“truthfreedompeace777” wrote in on this page about what peripherals the magicJack might use in the future has some interesting opinions about what might happen with peripherals. He offers a lot of speculative concepts, so I thought it sort of deserves a post of its own so that people can comment on this.

CEO Vento had great plans. According to the table at the bottom of this post based on his April 2013 speech, many of these have not been fulfilled. These are some great ideas, and while they may have been ambitious for 2013, perhaps 2014 will fair better. I really hope some of these concepts come to fruition.

Meanwhile, I’d appreciate any links to magicJack press releases, image links from reputable websites that might give us a clue about what magicJack may have up its sleeve next. Thanks truthfreedompeace777 for your perspective. I’ve linked in your comment below to the voip-info.org website you spoke about, and see only images that look exactly like my mJ+ 2014, so the images may have been changed. If you could provide links to the conference call, the MVNO information to add further substance to your speculation, it might make things interesting.

truthfreedompeace777 wrote:
Chris,here is some speculation on possible add on products/services.

  • The CEO mentioned in an April conference call that magicjack would be reselling a 4G data card in the second half of 2013. This did not happen and then of course there was the mention of magicjack offering low cost internet access and/or WiFi in the future in the 2014 mj plus promotional email.I don’t know whether this will really happen but the new COO of magicjack does have a history of Sprint MVNO reselling and it seems likely that magicjack could end up offering internet service by becoming a Sprint MVNO or in some other fashion.
  • If magicjack does become an MVNO then why not market a mobile phone?Although there are many MVNOs reselling Sprint service for a low cost,most of them do not have the retail store presence,known brand name,profitability or advertising money that magicjack does.And magicjack could be able to offer the lowest or close to the lowest cost mobile phone service,and/or they could also partner with other companies to include the magicjack app/service on mobile phones,tablets,laptops,tv set top boxes or maybe even in future WiFi/4g connected cars using voice activation.
  • I noticed a promotional picture of a magicjack device on voip-info.org that appears different from the 2014 mj plus.It is pictured in voip-info.org articles such as “vonage vs magicjack plus”. The device shown shows the ethernet port and male usb being farther away from the top of the device making the device appear larger and is missing the “plus” word.This could just be an altered image and not the actual physical device or maybe magicjack is rebranding to simply “magicjack” rather than “magicjack plus” and has modified the device.
    We can only speculate but I do hope to see magicjack offer low cost internet service and a mobile phone or at least partner with other companies as I mentioned above.

Have a good one.

See truthfreedompeace777’s followup reply with links below.

Here’s a quote from the April 2, 2013 5pm MagicJack VocalTec Ltd. 4Q12 Investor Conference Call as provided by SeekingAlpha.com. (You’ll have to log in to read the whole of it.)

The new magicJack PLUS will have superior voice quality as compared to the magicJack PLUS. It will also have three times the processing power of the prior magicJack PLUS and two times in memory capacity. The new magicJack PLUS will enable consumers to make and carry two simultaneous calls at the same time and consumers will also be able to attach Wi-Fi for the new magicJack PLUS and turned it into a router or use Wi-Fi as a source to access the Internet and make calls. The new magicJack PLUS will also have two USB ports, offering consumers the ability to plug in a 4G source. And in the second half of the year, we will start reselling competitively priced 4G data card.

Finally, through the new magicJack PLUS, consumers will be able to add and connect a portable DECT phone or a cordless phone and make simultaneous calls. The new magicJack PLUS will also be a new affordable device for small business applications. It will be able to wirelessly connect up to 10 business phones in an office environment.

Turning to the magicJack APP. In late 2011, we introduced a mobile voice app for use on an iPad, an iPhone, iTouch, or an android device, as well as on a PC. It allows users to make calls on their devices when connected to Wi-Fi. The magicJack APP has excellent features, including superior voice quality and ease of use. We offer a freephone number for incoming and outgoing calls, the ability to call landline and/or other mobile phones for free, and we have live online customer care. We’re currently working to add full texting capability to that app.

The app has had over eight million activations since its launch. And we expected in the second half of 2013, we’ll begin charging a subscription service for usage of the app. And while we do not expect revenue in 2013 from sales of the app to be material, our objective is continued to grow customer base for revenue contributions for the future.

–Gerald Vento – President and Chief Executive Officer

     As of 2014.01.16 the below is what we know.

CEO Vento’s plans for mJ+ 2014
A checklist of what’s happened so far.
magicJack plus 2014 on market  
2 simultaneous calls on a DECT or Cordless phone  
attached wifi*  
turn magicJack into a router  
use wifi to make calls  
ability to plug in 4G source via USB  
Physical attribute promises
2x memory  **
3x processing power  **
2 USB ports  ***
wifi (micro sdio)  ***
Peripheral promises (by Q3/Q4 2013)
competitively-price 4G Data card (usb?)  
Wirelessly connect up to 10 Business phones  
App
Android  
Mac  
Windows  ****
Texting capability  

* Attached wifi – not sure what that means. There are currently no micro-sdio cards on the market.

** I don’t know how to physically verify this, so I’ll have to take magicJack’s word. If someone out there knows of a third-party verification of the memory and processing power differences between mJ+ 2012 and mJ+ 2014, please post.

*** The physical adapter(s) is/are present. The device’s firmware is not set to make them active.

**** Technically the app does not work unless you attach a device. That makes it less an app and more an interface.

You can’t have two simultaneous conversations on a single phone line, and CEO Vento doesn’t seem to be talking about conference calling, or he’d call it that. The 2-simultaneous-calls feature must be something that will be enabled by a USB connected peripheral. There is only one phone line on the rJ-ll phone connector, even though there could have been two (or even three), so using a two-line phone connect to the existing rJ-11 jack is out of the picture for magicJack 2014 owners. That USB-connect peripheral would probably be a two-line DECT 6.0 multi-handset system for offices. Uniden cordless phones are often incompatible with mJ+. Vtech phones have crummy battery life and like Uniden, depend on expensive, proprietary, hard-to-acquire replacement batteries. AT&T seems to be phasing out of land-line-style phone systems altogether. Panasonic is about the best cordless multi-station phone out there. Their more recent phone use standard AA rechargeable batteries, so that’s a plus. But I don’t see one out there with a USB connection to a base station. Anyway, looking forward to the possibilities, eh?

Join the Conversation

8 Comments

  1. Chris,that is the same image I mentioned.It may not be an actual physical working device,but I maintain what I said in the previous post.If you enlarge the photo, take another look and compare with 2014 mj plus,the ethernet jack and male usb appears clearly farther away from the top corners,making the device appear larger than the 2014 plus.Also the WiFi SDIO slot appears centered in the image while it is closer to the right side of the 2014 plus.You can also compare the male usb location of the 2014 plus to the “standing up “image atop the official magicjack facebook page.These images could be just for show.
    You can read the news release titled ‘magicjack appoints Timothy McDonald Chief Operating Officer” to read about his history with Sprint/Clearwire and his founding of Scatteree Partners to develop and operate new mobile data services in partnership with Sprint.
    To hear the 4/2/2013 conference call where the magicjack CEO mentions reselling a 4G data card,click on “investors” at the bottom of the magicjack homepage then click “News and Events” then click “Events and Presentations” and then 4/2/2013 conference call.You can also read a transcript of this conference call at seekingalpha under ticker symbol CALL “transcripts” but you may have to log in to read the whole transcript.The CEO mentions the 4G data card in his opening statement.
    Cheers.

    1. I’ve added links where appropriate in your comment. I’m also posting a portion of the transcript from “Seeking Alpha”. Excellent follow up. Thank you.

      Edit: I’m not sure I’m seeing any difference in my mJ+ 2014 and the one shown in the release. Here’s my images from the unboxing. Do they look different from yours?

  2. magicjack plus is now listed on walmart.com showing new packaging/design. Search “magicjack” on the walmart website to find it even though the title of the listing is spelled “Magic-Jack Plus”. It will come up as the last of 3 search results. Previously,walmart only sold magicjack in walmart stores and had no listing for magicjack on their website. Strange that the 3 different pictures walmart shows all look different from each other as well as look different from the current 2014 mj plus. I suspect walmart will be editing this new product listing.

    1. When I did the search, the first two devices to come up where “NetTalk Duo, VoIP Telephone Service”, “BasicTalk Home Phone Device” and then “Magic-Jack Plus S1013″… Hmmm… The packaging is certainly more streamlined — no mention of SMS or other features that magicJack was supposed to offer according to the previous packaging. I suspect your right. At some point they’ll have to edit the page to say “magicJack plus 2014”. Otherwise, it begs the question — how and whether the early-adopters have devices that are drastically different internally from those in the new packaging, and whether the early-adopter devices will work properly with the direction magicJack is going. It also makes me wonder if Walmart is preferentially placing the other two products for soe reason unknown to us.
      Thanks, TFP777.

  3. Hey Chris,
    As I suspected, magicjack is releasing a new modified device as well as a new app.The new app is coming out in April and the new device is coming out in May,according to magicjack management from their latest conference call.Looking forward to trying out both.Have a good weekend.

    1. Truth,
      Thanks for the heads up. I wasn’t on the call. I’ll have to listen to the recording. It doesn’t surprise me. I guess we got the vaporware-end of the deal.
      Chris

  4. I certainly do hope magicjack gets it right this time and has some new useful features on the new app and new device.
    Cheers

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply to truthfreedompeace777 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *