14 DAY TRIAL // Google is building up to make a major play in an area where it hasn't had much of a presence before, voice communications. Google Voice was launched earlier this year and it has been picking up Steam since, despite still being technically in private beta. It plans to open up the service to everyone later this year and now TechCrunch reports that it will include it to the Google Apps suite for enterprises and organizations soon after.
The move wouldn't be that unexpected considering the trajectories of both Apps and Voice. It's also a potentially very lucrative market, though certainly not lacking in competition. Google has constantly evolved Apps and added more features and services along the way. It started out with only a handful of apps like Gmail, Calendar and Docs, but has added quite a few more along the way.
Google Voice started out as GrandCentral, a company offering a very similar service, which Google acquired in 2007. Since then it worked to move the product to Google's infrastructure and has been opening it up for a few months now. While still in private beta, invitations are handed out rather liberally at this point.
The service enables users to have just one phone number for all their phones regardless of the carrier. Google Voice redirects all incoming calls to the connection or connections the users select, be it mobile phones, landlines or even VoIP. The Google Voice app for Android devices also handles outbound calls and text messages.
It should become available to all users sometime next year, but there is now talk of including the service in the Google Apps lineup not long after that. There is no reason why Google wouldn't do this, the market is definitely there, and small businesses would welcome the introduction of telephony system. Google could introduce a basic model at no extra charge for Apps users and could then sell more advanced features and support for more users or phone numbers.