magicJackPLUS now early July

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun May 22, 2011 10:14 am

We are hoping to introduce magicJackPLUS in early July and at the same time introduce magicJack App for the computer, iPhone® and iPad®," said magicJack VocalTec CEO Dan Borislow.

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/n ... l?d=222569

surfzombie · Post by **surfzombie** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:17 am

This ironically reminds me of the whole Duke Nukem Forever scenario. Which makes me say I'll believe it when I see it.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Sun May 22, 2011 12:00 pm

surfzombie wrote:This ironically reminds me of the whole Duke Nukem Forever scenario. Which makes me say I'll believe it when I see it.

One would hope that the continued delays are because they are making sure it's working properly first. I still would wait until it's been out a while before I was brave enough to buy one.

Edit: Just noticed the words "hoping to". Gee, sounds like they are already expecting another delay. The notice also mentions that while they had a small test sale of the product that apparently went well, they are saying it might be more difficult to sell the Plus than the original MJ. Hmmmm.

Valiant · Post by **Valiant** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:27 pm

Can't wait goody,goody,goody.

nostrodamus · Post by **nostrodamus** » Mon May 23, 2011 2:27 pm

Well, Dan......

I'm "hoping to buy" a Magic Jack Plus before my old Magic Jack expires, because I won't be renewing it again (as it's been collecting dust in a drawer for months now as it is)

And since that renewal date happens to be right around the first of August, then I hope the release isn't delayed any further.

If it's a matter of working bugs out, that's understandable, but I thought that the few of these units that had been released were working well.

Anybody here have one?

nostrodamus · Post by **nostrodamus** » Mon May 23, 2011 2:34 pm

nailgunner wrote: The notice also mentions that while they had a small test sale of the product that apparently went well, they are saying it might be more difficult to sell the Plus than the original MJ. Hmmmm.

How the hell did they arrive at that conclusion?

Seems to me that a "plug and play" device that doesn't require a computer would be easier to market than a device that does. Especially given the amount of effort they put into preventing all of us from using our own hardware for that very purpose.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:03 pm

nostrodamus wrote:
nailgunner wrote: The notice also mentions that while they had a small test sale of the product that apparently went well, they are saying it might be more difficult to sell the Plus than the original MJ. Hmmmm.
How the hell did they arrive at that conclusion?

Seems to me that a "plug and play" device that doesn't require a computer would be easier to market than a device that does. Especially given the amount of effort they put into preventing all of us from using our own hardware for that very purpose.

One would think so. The sentences before it made it sound encouraging:

"The company has performed a very small sales test of their upcoming product, magicJackPLUS, using one of the forms of direct sales. With a sampling of only 200 new magicJackPLUS devices sold, efforts were up to twice as efficient in dollars spent per sale by magicJack VocalTec."

And then they follow it with the caution:

"While encouraging, this is too small of a test to bank on and we might find it harder to sell the new magicJackPLUS than the original magicJack."

It might be possible that they have done some research and that the amount of new customers willing to go with an internet phone is reaching it's peak. Some people who I have talked with about VOIP who have or are getting rid of their land-lines are so married to their cell phones that they are sticking with the cells as their only phone and not interested in VOIP of any kind.

Edit: I should probably say smart phones instead of cell phones. My son is a perfect example. He tells me he never reaches the plan limits on his, and couldn't care less about about any VOIP. But if you tried to take away his I-Phone (or whatever the hell he has now), I think you would have to knock him out first.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Tue May 24, 2011 11:59 pm

It might be possible that they have done some research and that the amount of new customers willing to go with an internet phone is reaching it's peak. Some people who I have talked with about VOIP who have or are getting rid of their land-lines are so married to their cell phones that they are sticking with the cells as their only phone and not interested in VOIP of any kind.

It has always been like that. Most people I know have never been interested in MJ, or any VOIP for that matter. For me, it's an additional line next to my 2 cell phones, other use it for addtional lines in their small offices, others for travel, other outside of the US to have a US number and to call for free to the US etc.
MJ has issues with PR and their chaotic statements and behavior do not make it better.
There are also, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, new VOIP alternatives coming up.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Wed May 25, 2011 2:12 am

cell14 wrote:
It might be possible that they have done some research and that the amount of new customers willing to go with an internet phone is reaching it's peak. Some people who I have talked with about VOIP who have or are getting rid of their land-lines are so married to their cell phones that they are sticking with the cells as their only phone and not interested in VOIP of any kind.

It has always been like that. Most people I know have never been interested in MJ, or any VOIP for that matter. For me, it's an additional line next to my 2 cell phones, other use it for addtional lines in their small offices, others for travel, other outside of the US to have a US number and to call for free to the US etc.
MJ has issues with PR and their chaotic statements and behavior do not make it better.
There are also, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, new VOIP alternatives coming up.

I do think that with the excessive advertising that was done with the infomercials that there was a certain amount of demand created from people expecting MJ to replace their land-line, and not just as additional lines. I think that has been tapped out.

Either way, it does seem pretty obvious, and maybe even to them, that selling an additional 7 million units/system over a few years isn't going to be easy for any VOIP even if you combine all of them together (excluding cable companies like Comcast).

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Wed May 25, 2011 3:10 am

I am curious how many current subscribers the non-cable VOIP's have. I have a feeling it's not a very large number. My initial Googling makes it look like the numbers have been declining, if Vonage is any indication.

As of 12-2008 Vonage had 2.6 million lines in service:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/122881- ... nyone-care

For the quarter ended 12-2010 they added 6,000 lines for the first quarterly gain in over TWO years. And the monthly cancellation rate fell to 2.4%, the lowest in FOUR years. So if they still had 2.5 million lines they need 60,000 new ones each month to break even :

http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/05/todays ... video.html

I can imagine MJ's numbers being just as bad if not worse, but finding how many actual subscribers MJ has is proving to be a bit more elusive however. 7 million sold is impressive, but if he only has a fraction of that as current users, it's not so impressive.

I will keep looking in the near future, but I did see a press release that if you are a Telcom, and are serious, Dan wants to hear from you and do business with you and is even offering free equipment:

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/n ... l?d=214178

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Wed May 25, 2011 11:59 pm

I do think that with the excessive advertising that was done with the infomercials that there was a certain amount of demand created from people expecting MJ to replace their land-line, and not just as additional lines. I think that has been tapped out.

Either way, it does seem pretty obvious, and maybe even to them, that selling an additional 7 million units/system over a few years isn't going to be easy for any VOIP even if you combine all of them together (excluding cable companies like Comcast

Those people who bought from infomercials are those most likely to drop the service
The other thing is that I would not immediately jump on MJ plus unless i see a general improvement in service. MJ as it is works well for me. It is strictly a desk phone and I only uise it when I am at or around my desk and the computer is on. So why bother.

I have a feeling it's not a very large number. My initial Googling makes it look like the numbers have been declining, if Vonage is any indication.

The future of VOIP depends on political/regulatory decisions incl taxation.
In a number of european cpuntries, VOIP has an explosive growth. As a matter of fact, big corporate over there considers metering of VOIP traffic and charging much higher fees for it then for regular broadband.
If unchecked, regular land lines will be gone within 10 years.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Thu May 26, 2011 2:28 am

cell14 wrote: I would not immediately jump on MJ plus unless i see a general improvement in service. MJ as it is works well for me. It is strictly a desk phone and I only uise it when I am at or around my desk and the computer is on. So why bother.

I'm in the much-posted

position of liking the quality (and cost) of calls I currently get with MJ and my year is up at the beginning of November. At this point it looks like it may only be out a week or two before my year is up. But I am kind of curious to play with the new device. I assume the call quality, for me anyway, would be at least as good as I'm currently getting. But I was hoping for a six month gap between when it was out and when I needed to renew so that any kinks were worked out by someone else. So the "logical" decision is for me to wait until the following November, if at all.

Post by **laserjobs** » Sun May 29, 2011 12:18 pm

Does anyone know what the pricing will be for Magicjack Plus?

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Sun May 29, 2011 12:31 pm

laserjobs wrote:Does anyone know what the pricing will be for Magicjack Plus?

Not sure anything is official, but what I've read says $50 a year which includes a year of service and $20 a year for service after that. So $10 more for the initial device than a regular MJ.

PoorMan · Post by **PoorMan** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:00 am

MagicJack Plus quick review (No Computer required)
http://youtu.be/dmjz66GMPrw

Pablo123 · Post by **Pablo123** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:14 am

I prefer Nettalk over MJ. For manny differnt reasons. MJ plays to manny tricks with there customers, blocking phone numbers, tech support Is a joke Etc

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:48 am

Pablo123 wrote:I prefer Nettalk over MJ. For manny differnt reasons. MJ plays to manny tricks with there customers, blocking phone numbers, tech support Is a joke Etc

Since I am THAT guy, I suppose I should be the one to ask WHAT the hell does this have to do with MJPlus? I could see maybe if you preferred NetTalk over MJPlus. Or are you one of the beta users of MJPlus? There are ample spots in the forum for rants/reviews and alternatives to MJ.

And while I'm in the mood, PoorMan, the video link was already posted in this forum twice, once in this "MJPlus now coming..." section in a topic titled "Video of the New MagicJack plus !!!", almost a month ago.

PoorMan · Post by **PoorMan** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:01 pm

nailgunner wrote: And while I'm in the mood, PoorMan, the video link was already posted in this forum twice, once in this "MJPlus now coming..." section in a topic titled "Video of the New MagicJack plus !!!", almost a month ago.

Sorry I overlooked that the video was already posted. The video gives me hope that the magic Jack plus is real and might come to fruition soon.

I have gotten disgusted with the regular magic Jack. It works but it is too unreliable and has too many problems. I have gotten net talk, it has problems to but it is much better in my opinion.

The only significant problem that I've had with net talk so far, is that sometimes when I'm talking to someone that has a high frequency voice range like a woman, it often mistakenly converts the voice to touch tones. So often when I'm on the phone and women are talking to me, there is some interference by touch tones.

I'm hoping that magic Jack plus is as good or better than net talk. I was going to wait for magic Jack plus to come out, but was skeptical that they would meet their target release date and questioned if it would ever come to fruition at all at the price promised.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:36 pm

PoorMan wrote: I'm hoping that magic Jack plus is as good or better than net talk. I was going to wait for magic Jack plus to come out, but was skeptical that they would meet their target release date and questioned if it would ever come to fruition at all at the price promised.

Because of the competition they probably have little choice but to sell it at the announced price, when it comes out, in ?.

I'm not sure I would assume it will work any better than the current MJ, as far as issues go. No computer needed, sure, and they are promising better call quality. But are they using the same servers/infrastructure? Blocking the same exchanges? Using the same top 10% engineers to fix the issues?

sabresfan · Post by **sabresfan** » Tue May 31, 2011 3:36 pm

nailgunner wrote:
PoorMan wrote: I'm hoping that magic Jack plus is as good or better than net talk. I was going to wait for magic Jack plus to come out, but was skeptical that they would meet their target release date and questioned if it would ever come to fruition at all at the price promised.
Because of the competition they probably have little choice but to sell it at the announced price, when it comes out, in ?.

I'm not sure I would assume it will work any better than the current MJ, as far as issues go. No computer needed, sure, and they are promising better call quality. But are they using the same servers/infrastructure? Blocking the same exchanges? Using the same top 10% engineers to fix the issues?

Amen brother! MJ+ will fix mostly user issues imho. Those that try to use MJ on a machine that is poorly maintained. It will not fix all the problems Nailgunner just listed.