April 17, 2008 at 3:39 am · Authored by Julia · Filed under iPhone

VoIP company Fring has unveiled what it claims is the first true VoIP application for Apple’s iPhone. Granted, there are other VoIP apps out there, but Fring is a VoIP and IM combo. While it’s currently just in beta version, iPhone users can download it from Fring’s website and give the company feedback on how the application is going.

Fring promises all the usual call and chat functionality you’d expect from VoIP, and it integrates with a whole host of other services, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM, with a single contacts list.

I can’t imagine the likes of Apple being happy about this - the iPhone needs to please its ‘carrier partners’, and most operators haven’t been exactly ready to embrace VoIP just yet. Others have suggested that Apple might be working on its own VoIP app, and therefore unlikely to embrace the budding competition. Either way, Apple has shown when it released updates that bricked jailbroken iPhones, it’s not shy of taking drastic action when iPhone users are doing things with the device it doesn’t like - and that doesn’t bode well for VoIP.