I will say one thing for the VoIP startup Ooma – they sure have mastered the PR game. In one morning, Arrington, Malik, Mossberg, VentureBeat and CNet.
I’m puzzled, though. If Sunrocket and Vonage have taught us anything, it’s that you can’t keep telephone customers (other than the early adopters) without a solid track record for reliability and quality – even with many millions of dollars in TV advertising. Customers need to trust their telephone. But the Ooma model asks customers to spend the money – and take the big risk – upfront (US$400 in hardware), on a startup. Oh, and they’re asking for that $400 from people they’re trying to attract with the promise of low-cost telephone service.
Oh – but they do have a celebrity involved – Aston Kutcher – and the tech ‘sphere is happy to cheerlead by reprinting their press releases (to their credit, the folks at CNet’s Crave are skeptical), so that’s something.
Update: Go Cynthia go.