Alteva's Video Auto Attendant - Feature or Application?

Been back in writing mode, and my January contribution to the UCStrategies portal is running now. The focus is on last week's announcement by Alteva about a new feature - video auto attendant. I've always liked their thinking about hosted services, and for companies that embrace video, there's a good opportunity here to add value. Not everyone uses video yet, but for those who do, the potential should be easy to recognize. This isn't really a big breakthrough, but Alteva has the right idea by bringing water to the horse. Sometimes you just have to show/tell people about an idea, and let them connect the dots.

You can read my thoughts about this here, but aside from that, I wonder - is video auto attendant a feature or an application? To me, a feature is fairly static, and first mover advantage lasts until competitors catch on and start doing the same. Features are great, but can be hard to monetize long term or sustain true competitive advantage. An application can add more value if its integrated with other systems or processes, and is more dynamic in the sense that it's constantly evolving.

I may be splitting hairs here, but I think applications make for a better business model. I'd say video auto attendant is a feature right now for Alteva, and if it doesn't evolve, it probably won't take them very far. However, as my article discusses, I think there are lots of innovation possibilities here, and this could be a great opportunity for Aleva to create some differentiation for themselves. We'll see!