voice is evolving as an IP application," he said.

The Vonage Model

In short, AOL recognizes that it can't compete with the Vonages of the world, Arnold said, nor does it want to. "A pure-play residential VoIP offering is a tough road for a lot of companies." Vonage is growing, he noted, but it is not making significant money -- something AOL desperately wants to do right now.

Instead, AOL has recognized that greater value can be derived from encouraging mash-ups by developers, offering new applications to consumers and businesses, and, in general, leveraging the power of IP. To accomplish that, it has turned to the Skype model.

The Skype Model

"AOL has recognized that if it develops a supportive ecosystem for the application, it will be that much further ahead," Arnold pointed out. "It has already identified a number of partners."

In many ways, AOL is well suited to go down this path, he added. Unlike other VoIP providers, AOL's heritage is pure Internet.

"They understand the business better than a telco or a cable company would," said Arnold. "In actuality, this is not a radical shift for them."

He pointed to an advanced call management application developed by Iotum that will be featured at VON as an example of what a VoIP mash-up might look like.

"It goes far beyond simply routing calls when you don't want to answer the phone," Arnold said. "It can determine, for instance, that while you might want a particular call in general, you don't want to receive it at just that time. It's a higher level of call management."