Probing the business market for its popular Web-based VoIP application, Google Inc. (GOOG) said it will release a premium version of Google Voice for enterprises in 2010. Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard made the comment in an interview with eWeek over the weekend.
Since its release last year, Google Voice, which unifies various devices including home phones, mobile devices and deskphones and also enables free instant messaging, has become a popular choice for early VoIP adopters. Google says that more than 1.4 million people now use the application, which is free to consumers.
Last month Google said it has produced a Web app that functions like Google Voice on the iPhone – several months after Apple (AAPL) and AT&T Inc. (T) effectively banned the service from the device.
“Delivering Google services via mobile browsers has worked well for the Gmail team,” product manager Marcus Foster and David Singleton, an engineering manager, wrote on the Google Mobile blog, “so we decided to follow the same approach with Google Voice.”
Google has also acquired Gizmo 5, which makes a VoIP software program that functions much like Skype.
Bringing Google Voice to businesses is part of the search giant’s wider strategy to compete with IBM (IBM) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in the enterprise software market, Girouard made clear. The company also plans add dozens of new features to Google Apps in 2010, and release Google Wave, its online collaboration suite, beyond its current invitation-only user base. Its likely that a business version of Google Voice would come with a fee; Google already charges $50 a year for a premium version of Google Apps.
Google’s push into voice services has not come without controversy. Last year, at the urging of, the FCC launched a probe into Google Voice, essentially inquiring whether it’s a phone service much like traditional offerings from major carriers, or simply a Web-based application, as Google claims. The outcome of that investigation is not yet clear.