Tablets increase range of available VoIP solutions

In a report on the Mobile Unified Communications market, TMCnet, the online industry magazine, has identified an increase in the range of VoIP solutions available to consumers.

The report analyses Google's just-hinted tablet, which is expected to be VoIP-capable as part of Google's overall corporate commitment to integration, with Google Voice and other VoIP solutions forecast to be available on the product.

And tablets are growing in importance, with ABI Research recently forecasting that four million media tablets will be shipped worldwide this year.

Apple got in the act just recently with the launch of its iPad.

Jeff Orr, ABI Research's senior analyst, said: "While laptops are focused on productivity, and mobile phones are still primarily about communication, the main focus of media tablets is entertainment."

He also stressed the importance of mobility to these devices, stating that content consumed on laptops and smartphones is increasingly based on Internet services. Home networks and mobile broadband data services make viewing possible without wires. These media tablets could not have come to market any sooner than 2010.?

And as tablets typically come with a variety of in-built devices necessary for VoIP, ranging from webcams to microphones to high-bandwidth routers, it is expected that the growth in the emerging tablet sector will have direct effects on VoIP.