Soonr

I came across an interesting service today. Soonr lets you access your PC from your cell phone in a totally new way. I set it up and was on my first Skype call in under 2 minutes.

The service installs on your PC and lets you link to your cell phone via the browser (I use a Palm Treo 700w). After the install, it sends a text to your phone, with a link to the Soonr page. When you sign in, a browser-based menu shows up. One click and you're on a Skype call to any Skype contact online at the time (or their test service, because all of my Skype contacts were busy when I tried it).

The company has a strong stable of partners (everyone in their business area is a partner - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others) and a great handle on the integration of their products. Their site pitches the service as a tool for business users, but I imagine they may end up with more takers from college kids and other extremely price-sensitive people, especially those who make long-distance international calls. Those users may find the Outlook integration, desktop search, file access, and other features less useful - or they may use them in ways not envisioned by their designers.

In terms of Outlook access and "PC Anywhere" technology, Soonr has a very advanced and seamless UI and will hopefully stake out some territory in the increasingly crowded wireless market. However in terms of using Skype via cell phone, while an incredibly compelling value propositoin and one which they have executed excellently, I think that the jury-rigged nature of the Skype service (using your PC, which must be on) will make competition with cut-rate international dialing plans difficult, especially when others use the same PC. Also, the PC speakers will carry your call - so be careful to have the computer on mute and be careful not to let just anyone have access to it if you plan on Skyping about sensitive topics.

After the inevitable shakeup in the digital lifestyle world, it would be nice to see one company roll up the useful products of these many companies into an integrated - and reliable - suite of tools. Between Soonr, Sharpcast, GoogleTalk and gmail mobile, among many others, my phone is getting a little crowded. I should say, I hope that company isn't Microsoft - the Microsoft Windows Mobile parts of the phone hardly ever work properly.