Steve, perhaps you should lay off the sarcasm. I was not asking Obi to be a non-profit charity. Instead of offering me $10 off, I suggested offering a service. That is like paying $10 for the service.
I find their ObiExtras model kind of inconsistent with what I perceive as their basic "customer model". I have no idea how popular ObiExtras is, but my whole reason for buying an Obi is to avoid a monthly fee (in my case, it would be $10/mo for a landline). You can add to your list of alternatives instead of paying 5/mo for Obi extras, customers can pay 10/mo for an actual landline and stop doing business with Obi (with the obvious consequences for Obi profitablility).
I was not suggesting anything they do not already do, they do bundle Google Contacts capability with some of their other products. One thing a profit making company should be very interested in is how it can taylor its products and prices to make them attractive to its customers. Obi is certainly free to reject my idea because they do not think it benefits their bottom line. But again, in my experience, encourging ideas, not matter how wacky, is fundamental to
being innovative in what one does. And that applies to profit making companies as well. In that sense, any plausable idea has value. And yes, I provided the service of offering an idea for free.