January 17th, 2007
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I’m not sure whether this is the right phrase but do consumers have a bad case of “upgrade fatigue” when it comes to Microsoft software? Look at Internet Explorer, which has seen its market share decline to about 80% in the U.S. while Firefox has climbed to 14%, according to WebSideStory and Net Applications. This is despite the fact IE7 has Firefox-ized itself by adding such as tabs so you can open multiple Web sites at the same time. Are people moving to Firefox because it’s better and/or cooler, or are they simply tired of IE?
While there’s no Firefox in the operating system world (sorry, Mac and Linux supporters), there doesn’t seem be much buzz about Vista’s impending launch. While I haven’t drilled down into Vista yet, there appears to nothing compelling that will drive XP users to buy Vista. And what about Office 2007? How many people really need a new version of Word or PowerPoint when Office 2003 will do pretty much everything and anything you need.
Of course, millions of computer users will happily upgrade to IE7, Vista and Office 2007, while people buying new computers will have no choice. That said, IE7’s battle against Firefox puts the focus on the upgrade cycle and how difficult it can be to migrate people to new versions at a time when interesting competitors are battling for the attention of consumers.
Technorati Tags: Firefox, Microsoft
Written by Mark Evans on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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More New Skype Hardware From CES 2007 Pal Jim Courtney of Skype Journal has an excellent two post overview of all of the new Skype hardware that was on display at CES. Check them out below: CES 2007: Skype Hardware on Display I: PC Free Cordless Phones CES 2007: Skype Hardware on Display II: Skype Appliances
Written by Smith On VoIP - Garrett Smith's Insights on VoIP P on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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Iotums Talk-Now Is Getting a Ton of Buzz Check out the video below that Jeff Pulver pointed me to. Talk-Now might just be one of the most helpful applications to come out of the Voice 2.0 era. Kudos to Alec Saunders and the Iotum crew. Now If I could only have my Blackberry back. > > If you are a Blackberry user and interested in checking out Talk-Now, Click Here .
Written by Smith On VoIP - Garrett Smith's Insights on VoIP P on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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The Vision Behind Nimbuzz Nimbuzzs vision is to revolutionize mobile communication by enabling the Nimbuzz community with seamless communications across IM, voice, data, video, and conferencing. The Nimbuzz Application The feature product is the Nimbuzz mobile messaging, chat and voice service. Nimbuzz is available as a (downloadable) J2ME client for mobile phones, for mobile web browser (no download required) and as a Windows PC client. Using technologies such as J2ME, Jabber, XMPP and the patented BUZZ notification technology and Nimbuzz Voice technology, Nimbuzz bridges messaging and voice services between mobile - and IM users to over 500 Million Internet capable mobile phones already in use worldwide. Nimbuzz Voice Beta Nimbuzz Voice , their newly released mobile voice service, allows Nimbuzz users to make mobile VoIP calls to other Nimbuzz users, call your IM buddies (Skype, AIM, etc) from all over the world on their PC, at low rates and also initiate a (global) Group Call from your mobile phone with up to 5 buddies for a low rates, while buddies joining the call from their PC client, can do so for free. So What Are The Drawbacks? As with many services, one of the biggest drawbacks is that you have to hope that your friends, relatives, colleagues, and or clients also have the client in order to reap the true benefit of the client. Although it can be used to connect with other softclients, the ability to make a Nimbuzz to landline or cellular call is unavailable. In addition, you must have an Internet capable phone. Nimbuzz is already popular in Europe, but something tells me it is going to have an even tougher time then Skype gaining acceptance in North America. I downloaded both the mobile and PC client tonight, and I am working on coercing a few friends and colleagues into doing the same so I can get a better feel and deliver a more accurate portrayal of the service. Stay tuned for more on Numbuzz.
Written by Smith On VoIP - Garrett Smith's Insights on VoIP P on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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The online video market is obviously red-hot (today’s news about NetFlix and Joost are perfect examples) so b5media is looking to launch a new blog looking at the people, key players, start-ups, trends and technologies shaping this fast-emerging industry. If you’re interested in writing this blog, drop me an e-mail at markevansATb5media.com.
Technorati Tags: b5media, TV
Written by Mark Evans on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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We always love guest posts, but this is a call for reviewers. Readers want SJ Labs to advise on software and hardware and web services. Vendors want their products covered.
To start, I'd love your advice on:
- What should go into a great review?
- What makes a great reviewer?
- What are review no-no's?
- Which editorial policies should we adopt?
- How should we organize a review site?
- Which sites are best at hosting and offering reviews?
- How important is feedback from customers?
- How do you keep the fun in?
- How should we qualify new reviewers?
Let's keep this chat open until month end. Thanks and see you online.
Technorati tags: reviews, sjlabs, skypejournal, reviewers, criticism, recruiting
Written by Skype Journal on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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Skype announced a rate structure change to take effect Thursday. From an 18 December 2006 news release:
Luxembourg, December 19th, 2006 — Skype is to announce a new pricing structure for SkypeOut worldwide. Further details will be available from January 18th, 2007.
The new pricing strategy will provide over 136 million registered Skype users with more exciting and cost-effective ways of keeping in touch with their friends and family across the world.
[... text describing the U.S.+Canada subscription plan...]
Skype’s new pricing structure includes a connection fee of 0 – 0.039 € per call (exclusive of VAT) effective from 13.00 CET [Central Europe Time], January 18th, 2007.
Questions:
- Does this exclude Skype-to-Skype calls?
- Does this exclude SkypeOut in one of the all-you-can-call plans like the U.S.+Canada one year subscription plan?
- Does this apply to hardware buyers told that all SkypeOut calls were free for a year with purchase?
- Why is this tiny charge worth complicating the complete and utter simplicity of the Skype bill?
- Who gets to skip the fee while others pay for two minutes?
- How long before this charge shows in your Skype client?
- Is this the start of Skype becoming more like eBay with annual rate increases?
I'm sure we'll know more tomorrow. Thanks to fellow blogger Fu Shiguang for the tip.
Technorati tags: skypeout, skype, ebayinc, ebay, skypeltd, phones, voip, rates, fees, charges, bill
Written by Skype Journal on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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In a previous post I presented several of the "PC Free" Skype dual mode cordless phones that were announced and/or exhibited at CES 2007. In this post I will cover other Skype appliance hardware that I encountered as I walked the show floor. (Note: click on the slide show to get the complete slide show in a larger format.)
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At one presentation I was able to hear about the TrendNet ClearSky VoIP Conference Phone Kit. With its Bluetooth connection, this speaker phone can be freely moved about the office within a range of 100 meter (328 feet). More to follow once I have received an evaluation unit.
A new category introduced at the press conference was the Desktop Internet Phone - again a "PC Free" phone. Belgian vendor Topcom's Webt@lker 5000 features a crisp LCD display accessing many Skype features via a menu and a large button touch keypad. Their forthcoming Topcom Wirless Expansion Kit will allow this "PC Free" phone to be connected to your local network via WiFi. The Webt@lker 5000 will provide an interesting user interface that I look forward to investigating further in a few weeks. Phil has reported more details here. From a market perspective I see the Desktop Internet phones more as a business phone while the Dual Mode Cordless phones will serve as residential phones linking friends and family.
A rather interesting concept was the QOOL Labs SkyQube GSM Voice Adapter. This was first reported in Skype Journal last spring but appeared to be operational at CES. The primary benefit we see for this is mobile phone roaming charge arbitrage using a combination of SkypeOut and SMS messaging.
Monday morning we heard about Skype's being embedded in the future on the new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Another Tablet vendor who had embedded Skype (not yet certified) was the Pepper Pad 3 Handheld Web Computer. One interesting aspect about these non-Windows Internet Tablets is ":who is the target market demographic" given all the mobile smartphones and other Windows Mobile platforms; I could not get any answer beyond "maybe the geek community".
My last visit of the show late Thursday afternoon was to the Gennum booth where they were displaying the Skype Certified nXZEN 5000 VoIP heaset (which I had been using with my Blackberry during the show). My next step is to install their Dongle Manager software and dongle itself to check out its Skype functionality. Certainly on my Blackberry it provided excellent voice quality provided you don't lose the rubber grommet that assists in the isolation of your ear canal from surrounding sound. But they gave me a lifetime supply of grommets.
Finally one product that was not certified. Certainly an interesting concept but also demonstrates the need for Skype to protect the intellectual property associated with their brand. The Y5 World Hand Device (yes, that is the name on the brochure) incorporates not only Skype but also an embedded Windows Media Player and IE7 without a full Windows Mobile implementation. From the stickers attached to their demonstration unit display panels (shown in the photo), you can see an attempt to trade on the Skype name. This will be an interesting case more for the intellectual property issues than any feature issues.
Note to Qool Labs and Y5 World -- forget the fancy Flash Player content that has to download to even access your website. Shows you do not understand marketing and the website 10 second rule ... if I can't get it in 10 to 15 seconds, I'm out of there, man!
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Written by Skype Journal on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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Combining what was presented at the Skype press conference, vendor and ODM interviews and simply walking the show floor, it became evident that Skype has become "the" brand for VoIP phone hardware. Much like the iPod has done, Skype is rapidly developing an ecosystem of partners who are eager to trade on Skype’s popularity. While several of the devices were Skype certified, many others stated they are going through the certification process. And, as evidenced in the photo montage for the second of these posts, one just simply was trading on the Skype name. What follows is a quick summary based on press releases or other collateral, if available; I expect to be reviewing many of the items individually as I receive evaluation units. (Note: click on the slide show to get the complete slide show in a larger format.)
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PC-Free Phones — first, from the press conference press release:
- NETGEAR’s Dual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype (SPH200D) – This dualmode DECT cordless phone simultaneously connects to a user’s home network router and phone line wall jack, enabling users to place and receive both traditional phone calls and Skype Internet calls from a single cordless handset without needing to be tethered to a PC.
- Philips’ VoIP841 Cordless Phone – This advanced DECT cordless phone harnesses the power of Internet calling via Skype without requiring a PC. Winner of a CES Innovation Award for its outstanding design and best-in-class feature set, the VoIP841 allows users to make and receive both free Skype Internet calls and traditional landline calls simply by connecting an Ethernet cable and phone line to the phone’s base.
Found on the floor: Thomson’s newly announced GE DECT 6.0 Embedded Skype Residential Phone (no information link available; model no.28310EE1) which won a CES Innovations 2007 Design and Engineering Showcase award. Auvi Technologies was displaying its PHIP65 Dual Mode Cordless phone for which certification has been sought. Auvi was also displaying a prototype phone that combined traditional "dual phone" features with an iPod dock. On the competitive front I also came across Cordless CallVantage Telephones.
Yesterday RTX officially announced its new "PC-Free" DUALphone 3088 Cordless Platform which was displayed at the RTX booth; the operative word here is "platform". While the Dualphone 3088 will be available via direct retail channels in Europe, the DUALphone 3088 platform will be sold via OEM/ODM arrangements for the North American market. From today’s press release quoting RTX CEO Tage Rasmussen:
"We have secured our first OEM engagement with a Tier 1 brand for our embedded Skype platform, and we plan to enable additional major brand names with the DUALphone concept on both OEM/ODM products as well as embedded technology licensing in devices such as routers, modems, multi-function printers, etc."
Keep in mind that for all these "PC Free" phones only the voice and presence functionality of Skype are available; they may also incorporate use of the Skype Contact list, voice mail, call divert and call history features. Text chat, file transfer and access to other Skype features still require a dual mode USB phone.
In the second follow up post in this series I will talk about various Skype hardware appliances that I encountered on the show floor.
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Written by Skype Journal on January 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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