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April 15, 2008

Fring iPhone Chat/Voip App Launching Today

Michael Arrington

43 comments »

Fring, an Israeli startup that has a great VOIP/Chat service for mobile phones (see our February coverage), is launching an iPhone version of the service sometime in the next 24 hours, we’ve heard.

This is not a browser-based chat app like FlickIM or Mundu. It should be a fully functional downloadable version of the application that allows users to access the fring, Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM services.

That means they’ll be using the Jailbreak installer, which severely limits the number of iPhone users who will download and use it.

But Fring may also be the first really killer application that can get non-early adopter users to consider using Jailbreak. The ability to make VOIP calls over the data plan in itself is probably worth it (although it may only work over Wifi, not the Edge network).

This is most likely a test run in preparation for the official iPhone app store that will launch this summer. It’s also a risky strategy - some developers I’ve spoken with are avoiding Jailbreak because they don’t want to anger Apple and have their official applications banned down the road.

Fring is doing very well even without the iPhone. The service, which is about a year old, gets 100,000 new active users per month. We’ll update when Fring actually launches the application. Update: It launched. Read about it here. Download it here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 12:41 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Fring a punto de lanzar una aplicación de Voz IP para el iPhone : planeta iphone

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:09 am

  2. Fring para iPhone se lanzará en breve

    April 15th, 2008 at 2:35 am

  3. Fring запустил Voip для iPhone | iReview

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:00 am

  4. FlashCamp.net » Fring finally here?

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:04 am

  5. fring за iPhone | nikintosh

    April 15th, 2008 at 4:40 am

  6. VoIP-Point » Fring to launch iPhone app using Jailbreak installer

    April 15th, 2008 at 4:49 am

  7. Fring! Multiple Messengers and SIP/VOIP on your smartphone : flightcrewgadgets.com

    April 15th, 2008 at 7:37 am

  8. Update: Fring’s Jailbroken iPhone App Now Live

    April 15th, 2008 at 7:41 am

  9. cold CHICAGO » Fring iPhone Chat/Voip App Launching Today

    April 15th, 2008 at 7:41 am

  10. Fring：3G时代的杀手级应用 | SilenceWolf

    April 15th, 2008 at 8:34 am

  11. Update: Fring’s Jailbroken iPhone App Now Live - kissit.tv

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

  12. Fring para el iPhone!! at Mi Brain-Training Personal

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

  13. WIRELESS « Daily Marauder

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

  14. Apple iPhone VoIP is now fringing possible | iMod

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

  15. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » FringのiPhone Chat/Voip アプリケーション、本日ローンチ

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

  16. Business News Research » Update: Fring’s Jailbroken iPhone App Now Live

    April 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

  17. DrErk

    April 16th, 2008 at 12:43 am

  18. VOIP on the Iphone and Itouch | Nifty Stopwatch

    April 16th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

  19. Will the Fring iPhone release hurt Fring?

    April 20th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

  20. NinjaKai » Blog Archive » links for 2008-04-16

    April 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am

Comments

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  1. Appsing

    April 15th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    iPhone apps, leading the way to the mobile internet in the making, applause! :-o

  2. Cem

    April 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am

    Fring on an Iphone 3G is on the way to be a killer app…

  3. naOki

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:01 am

    This is mad.
    Cant wait till its out!!
    Atleast I can talk with my iphone for the first time in Japan, haha!!

  4. Dennis Howlett

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:07 am

    Your info re: Fring is suspect: It works on Series 60 Nokia devices.

  5. Michael Arrington

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:10 am

    Dennis, drop by later and apologize.

  6. marvel

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:13 am

    Don’t need an iphone anymore because the Itouch with fring is now voice enabled.
    Just need good wifi everywhere.

    Marvel

  7. sean

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:16 am

    one more reason to get an iphone…
    will iphone 3g be available in June?

  8. Dan Grossman

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:22 am

    I want a Samsung Instinct.

  9. david amodt

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:28 am

    let it drop soon. tell scoble while he’s in israel to get it up asap… lol

  10. Rajiv Singh

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:38 am

    fring is unreliable crap as a Skype client.

  11. Cem

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am

    @ Rajiv as Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, At&T, China Telecom, Verizon, BT, Vodafone only to name a few ;)

  12. jon bradford

    April 15th, 2008 at 2:19 am

    I have been using fring for about 18 months now but not for VoIP but IM.

    It is a fantastic IM client and more so it is a great client for twitter. much underplayed but worth a look.

  13. emonn

    April 15th, 2008 at 3:50 am

    Too bad they don’t have a version for BlackBerry handsets.

  14. Tim

    April 15th, 2008 at 4:00 am

    @ Emonn - Too bad you have a phone that only allows J2ME applications to be developed for.

    Maybe it’s time to move on to a better, smarter phone?

  15. Dennis Howlett

    April 15th, 2008 at 6:13 am

    @Mike - Why: as I read it, says “Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones” but no mention of S60 eg Nokia??

  16. Alex

    April 15th, 2008 at 6:13 am

    Installed .978 on iPod touch -
    I was able to register, add my google talk info - the chat screen was a little buggy as there was only a black bar where I was typing… so I couldn’t actually see what I was typing…
    I exited the app, but it crashes whenever I tried to log in again.

    When you click “existing” to sign in, the submit button says “register.”

    If I uninstall and reinstall I’m able to log in again… but once I exit, it just crashes out on me.
    I thought the instructions said it was going to be 1.0, but all I could see in installer was .978.
    I have an iPod touch 1.1.4 jailbroken with ZiPhone

  17. ben

    April 15th, 2008 at 6:16 am

    Amazing, it works !!!

  18. Christopher Herot

    April 15th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    I’ve been using Fring on my Nokia N95. It’s a great Twitter client, but when used for VoIP the audio quality varies depending on the connection. Sometimes it is great and sometimes completely unusable. I can’t imagine anyone trying to do VoIP on the iPhone until the 3G version comes out.

  19. steve

    April 15th, 2008 at 8:13 am

    When will Fring be able to join Apple’s iPhone dev program anyway? Currently, as a non-US developer, they are locked out.

    As for the risky part (incur wrath of Apple), if Apple does not have objective criteria for exlcusion of AppStore applications, they certainly risk both bad PR and a significant lawsuit. I recall a rather large MSFT settlement on a similar point a few years back.

  20. cem

    April 15th, 2008 at 8:17 am

    worx great with iphone 1.1.4

  21. Dennis Howlett

    April 15th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    @Christopher Herot: I use Fring on N95 with 3G and it’s not so great for VoIP but then my 3G is crabby at best.

  22. Sudoku Maniac

    April 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    so Fring app will be available in Iphone app store

  23. jmac

    April 16th, 2008 at 3:19 am

    Here is an extended step by step guide on how to install fring on iphone:
    http://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/?p=548

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