Jott is a great tool if you haven’t tried it out. In a nutshell (I saw Austin Powers for the 100th time the other night), you call a number on your phone, dictate a note, schedule a meeting, or write a to do and the service transcribes your voice into the appropriate message type; it even creates an object on your Outlook automatically. It has been free up until yesterday.
Other sources are discussing the particulars of the service so I’ll leave it be. What I find interesting is this the first example that I can remember where a service that had been free is now not free; THEY ARE TRYING TO MONETIZE. They have done a good job packaging their offerings. They still have a free service, but have scoped it in such a way that if you use it a lot, you are going to be very tempted to upgrade. The upgrade itself is less than $5 so I suspect many people will just do it. Personally, I’m not traveling much right now so I’ll hold off, but I could see doing it in a heartbeat if I were using it more. Since I mostly commute by bike, it is tough to use the phone. It is must though if you are a car commuter.
It will be very interesting how this plays out as there are so many services like Jott who were free and remain free (Xobni and others come to mind). It is a great service and adds value so I think they should charge for it. I’m glad they have the balls to give it a try. I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up juggling the different offerings over time, but they will learn as they go. My hat is off to them and wish them luck.
Tags: Free, Jott, Monetization, Web2.0
