November 30th, 2006
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There’s yet another report on location-based services from the offices of ABI research this week, stating that 20 million cell phone subscribers in North America will be using “personal locator services” in 2011 — that’s up from 500,000 this year, they say. Whoah, that’s a pretty big number! Personal locator services are the much-hyped social mobile GPS services applications like Helio’s new “buddy beacon,” startup Loopt or some of the carrier’s kid-tracking services.
These services are the most fun to discuss and write about, but likely won’t make half the revenues that mobile navigation or business-based mobile GPS applications will generate in North America. They are interesting services nonetheless, not necessarily because of their potential to make money, but because they will be more about helping carriers differentiate and creating a buzz for a carrier brand — that’s why the non-traditional carriers Boost and Helio are the first ones to push “friend finders” in the U.S.
In Japan and Korea, where mobile friend finder services have more traction, carriers found around $3 was an acceptable subscription rate for a friend-finder service. Loopt will charge $2.99 per month to use the service starting in 2007, and they say they have already brought in 40,000 users over Boost during the free trial. Three dollars is not really enough for a carrier to make a lot of money just through subscriptions (maybe decent for a startup), but a nice thing to differentiate a brand.
That’s why the more traditional carriers haven’t been falling all over themselves to offer $3 friend finders. Plus the privacy concerns involved. “Family finders” or kid-tracking services, can manage to charge more, around $10, by appealing to parents fears of knowing where there kids are at all times.
For some reason ABI is particularly bullish on the Helio service, though we’re not sure why:
“Helio’s Buddy Beacon is going to be very popular,” says ABI Research senior analyst Ken Hyers. “It’s innovative. This is the first service of its kind in North America.”
Mark Jacobstein, Loopt’s EVP Corporate Development and Marketing, says Loopt’s service was out before Helio’s and Loopts 40,000 users are already more subscribers to their service than Helio has total subs.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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>Nokia offically announced today (I believe Andy broke the news earlier this month.) that the Nokia N80 Internet Edition will have easy access to low-cost calls over the Internet with SIPphones Gizmo Voice over IP (VoIP) services. The Nokia N80 Internet Edition is optimized for SIP-based Internet calls, and now Nokia and SIPphone have worked together to create an easy way to configure and make calls using Gizmo VoIP directly from your multimedia computer. This announcement signals another move towards the dual mode technology going main-stream. Given some of the UI problems with Gizmo Project, as highlighted by Martin Geddes , I am curious to see what others are going to say about ease of us of this combination. Andy Abramson, who has been using the N80 with Gizmo, remarked that, My experience with it has been nothing less than spectacular. Fully integrated VoIP on a very high quality mobile phone is a dream come true. Has anyone else used the Nokia N80 with Gizmo?
Written by Smith On VoIP - Insights on VoIP Products and Serv on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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> 911 Enable , a division of ConneXon Telecom, is set to unveil an E911 enterprise appliance, the RedBox, at the Von Enterprise show in Atalanta next week. According to 911 Enable, the RedBox combines fast and secure VoIP 911 call delivery to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) with a hardware interface that automatically manages inter-branch enterprise phone moves. Typically E911 is thought of as the responsibility of the service provider, but with many service providers offering spotty (or no) E911 solution, the RedBox offers enterprises the ability to take control of E911. Lev Deich, Director of 911 Enable said, Our goal was to simplify VoIP 911 for enterprises. When employees move their phones within and between branches, the RedBOX works in the background to automatically make the appropriate location updates. Then, if a 911 call is placed, the RedBOX routes the call to the closest PSAP and displays the precise location of the caller on the dispatchers screen. There is currently no information on the cost of RedBox or when it will be available for purchase, but for more information on the RedBox, check out 911 Enable .
Written by Smith On VoIP - Insights on VoIP Products and Serv on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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USA Today's Kevin Maney has a very intriguing column on what Internet entrepreneurs and thinkers (a.k.a. consultants) would do if they owned a newspaper. What he discovered was this: "These tech folks don't really have any radical, interesting ideas for newspapers".
That's interesting because you figure a group of people who have embraced the digital distribution and consumption of content would have all kinds of ideas on how to kick-start newspapers into the Web age. You would figure someone would suggest that newspapers simply give away their paper and Web content for free and drive revenue from advertising. Or perhaps newspapers should just do a better job of embracing Internet technology such as RSS, IM, e-mail bulletins, personalized home pages, etc.
Part of the problem facing geeks when it comes to assessing how newspapers should operate is they have little or no knowledge of how newspapers actually work. Sure, they read newspapers - probably less than they did a few years ago - and many of them have all kinds of good ideas about how the Web can deliver content to different kinds of consumers BUT they have no clue of what a newsroom looks like and how reporters do their jobs. It means they don't understand the industry culture and why newspapers are having such a difficult time trying to get some more Web mojo.
Truth be told, newspapers must be a lot more aggressive when it comes to the Web. But it's going to be an extremely difficult process because newspapers have been operating in the much the same way for a 100 years (aside from reporters and editing using computers instead of typewriters). It's not just putting content on the Web but it means changing how content is created, who creates it and when it's published.
The typical reporter, for example, writes one or two stories a day over a nine-hour shift, which gives them time to think, interview, have a coffee, and talk with their editors. But the Web means reporters have to dramatically change how they work. They'll have to write stores in minutes rather than hours; they'll have to do blogs, podcasts and videoblogs at a time when changing economics means they'll have to work harder than ever because the size of newsrooms are shrinking. To really get reporters to buy in, it may take another generation that is more comfortable to multi-task.
In the meantime, newspapers have to focus on no-frills blocking and tackling. They have to embrace the Web with more enthusiasm, they have become leaner, they have to focus less on the news and more on providing readers with smart, well written stories that provide insight and perspective, and focus more energy on covering local stories rather than national and international.
The bottom line is there is no silver bullet for newspapers. They are going to lose readers, they are going to lose advertisers, they are going to lose reporters to maintain profits, and there will probably be much fewer newspapers around 10 years from now. There will be a place for newspapers but people are consuming information in new ways, and it may not mean reading a newspaper every day or, for that matter, at all.
For more thoughts, check out Ethan Stock, who works for a company called Zvents that focuses on providing online local information, and BlackRimGlasses, who would eliminate newspapers and make them all digital (after a dramatic restructuring of operations).
Written by Mark Evans on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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Smith On VoIPs Word/Phrase of the Day is Quality of Service (QoS). Quality of Service (QoS) can mean many different things, but when spoken in the context of Voice over IP, it is used to described subscriber satisfaction with of all imperfections affecting the service. Typically network elements (or imperfections) such as availability (uptime), bandwidth (throughput), latency (delay), and error rate are discussed. QoS is important due to the need to prioritize VoIP packets in order to ensure optimal call quality.
Written by Smith On VoIP - Insights on VoIP Products and Serv on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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Just today BitTorrent announced content deals with 20th Century Fox (hey Rupert, its the 21st century now) G4, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Lionsgate, MTV Networks (including COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV: Music Television, MTV2, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons Network, SpikeTV, [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to TechCrunch, BitTorrent has raised $25 million from Accel Partners and Doll Capital Management. BitTorrent has also signed distribution deals with a variety of major film and TV producers. So, the idea is the money and the licensing deals with MTV, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, etc. is going to make BitTorrent legit - and steer it farther away from its roots as a cool P2P technology used to download free movies, TV shows and music? In theory, that makes sense but it's a bit of a pipe-dream unless some of the $25-million is used to crack down on all those Torrent-crazed pirates out there. Mathew Ingram doesn't think much about the press release given he believes it's going to take a lot more than some PR for BitTorrent to compete against the pirates.
Written by Mark Evans on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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According to Florida Public Service Commission numbers published in today's Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, Vonage had 148,936 subscribers in the state of Florida as of September 1 of this year.
Given Florida's population of 17 million, [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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For anyone curious about b5media's roots and where it's heading, check out an interview that CEO Jeremy Wright did with Media Industry Professional Profiles.
Written by Mark Evans on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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In what may be a first for Google, the company has decided to shut down one of its sideshows/experiments - Google Answers - after more than four years. Is this a new strategic direction for Google and/or a sign of the times that some projects should die a quiet death if they’re not working well? If this is Google’s new approach, you wonder how long it will be before Okrut and Froogle are pushed out of the portfolio. Who knows, maybe this move suggests Google will be more pragmatic about rolling out new services rather than slapping stuff on the wall and seeing if it sticks. While Google gets points for experimenting with all kinds of different things, its less-than-stellar success into new markets (Google Spreadsheets, anyone?) has arguably damaged its reputation as an innovator more than it has produced tangible benefits. Update: Rex Hammock has a theory why Google Answers failed: Wikipedia.
Written by Mark Evans on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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