August 29th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on August 29th, 2006.
The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T is getting on the MuniFi bandwagon, and will build a wireless network in the city of Springfield, Ill. The company will also include a free tier in the package which involved building and operating the networks. Apparently, the batteries not included. The city will pay for the electricity to keep the network running. This is the second major MuniFi for Ma Bell. Earlier this year, AT&T had teamed up with MetroFi to build and operate a network in Riverside, California.
Jason Hillery, an AT&T spokesman, said that more than a year ago AT&T stopped lobbying for legislation that would have prohibited governments from subsidizing Wi-Fi service because municipalities increasingly are cutting deals with businesses to develop the networks. He also said AT&T’s lobbying priorities have shifted to legislation that would help speed its rollout of television services. “The evolution of the market removed the need for us to oppose these types of networks in any active way,” he said.
Translation: It has become politically dangerous to oppose municipal wireless networks, especially for incumbent phone companies who want to get the state wide video franchise legislations approved. Phone companies, and I say this with some admiration, have uncanny political survival skills. Of course with all the money they spend on legislation, these should have those skills.
Written by Om Malik on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Webshots, the online photo-sharing granddaddy, is releasing a major redesign of its site tonight. We’d thought this was happening tomorrow, but a little bird told us it was already live. The site seems to be in transition as we write…some parts updated, some parts not. Webshots, owned by CNET, has made itself prettier and easier to use, emphasizing user community aspects, while bumping up upload limits and cutting down ad spaces by 40 percent.
While others have been coy about adding video, Webshots says it will integrate short video sharing soon — but not until the fall. Webshots has 19 million unique visitors per month, with 420 million photos shared to date and 1 million new photos per day.
Big photo sites like Webshots have managed to maintain huge audiences, but it’s clear they have Flickr envy. Webshots is the most recent photo site to web 2.0-ify itself: a reborn Yahoo Photos launched to the public just two weeks ago. Along those lines, there are likely to be opportunities for photo-sharing startups to find buyers who want a pre-built user-generated photo-sharing community. So who’s likely to be acquired? Let’s work through the options.
As we see it, there have been two rounds of online photo acquisitions: first, the photo-printing sites — Kodak bought Ofoto, Hewlett-Packard bought Snapfish — then, the photo-sharing and organization tools — Yahoo bought Flickr, Google bought Picasa. Today, it seems like the latter two may have been smarter choices.
Photo-printing may be a big business, but there is too much competition to make much money off it. You can see lots of evidence of this issue in the Shutterfly IPO paperwork. Additionally, younger generations seem increasingly disinterested in printing their photos; Flickr, Zooomr, MySpace, and Facebook are the places to share your pictures.
You’d think Kodak and HP would be kicking themselves, wishing they had the foresight to buy what’s going to be hot next year. But their interest, especially HP’s, has been in selling printers and ink, so printing sites it is. Still, both companies sell cameras, so don’t count them out for another round of acquisitions.
We’ve heard Kodak is talking to Zooomr. We think other consumer electronics firms could also be likely purchasers for online photo sites. What about Canon or Sony? Circling back to Webshots — they are doing a targeted ad campaign for Casio starting in September. Since it’s already owned by CNET, Webshots might not be the most viable acquisition target, but hey, it’s already been sold (and bought) twice.
Who else?
- Shutterfly, a peer to Ofoto and Snapfish that has stayed independent, reportedly shopped itself around to acquirers recently before filing to go public, but this is not the kind of startup we’re talking about. Not only is Shutterfly too big, it is too beholden to its focus on printing and other physical products. But it’s not like calling off your IPO is unheard of these days.
- Facebook now hosts over 400 million photos, with members uploading 2 million per day. The company says comScore calls it the number one photo site, though we haven’t seen that list firsthand.
- comScore’s competition, Hitwise, previously put Photobucket at number 1.Low-fi Photobucket takes the web 2.0 philosophy to a different level, acting as a hosting service but mainly helping members post photos and videos off-site.
- Mobile photo services like ShoZu, TextAmerica
- Other popular web-based offerings such as Piczo and SmugMug
Written by Liz Gannes on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software 2.0 and Startups.
On this week's podcast on the Pulvermedia Podcast Network, I spoke with Jim Courtney, industry colleague and fellow blogger. Jim wears a few hats, mainly as an industry consultant, and an Associate Editor of the widely-read blog, Skype Journal.
Jim has a long history in tech/telecom, and offered his perspective on the trends he's seeing here in Canada's IP communications market. Also, having posted earlier in the day about the Google/Skype news on Skype Journal, the podcast was a timely opportunity to explore the implications of that development more deeply.
You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Jim's background.
Technorati tags: Jim Courtney, Jon Arnold, Skype Journal, VoIP Podcasts
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Well, this sure was nice to see earlier today. I hate being so busy that I'm not able to blog in a more timely manner, but better late than never.
I met Garrett Smith earlier this year at a VoIP show, and have been meaning to stay in touch. Well, he's been staying in touch with me by reading my blog - and lots of others who commment about VoIP. I hadn't come across his blog until today, but I'm glad I did!
So, for those of you who don't know by now, Garrett has been reviewing VoIP blogs for some time and has come up with a top 30 ranking, broken up into the 3 tiers. The top tier is the top 10 he considers must-reads for ongoing everday coverage. The next 10 are basically ones you should be reading weekly, and the bottom 10 are for less regular monitoring, but still valuable nonetheless.
Well, I'm a happy guy by virtue of being ranked #4 in the top tier, with Andy Abramson #1, Om Malik #2 and Rich Tehrani #3. I have no idea what Garrett's ultimate criteria were, and he concedes this is an inexact science, but I'm not complaining to be in such good company. I follow pretty much all these blogs regularly and they're all very good.
Bottom line - you won't go wrong following any of these, and I'm just happy to be along for the ride. Thanks Garrett, for putting this together! At minimum you've made the day for 30 other bloggers, and hopefully many others will pick up on this. You can read his posting here, and from there, you'll be able to quickly link to any of the 30 blogs in his rankings.
Coda - there's a good reason why Andy is #1. I cite him regularly, and he, in fact, gets the hat tip for telling me about Garrett's posting before anyone. No doubt this buzz will spill over to the Blogger's Panel at Fall VON, which will be very nice. I can certainly tell you that many of the bloggers cited in Garrett's posting have been emailing amongst ourselves, so the inner circle buzz is quite good.
Anyhow, back to Andy. One of his many activities includes a blogging program he developed for Nokia as a means of creating awareness and momentum for their N Series handsets. I've been blogging about this for some time, and yesterday I posted a review of the N91, written by my son, Max. Today, Andy added that posting to the Nokia blog page, and it was pretty cool to see my son up there. So, I can vouch first hand for the good work Andy does - no doubt about it.
Technorati tags: Garrett Smith, Jon Arnold, blogs
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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So Google CEO Eric Schmidt has joined Apple's board of directors. Count on the blogosphere to put two and two together to five...or six or seven. Does this portend an Apple-Google mega-merger? Will Google provide iTunes with even more momentum to sell millions of those white earphones...er, I mean iPods? People have to remember Silicon Valley is an incestuous, tightly-woven spider's web where everyone knows everyone else. Speculate all you want about what Schmidt's appointment could man but don't let your imaginations get too carried away. What I can tell you is Apple has an intriguingly divergent board - ranging from environmentalist/ex-U.S. VP Al Gore to J. Crew CEO Millard Drexler to Mr. Jobs.
Written by Mark Evans on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Apple and Main Page.
A few days ago when Google announced what is a precursor to Google Office, many saw it as a big move against the long term nemesis, Microsoft. We read things differently, and don’t really believe that it is going to have much of an impact. However, today’s news of Google CEO Eric Schmidt joining the board of directors of Apple Computer portends potential headaches not just for Microsoft, but for anyone with digital media ambitions.
It is hard to argue with the timing of the appointment, despite corporate PR speak. Microsoft’s ZUNE effort is coming soon, and this could mean a long drawn out, and costly skirmish for King Jobs. Bill’s boys are going to spend their enormous hoard of cash to buy into the digital media - music, movies and whatever - space. No one can outspend Microsoft, but one can outsmart them. An Apple-Google informal alliance is one way of taking on Microsoft and its coterie. As Valleywag puts it, “this has to be a lousy day at Microsoft HQ.”
Even though Google is being overtly aggressive about online video market, it is trying to leverage its advertising network more than download sales. Is it too hard to imagine - watch the video on Google Video, and download it on iTunes store? Both parties win? iTunes being included as part of Google software pack, or part of Google Toolbar? Google driving music-related searchers to iTunes store?
Google must be paying handsomely for those searches emanating out of Safari browser (about 3% of the total market) and a soft alliance could help balance the books. In other words, Google gets paid for referring customers to the iTunes music/video store.
Niall Kennedy points out a friend of friends network at work here.
The group was already interconnected outside of the Apple boardroom. Al Gore is a Google advisor and Google invested in, Current TV, Gore’s television station. Bill Campbell was an early management advisor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin and helped hire Eric Schmidt. Arthur Levinson is on Google’s Board of Directors.
[personal rant] I hope this means Eric and the Google boys get Macs, and start thinking different about applications that so far run exclusively on Windows. [/personal rant]
Written by Om Malik on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Media and Featured and Software 2.0.
Roxio's Popcorn 2 is for converting movies to your iPod, PSP or 3GP phone.
(Remember when copying DVDs period was a chore?)
Popcorn 2 enables you to make back up copies of your DVDs, compress dual-layer DVDs to fit onto single-layer DVDs, play back your movies with Dolby Digital support and transfer your favorite personal video entertainment to DVD, iPod, PSP or mobile phone. (Very cool ... but don't go near those copy-protected discs.)
You can create portable compatible versions of all popular formats, including non-protected DVD-Video, QuickTime movies, MPEG files, iMovie projects and others.
To keep this simple, pre-defined settings are optimized for standard or high-quality video output or you can define your own custom DivX, MPEG4 or H.264 levels for bit rate, frame rate and image size. (Did you follow that?)
MSRP: $59.99 (now $49.99 direct from Roxio)
www.roxio.com
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Verizon recently announced a new surcharge
to their high-speed DSL Internet customers. It appears BellSouth did so
as well, and the US FCC sent them letters asking them to explain.
BellSouth has reputedly since dropped the surcharge and will be
crediting customers back to August 16th. The FCC is still waiting for
Verizon to respond. There is the possibility of fines, if regulations
have been violated. [via eWeek]
While Verizon at least claimed the charge had nothing to do with the a similarly priced federal charge (USF
- Universal Service Fee) that has been phased out, it's hard to believe
otherwise, given the timing and price. It's still my premise that they
were instituting these fees to cover telecom losses possibly due to the
increasing use of VoIP.
Written by ewriter on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Services and Residential and Regulation.
Editor's Note: Thank you very much for this mention on your list. It is very humbling to make it with such a great crowd. Here is this list to see if your favorite writers or geek blogger made it. I am glad I didn't have to choose those top 10.
Smith On VoIP's Top 30 VoIP Blogs
Written by Dal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Well, here's a pleasant late-summer surprise: I'm one of 30 people named to Garrett Smith's list of VOIP bloggers - joining pals such as Om Malik, Alec Saunders and Andy Abramson (aka #1). While flattered, I'm secretly hoping to make another VoIP list this year (video) by posting on YouTube's every move...:) Thanks for the compliment, Garrett.
Written by Mark Evans on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Main Page and VOIP Services, Competition.
Update On Hullo VoIP Client
The other day, I wrote about Hullo,
a new VoIP client that other VoIPers seem to be disinterested with but
which I think might have the potential to give Skype and other soft
clients and run for their money. I've used Hullo several times now, and
the parties I've called have said how clear the calls seem to be. I
tried a call with my father on Skype, then followed it up immediately
with a call on Hullo. Verdict: Hullo is much clearer. According to my
father, "it almost sounds like you're calling from a regular phone."
What's
more, with the friendly help of the support team, I figured out what my
Hullo numbers are for, and actually called my computer from my PDA.
Again, clear voice quality.
What's Better? A Text or VoIP IM Client?
Truth
be told, there are many times when a conversation is better in text
mode than in audio. E-mail is not immediate enough, and voice doesn't
let you "see" things being said. I particularly find that my
conversations with clients and collaborators for website content are
more productive in text mode. With voice conversations, it's very easy
to get sidetracked. With text, you have a visual record of details, which don't need to be transcribed.
New IP Telephony Apps From ShoreTel
ShoreTel
will soon be offering two new IP telephony applications, one for CRM
(Customer Relationship Managment) and one for Enhanced 911. These will
be in the form of modules for their pure-play IP PBX. [via eWeek]
Voice data applications, as I've mentioned here ad infinitum, are going to be where VoIP will shine over PSTN telephony.
Written by ewriter on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software.
Telco2.0 is holding their Industry Brainstorm 2006
on 4-5 Oct 2006, in the Tower Bridge Hilton, London, England. The
organization's theme appears to be "How to make money in an IP-based
world." The Brainstorm will hold discussions about "opportunties and
threats to profitability", and making money from "Voice & Messaging
2.0", "Advertising-funded Content", "Broadband Connectivity", and more.
This event is intended for current industry insiders rather than the
general public. However, people considering becoming future VoIP integrators and consultants may want to consider going. Here are the registration details.
I
think we'll be seeing more of these sorts of conferences and workshops
as VoIP matures, especially in its use in the enterprise, and with a
greater demand for advanced voice data applications in CRM (Customer Relationship Management), as well as other uses.
Written by ewriter on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Services and Business.
Today is Skype's birthday,
and the team had a nice gift in that over seven million users were
logged on simultaneously, for the first time ever. They figure that
this will become a common occurrence, and I'd have to agree. Especially
considering the multi-year agreement
that Google signed with eBay, Skype's parent company. Part of the
agreement involves interoperability between Google Talk and Skype
(yeah!), as well as "click-to-call" functionality. This means that
commerce sites will be able to display a "call" button that, when
clicked by a site visitor, will initiate a call to an eBay merchant or
Google advertiser, using eitherSkype or Google Talk.
I think
that this an incredible development. Especially considering that
earlier this year, Google released their Google Checkout competitor to
Paypal, which is also owned by eBay. The latter had blacklisted Google Checkout very recently. It's a good thing for consumers that they decided to kiss and make up, though Wall Street seems to be confused about the outcome. Watch for a new Google toolbar, out soon.
Google Talk has been lagging behind a lot of the VoIP capability that Skype has, but soft clients like Talqer
has filled in some features. What makes me particularly happy, though,
is that intercompability between IM clients seems to be progressing a
lot more rapidly this year than I would have thought in January. (Note:
Festoon's Unity software acts as a bridge to Google Talk and Skype.)
Written by ewriter on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Google and Netmeeting.
Why did World of Warcraft from Blizzard Studios become such a monster success, and how can other online game companies replicate it? Industry analyst DFC Intelligence just published a great report that explains the former while tossing ice water on the latter. Provocatively entitled, “Is It Possible to Surpass World of Warcraft?”, the answer in brief is, Probably Not. WoW succeeded because of Blizzard’s unique ability at creating a mass audience for “hardcore” games, especially in the massively multiplayer online game (or MMO) market; at the same time (and this is a very valuable reminder), the game’s astounding success is more complex than usually understood, especially in Asia.
Some bullet-points from the report after the break.
Chinese Secret
Perhaps the most extraordinary figure behind World of Warcraft’s success is its 5 million registered players in China alone. But unlike US and EU players, who each pay a subscriber fee of about $15 a month, Chinese pay to play by the hour, and what they pay isn’t much: the yuan equivalent of $.04/hour. And while they play a lot, this also means total revenue from China is just 15% of WoW’s Western market. ($30 million versus $200 million, in 2006’s second quarter.)
The Overhead of Orcishness
In terms of total unit sales, DFC’s report notes that WoW actually sells about comparably to established gaming franchises like Electronic Art’s Madden and Need for Speed sports/racing titltes. But while World of Warcraft has the added revenue of monthly subscriptions, it also requires the added (and expensive) overhead of managing a leviathan network of online players, and constantly creating new content for the most rabid players. So maintaining that revenue comes with an intimidating investment of resources– the classic “laying down new track for a bullet train that’s already left the station” challenge.
Treadmilling Alone
World of Warcraft is successful in large part because it’s a multiplayer game that’s designed, paradoxically enough, to be played alone. And according to a PARC research study cited by DFC, most WoW players play the game solo most of the time. (Read more about it in Terra Nova’s fascinating post, “Alone Together“.) Doing this creates a more consistently satisfying experience for individual players, while removing much of the labor that companies incur through player abuse and scams rife in MMOs.
Elvish Counterstrike
According to DFC, Blizzard has expanded and catered to the player-versus-player experience (or “PvP”) so well, they’ve fostered a market of gamers who might otherwise prefer competitive combat games like Counterstrike and the Battlefield series. This is another key point, because MMOs traditionally underserve the PvP audience.
The Blizzard Difference
While World of Warcraft is the first MMO from Blizzard Studios, most of Blizzard’s single-player games from the past 10+ years have had a popular multiplayer add-on component. As DFC notes, this has given the company a tremendous, unprecedented base of experience to create and scale WoW to a worldwide audience. (While the international popularity of Blizzard’s games has helped them create an equally global market for World of Warcraft.)
Read the entire report here. It’s sobering news to those who think their company can create a WoW of their own. Still, the report also includes a DFC forecast projecting MMO revenue growth in the next few years: 17% more revenue in 2007, and a head-spinning 55% more in 2008.
But given the above, that money’s not likely to come by treading in Blizzard’s giant footsteps.
Written by Wagner James Au on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on online games and Featured.
Brekeke Software, Inc., an emerging provider in voice and data communications technology, today announced a partnership with Solegy LLC, creators of a managed platform that allows network operators, service providers, and content developers to achieve their business objectives more effectively.
Brekeke Software offers SIP-based IP-PBX and SIP Server software for creating VoIP telephony solutions. Managed through a web-based administration tool, Brekeke PBX is scalable and flexible to meet basic to advanced telephony configurations.
Solegy's ServicePDQ platform is a multi-service software system that offers a single point from which to develop, deploy, manage and bill for network services across heterogeneous networks. At the center of ServicePDQ is the Real Time Billing Engine (RTBE), an efficient and customizable web-based IP billing solution which helps service providers to manage all their customer accounts and billing information. ServicePDQ is a high performance, fault-tolerant software platform for developing and deploying revenue-generating network services.
According to Stu Slepping, president of Solegy, "Brekeke software is everything it should be. We have explored many IP PBX vendors in our search to find a product that fits the needs of Solegy customers wanting an on-premises solution. With its many features, ease of use, and super technical support, selecting Brekeke PBX was an easy decision."
"Brekeke's IP-PBX features are perfect for combining with Solegy's ServicePDQ platform," said Shin Yamade, CEO of Brekeke Software, Inc. "Integrating Brekeke and Solegy products to develop next generation VoIP services like Billing Servers can give businesses an advantage over competitors."
Written by Dal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP News.
Swedish-Finnish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera yesterday unveiled the world's first UMA technology, enabling users to access mobile and Internet (IP) telephony on the same phone. The technology, which will be marketed under the name "Home Free", enables callers to use a mobile phone at home as an IP phone, which uses wireless technology to make very low-cost calls.
The same phone works outside the home as a normal mobile phone that automatically seeks out a mobile network. Users will need to acquire a special telephone to use the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, which will be operational in November. In the future, the technology "could also be used an IP phone if the user is in a Wi-Fi hotspot outdoors, such as an airport, cafe, or conference centre for example.
But we chose to concentrate first on usage at home," TeliaSonera spokesman Rune Fick Hansen said. "We may in a later phase extend this solution outside the home," he added. "We are introducing a product that combines the best of three worlds: mobile, fixed-line and Internet," the head of TeliaSonera in Denmark, Jesper Broekner, said in a statement. "Danish families will now be able to cancel their fixed line subscriptions at home without losing their home phone numbers, and at the same time save more than 20% on their phone bill," Broekner said. South Korean mobile phone-maker Samsung is the only manufacturer that currently sells UMA phones. It launched the SGH-P200 this summer.
Source: AFP
Written by Dal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Note: Being that I live in Washington this is very exciting. I hope that with this happening the city of Seattle will get over this dispute with Qwest (Dominate Telco) and build our municpal wifi network to cover the metro core.
Most rest areas along Washington state highways will become WiFi hot spots, the state Department of Transportation said Monday. Road conditions and other traveler information on the WSDOT's Web site are available at no cost. Subscribers to Road Connect can visit other Web sites.
A new WSDOT partnership with Parsons Transportation Group and Road Connect Inc. provides wireless Internet access in 28 of 42 safety rest areas along Washington State highways.
Road Connect prices are $1.99 for 20 minutes, $3.99 for one day, $7.99 for one week and $29.99 for one month, according to the WSDOT Web site.Road Connect currently offers wireless Internet service at rest areas in Texas, Oregon, Washington and Kansas.For a list of Washington state safety rest area hot spots, visit WSDOT's rest area Web site:
www.wsdot.wa.gov/biz/restareas/.
Written by Dal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi / Wireless.
Excerpt: For those that have been chomping at the bit to play with podcasting, today's your lucky day. We're going to show you how to do anything you've ever wanted to do with podcasts using your plain old telephone. All you need is a shiny new TrixBox server or any Asterisk server with freePBX installed...
Out of the box, there are two things you can do with your TrixBox system and GabCast. First, you can create podcasts. And, second you can host conference calls. Today Nerd Vittles adds the third leg to the stool. With the new GabCast Player for Asterisk, you'll be able to listen to any GabCast channel feed using a garden-variety, touchtone phone.
Click Here for the Full Nerd
Written by Dal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Asterisk Help.
As we march ever closer to the opening rounds in this holiday season’s battle for console supremacy, I’ve blogged about the financial prospects for Nintendo (quite good) and Sony’s Playstation 3 (not so good), but I’ve yet to put Microsoft’s Xbox 360 under any serious scrutiny.
To do that, I called in my longtime colleague Dean Takahashi, tech writer with the San Jose Mercury, author of the excellent Opening the Xbox, and much more recently, of an acclaimed follow-up, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft’s Next-Generation Video Game Console. He’s reported on Microsoft’s attempts to crack the console space for years (including the flubs they’d probably rather forget), so who better to help me cut through the corporate hype, and handicap the odds?
My interview with Dean after the break.
Where do you think Xbox 360 stands in the console wars versus the competitors, for this coming holiday season?
I believe that Microsoft will do well this holiday. Its second-generation games such as Gears of War and Mass Effect will look good and polished against the first-generation PlayStation 3 games. Players may not notice much difference between the two systems. Microsoft’s console will also be more plentiful and cheaper than the PS 3.
The real test will be in 2007, when all three console makers will have plenty of supplies in the market.
How important is Live Arcade to the success of Xbox 360, and why?
I think Microsoft is doing well with it, but at the moment it is a very small contributor to overall profitability. Over time, Microsoft hopes it will generate hundreds of millions in revenues. At that level, it will make a real difference. Right now, it is a nice differentiator for the system that makes it stand out from the other consoles and it will thus play a small role in helping overall sales.
How important do you think Xbox’s “YouTube for Games” initiative will ultimately be?
It depends on if they find the next Counter-Strike or not. But it’s a smart move to generate more interest and more programming resources in support of Microsoft’s console. User-generated content has stirred a lot of interest in the video space. But we may have to sift through a lot of bad games to find the good ones. If Microsoft can put the appropriate ranking system in place, it may be easier to find the equivalent of the “Diet Coke + Mentos” phenomenon.
I recently blogged about Xbox lead executive Peter Moore talking about wanting to create games that appeal to families and outside the young male gamer demographic. If that’s what he wants, why are they devoting so much money promoting “Gears of War”?
They do have to serve the hardcore gamer. They should be spending an equal amount of money marketing to Nintendo’s gamers and to non-gamers, touting titles such as Viva Pinata. And they ought to have more content that catches the attention of non-gamers the way that Nintendo’s Nintendogs and Brain Age titles do.
What’s the most important lesson from 360’s development last year that Microsoft is acting on this seaons?
I think Microsoft needs to be aggressive about pursuing its installed base without worrying so much about profitability now. That means they should strongly consider a price cut, not just to spur sales to new levels but to turn the tide of opinion against Sony. It would show they are serious about winning the console war.
I think for the other console makers, they need to learn that getting to market on time isn’t easy and that they have to stay on top of production.
Microsoft should have delayed its Japan launch last year to wait for more units and better games. If Nintendo and Sony find themselves with shortages, they should consider staggering the territory launches.
In mid-2010, what’s your prediction what US market share for Microsoft Xbox, Sony PS3, and Nintendo Wii will be, by percentage?
I can’t say that my own prediction is anything but a guess. Sony will lose, Microsoft will gain, Nintendo will gain. That means Sony will have about 40%, Microsoft will have 32%. Nintendo will have 28%.
Written by Wagner James Au on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on online games and Featured.
Sprint Nextel is not wasting time and trying to rev-up its wireless data revenue stream further. The company today announced that it has started selling a data card for laptops that allows mobile warriors to connect to its 3G network at even higher speeds.
This is part of a previously announced Rev A upgrade to its EVDO network that is supposed to go live later this year. Mind you, the news doesn’t mean you should rush and buy the card - the new higher speed network is still not live. With Cingular rolling out its 3G service, and Verizon upgrading its network as well, Sprint is trying to get more wireless data customers before things get well too complicated. But it sure makes a nice press release.
Designed for operation with compatible laptops as well as the soon-to-be-available Linksys Wireless G-Router for Mobile Broadband, the Merlin S720 will allow customers to connect to the Sprint Power Vision Network and remotely access audio, video and data applications at DSL-like speeds. The card operates on the current Sprint Power Vision Network and will support faster average download and upload speeds (450 -850 kbps and 300 - 400 kbps, respectively) of Sprint’s upgraded network when it becomes available.
Written by Om Malik on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Mobile.
Laser Corporation, a leading manufacturer and supplier of optical media products an personal computer accessories, has launched a new VoIP keyboard. The new keyboard features a built in USB sound controller that drives the onboard stereo speakers and microphone without the need for installing drivers. Easy access to headphone/microphone ports located on the keyboard eliminates the need for having to reach around the back of your computer to switch between the speaker and headset. The keyboard features 116 keys and incorporates productivity shortcuts for the most common Microsoft Office applications, hot keys for launching browser/email and multimedia controls.
To know more about VoIP products, read our post titled "VoIP Speaker Phones with Speakables".
Written by Sagar on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Hardware.
Recently, I had written a post titled "Attack on VoIP Security" about the security attacks on VoIP. It has been noticed that although VoIP is gaining momentum in almost every sector, many companies haven't taken the necessary steps to toughen up security on their VoIP systems. It could make them vulnerable to hacking. One of the main weak links in VoIP security is the tendency for organizations to leave phones exposed to the Internet. It enables attackers to use search engines to discover information about the network that they can use in subsequent exploits. To counter this threat, companies need to boost the security on VoIP phones by disabling services that are not needed or restricting access to the specific location.
Written by Sagar on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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IP PBX Company ShoreTel rolled out a new suite of applications that address sales force automation and supplemental E911 notification in the VoIP environment. The ShoreTel-Salesforce.com integration is an add-on module that enables the phone system and business application to share data seamlessly. SalesForce.com users can field calls more effectively and contact customers directly from their Web-based browsers with a click of a mouse.
ShoreTel's new E911 Notification Application supplements the native E911 support in the ShoreTel platform, helping companies to coordinate their internal response to emergencies. The basis E911 feature provides caller ID information to the local Public Safety Answering Point so that emergency personnel are dispatched to the right location within the company.
Read my previous post titled “IP Telephony Market to Hit $5 Billion in 2010†to get more information on IP Telephony.
Written by Sagar on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Google and Ebay have established themselves in VoIP industry. Google has attracted a large number of subscribers since it has launched the Google Talk service. Similarly, Ebay has become one of the leading VoIP providers after acquiring VoIP giant Skype. Now Google and Ebay have announced a multi-year partnership to connect users and merchants via VoIP. A click-to-call service on Ebay will enable Skype or Google Talk users to initiate an Internet voice call to Ebay merchants or Google advertisers. The deal will make Google the exclusive text-based ad provider for Ebay outside the US.
To get more information on VoIP activities, read our previous post titled "Converged IP Video and VoIP Calling Services for BBC".
Written by Sagar on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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A company called SpiralFrog announced today an ad-supported music download service with songs from Universal Music Group, set to launch in beta at the end of this year. We hear about ad-supported movie download proposals all the time, forgetting that online music still hasn’t exhausted all the possible business models.
It’s an interesting concept, but how many times are you really going to want to sit through an ad before you decide to buy your favorite song somewhere else? Or maybe that’s the point. The press release is quite earnest, calling SpiralFrog’s “target audience — people between the ages of 13 and 34″ “an advertiser’s dream.” Isn’t that a bit of a tautology?
SpiralFrog has an uphill climb ahead to win enough of an audience to make advertising worthwhile. We also have to assume the company’s downloads won’t be compatible with the iPod, since it indicates they will have copy protection.
SpiralFrog seems a little less like an “upstart” the more we look into it. It appears that the company is more than two years old, though we hadn’t heard of it till now. Every person we call has a secretary! The board of directors is already pretty swollen, with eight well-pedigreed representatives already. We have put requests to find out about the funding situation.
In other music news today, AOL relaunched its online music store to all comers following its purchase of Music Now last year.
Written by Liz Gannes on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to the latest figures, subscribers to VoIP services increased by 83 percent in 2005. Worldwide retail VoIP subscribers jumped from 10.3 million at the beginning of 2005 to over 18.7 million by the end of 2005. The company also estimated that the number of people who paid for PC-to-phone calls during 2005 was over 4.7 million. Japan, France and the United States dominate the VoIP market in terms of subscriptions. However, countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Norway saw a significant number of VoIP subscribers by the end of 2005.
Read our previous post titled "New VoIP Service with Wi-Fi Phones" to know about VoIP on Wi-Fi phones.
Written by Sagar on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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With all of the recent battery problems, I can't seem to stop thinking about all of the batteries that we use (and consume) in our gadgets.
If you figure that most gadgets (and toys) take two or four batteries (AA, AAA or C), that would add up to a lot of batteries.
And what about cell phones with all of their own special types of batteries?
Now what about digital cameras and all of the batteries that those gadgets eat up? (At least they're not as bad as they used to be regarding battery consumption.)
And do I need to think about flashlights, too?
This list could go on and on and on and on ...
(Neat "up close and personal" photo from GreenerChoices.org, isn't it?)
Is it just me? Why can't I stop worrying?
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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The
Google Talkabout blog announced Google's plans to interoperate with Skype. In part it states, "Google and eBay have signed an agreement around text-based advertising and "click-to-call" advertising, in which
Google Talk and
Skype will power voice calls between customers and merchants." Even more interesting is this tidbit from the official press release: "Google will become the exclusive text-based advertising provider for eBay outside the United States." Wow, this is a huge win for Skype/eBay, but I'm not so sure how much of a win this is for Google - more on that later.
It is interesting that there is a caveat in the press release - Google is the
exclusive text-based advertising provider for eBay
outside the United States. Apparently, as part of this deal, Skype/eBay can continue to use Overture or other ad networks
within the U.S. but
must use Google for advertising outside the U.S. This sounds to me like Skype/eBay negotiated hard with Google and threw Google a "bone" by agreeing to use Google exclusively outside the U.S.
According to their
press release, eBay and Google plan to integrate and launch "click-to-call" advertising functionality that leverage both Skype and Google Talk in each company's respective shopping and search platforms. So if I go to Skype's online store, I can expect to see a Google Talk button instead of a Skype click-to-call button? Unlikely. It seems clear from the news announced that Google and Skype wish to give the user the option of which VoIP click-to-call application you wish to use.
Thus, perhaps Skype will modify their famous click-to-call buttons to include an image of both Skype and Google Talk on the same button. Then whichever is your default
callto: application (Skype of Google Talk) will automatically be launched when the button is clicked.
The next question you are probably asking yourself is "Is it technically feasible for Skype, a proprietary P2P VoIP application to interoperate with Google Talk". The short answer is that is quite feasible. Aswath has a
good run down explaining the technical feasability.
Soon, Skype will offer its users the option to download the Google Toolbar, to which Skype will add a custom button. There is no mention whether Google would add Skype to the Google Toolbar in return. This would be a huge win for Skype, but would also upset Google's fans that don't hate "bloatware". Of course, Google could offer a check box before downloading to include/exclude the Skype software.
So what's in this for Google? The
New York Times states that mortgage brokers are willing to pay $8 to $15 for each call from a Web searcher, which is roughly 10 times more than they will pay for a Web site click. As part of the Google-eBay/Skype deal, money paid by advertisers for calls completed through Skype would be split between the two companies. Indeed, mortgage brokers are one such potential revenue source from click-to-call applications. However, there has to be a lot of trust between the customer and the mortgage broker. How many users, tech-savvy or otherwise, are willing to trust talking to a mortgage broker using Skype or Google Talk, especially when trying to broker a $350,000 deal? Even if the voice quality is superb, do you really want to deal with a mortgage broker whose identity is unknown due to the use of VoIP? There is a level of trust with dialing an 800/888/877 toll-free number that VoIP just hasn't earned yet. Especially with
Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) concerns. Thus, I don't believe Google isn't going to make much "shared revenue" at all as part of this deal - at least in the short term, until some sort of "trusted VoIP source" program is instituted. People just aren't going to use click-to-call for $8-$15 click-to-call transactions. On the other hand, users might use click-to-call for ordering a pizza or some other "low-level trust transaction" - but these advertisers are probably only willing to pay $0.10/click - roughly the same as a regular advertising click. They might be willing to pay a bit more, but certainly not $8-$15/click. I can foresee the potential for massive fraud with this unless Skype/Google implement some complex billing auditing. They will need to at least track IP addresses and not charge advertisers for clicks resulting in any phone calls less than 2 minutes.
Of course, eBay through their acquisition of Paypal has their
buyer protection program, which helps allieve some of the concerns over fraud. So perhaps eBay can extend their Paypal buying protection program to VoIP click-to-call advertisers. Perhaps they can "vet out" these advertisers and give the consumer a level of trust with VoIP that would not otherwise be there. That in essence is the what will give Google and eBay/Skype a future advantage in VoIP, if they play their cards right.
More:Andy disagrees with my position that this is an eBay/Skype win and thinks Google instead got the better part of the deal.
I agree with Russell Shaw's assertion that this deal
is signalling modest plans for Google Talk.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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I've almost finished reading Naked Conversations, which is part of my summer reading series (The Long Tail, The Golden Spruce). Although I share Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's enthusiasm for blogging, Naked Conversations comes across as almost too evangelistic. They believe blogs are/will be an essential marketing/communications tool that few companies should be without. They cite examples such as Kyrptonite, which was savaged a couple of years ago in the blogosphere when someone discovered you could open one of the company's locks with a Bic pen. Kryptonite didn't have a blog so it had no way to fight back other than using traditional PR tools. It lost the battle and ended up paying $10-million to compensate customers. Scoble and Israel's ardent belief in blogs got me thinking about the Canadian corporate landscape and who's blogging. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think there is a large Canadian company that operates a blog. Nortel, for example, would be a good candidate but the only blog dedicated to the company is one I write. Another good candidate would be Canadian Tire, one of Canada's largest retailers that is part of the country's cultural fabric. A corporate blog strikes me as a great way for Canadian Tire to talk about issues such as new products, store re-designs and new internal developments. So why are Canadian companies so blog-free? I'm not exactly sure other than Canadians, by nature, tend to be conservative. This includes the Internet where we lag behind the U.S. in e-commerce and online advertising even though we have the second highest broadband penetration in the world.
Update: Someone who left a comment suggested other potential corporate blog candidates include Tim Horton's, WestJet, Loblaws and the banks.
Written by Mark Evans on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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With IPO markets acting like Tom Cruise, it is no surprise, even the most promising of technology companies have to scale back their plans for a public offering. The good news is that there is enough private equity/VC/hedge fund money sloshing around to carry them through.
Light Reading reports that Force 10 networks, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch maker is looking to raise another $50 million, perhaps what could be the final round before the IPO. The company has raised around $300 million in funding, has about $100 million in revenues, and is valued around $455 million, LR reports. Chance of someone (???) stepping in and buying the company outright is highly unlikely… VCs have to show big returns on this one!
Written by Om Malik on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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A 256 kbps broadband connection costs $40 a month. There only 1.7 million broadband users, and yet most Indian telecom operators are dreaming about an IPTV future. Talk about Unreality TV!
India’s state owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL have been making a lot of noise lately about the roll out of IPTV services. Both have recently signed franchisee agreements for content delivery services. Private players like Reliance and Bharti Telecom have also jumped on the IPTV bandwagon. All of them say they will be offering IPTV commercially by the end of this year or early next year.
There is a sense of panic because fixed line connections are declining, and services like IPTV are being seen as potentially huge revenue generators. News articles — no doubt channeling executives from these companies — talk about several hundred Bollywood and Hollywood movies expected to be made available on-demand. Not so fast!
India has a measly 1.7 million broadband connections, just about half of what the government envisaged, because broadband prices are still too high. You can get what operators here call a broadband connection (128kpbs–snort!) for $5-$6 a month. Though cheap enough, that amount only covers data transfers of 200-250 megabytes, and you have to pay by the megabyte if you run over. Unlimited broadband at 256 kbps can run as high as $40 for home users and even higher for businesses.
For IPTV to really work, bandwidth prices have to come down so broadband can grow, says Jude Pinto, co-founder of research firm indiabandwidth.com. IPTV providers also have to contend with a highly fragmented cable television segment that has a much broader reach than its telecom firms — India has thousands of small cable operators, reaching more than 60 million households.
Then there is the issue of content. As indiabandwidth’s Pinto says, “If a BSNL deputy general manager is going to decide what IPTV will offer, you can just imagine.” (You can see what he means.) The bigger issue though is that the content industry is hugely fragmented. And forget the hundreds of Bollywood movies that IPTV players are talking about.
Even big Bollywood players don’t quite get things like making movies available on new platforms, licensing issues, etc. “I’ve met people in Bollywood who say, ‘Do what you want but I need four crores (about $1 million) in cash, now,’ ” says Sridhar Pai, an analyst at Tonse Telecom. No surprise there. These are the guys who used to, or still do, stash money in false ceilings and mattresses.
Reliance, for one, has already started buying content developers. Pai is quite bullish about Reliance’s IPTV prospects. “They are very conscious about price points and they have been working quite hard at it (with Microsoft and Cisco),” he says, adding that with the company’s push into retailing, the opportunities IPTV could offer — like grocery shopping using your IPTV remote — are limitless.
And yes, if this does work, it’s all about being able to get your preferred content when you want it. That could be really attractive to the urban, traveling set. Three-day weekend coming up? You can get all the episodes of the soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Because a Mother-in-law was also once a Daughter-in-law) for a marathon viewing session. Imagine the joys — and the agony.
Just like waiting for IPTV in India.
Written by Shailaja Neelakantan on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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