OK, we’re waiting for VoIP. In a discussion about what we might expect from the next iteration of the Nokia 770, I said maybe VoIP will be the killer app for a device like the 770.

As I thought about it, I was reminded of two things Ari Jaaksi wrote about on his blog. First (well, in importance; chronologically it was second), he reminded us that “the killer app for the internet tablet is the INTERNET.” The way the 770 interacts with the internet, from displaying web pages to doing email, is just something that phones are not good at by themselves.

And “by themselves” I am referring obliquely to the fact that a Bluetooth phone combined with a 770 provides a different web experience altogether than a phone alone.

We say, “The internet tablet is about accessing the internet.” And it’s good to get away from the desk and use the 770 in a meeting room or in the elevator on the way to the meeting, or at home on the couch or in bed (or as others have described, as a control device accessing devices on the network).

But I keep thinking about the day I paired with a BT phone and surfed all the way into the city on a train and all the way to work as I walked from the train station to the office. That was different.

That was accessing the internet in a full and complete way, while I was away from the physical network. Ari wrote about that experience, saying, “I surf in trains, in cafeterias, at airports, even while driving. I can go online anytime and anywhere I want.” Just as cellphones meant voice communication was no longer stationary, he said, the 770’s release meant that the internet is no longer stationary either.

The big barrier to fully utilizing the 770 this way isn’t something Nokia can do anything about. It’s the price of cellphone internet access. If that were truly affordable, then the true promise of the internet tablet would be realizable, and we would appreciate, as Ari says, that the killer app is the internet, anywhere.