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Apple And Intel

What This Merger Really Means

In the IT world there couldn't be more of a surprise than that of the news that Apple and Intel were having talks about working together on future computers. The concept of an Intel chip in a Mac is unfathomable... Or it was nearly a few months ago. Apparenly the chip deal with Apple didn't make so much money for IBM so they didn't really mind losing Apple as a customer to Intel.

There is an interesting point in all this. Intel or at least the Intel architecture has one fewer rival now. Although Sony and IBM are working together on a super-advanced processor theoretically faster than anything Intel will have at the time of release, the reality is that competing with Intel (and AMD) chips is nearly impossible to do. Perhaps I'll eat these words but I doubt it.

What this means for the PC market is lower prices. In any other industry when you lose a competitor you see prices rising. In this case they will go lower.

I say this with confidence trusting that AMD will keep doing as well as they are doing and they continue to put pressure on Intel to be competitive. The market for Intel and compatible chips (assuming AMD will one day be allowed to play with Apple as well) has just grown nicely.

I say nicely because even though Apple has laughable market share, I predict it will grow quickly and surprise most of us. There have been Windows emulation products running on Macs since the dawn of time, now however it will be easier than ever to get a Mac to run windows programs.

I believe the Mac stigma of being different will evaporate a bit with this announcement as well.

The combination of Apple's success in consumer electronics and their working with Intel on chips is a very positive sign that this company is on a roll. It isn't just in the CE world but in PCs. Jobs has done the impossible; he has made the Apple name important once again in the mainstream computing market.

I don't expect Apple sales to take off but a few percentage points in market share is a huge deal for Apple and I think possible given this news. Hats off to Apple for pulling his off and we will see how this news affects Microsoft.

To be honest, Microsoft is having so much trouble competing with free open source software; I bet they welcome a stronger Apple that actually charges for their products. Microsoft probably hopes Apple will take share from Linux.

Intel is such a proponent of VoIP that this announcement likely means good things for this market as well as for Mac users who want to use VoIP products. I am assuming cross-platform development on MAC and Windows operating systems will be easier than ever to accomplish now. If this is indeed the case, Mac users will be able to enjoy many more VoIP applications than they can today

If there is a downside to this news it is that we are reliant now on two major players (no Sun is not a major player) in the CPU business. If AMD has a hiccup, it really makes Intel a monopoly. Well not an official monopoly but you get the idea. I am sure even Intel is hoping AMD does well so they aren't bothered by anti trust inquiries.

Back to Apple. I have always advised my friends to not buy Apple computers because they just don't work well enough with Windows-based systems. I get the feeling that in the next few years, I will change my feelings and suggest Apple computers to many more friends and colleagues.

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VoIP Headset Webinar

Please join me for this insightful webinar on communications endpoints sponsored by GN Netcom. We will discuss how to get the most out of VoIP deployments from the standpoint of the end-user of the VoIP deployment. There will be further discussion on softphone usability.

	The success of any VoIP rollout ultimately depends on "the last three feet"—the interface between enterprise users and their phone system. While many companies have invested in VoIP infrastructure, few have understood the challenges of making VoIP easy and effective for their customers. Choosing the wrong endpoint (hard phone, softphone, and headset) can result in poor sound quality, durability issues, and user frustration. GN Netcom will help you navigate through the many options, and show you how to choose a solution that will result in happy users and higher ROI. In this Webinar you will learn: • How to address the usability challenges created by VoIP. • The link between end-user satisfaction and the ROI of your VoIP deployment. • How to choose endpoints with superior sound quality, ease-of-use, and durability. • Tips for enhancing the usability of softphones.

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Citigroup Loses Data

Avoid shopping online to avoid security threats                          $1,500
Buy and use a shredder for all receipts                                           $100
Finding out your bank lost your personal data                              Priceless

Excerpt:

Norman Black, a spokesman for the world's largest package delivery company, said a "small package" containing data storage tapes was lost while being transferred to a credit reporting bureau.

Experian, a credit reporting agency, told CNN that it was the intended recipient of the tapes. Don Girard, a spokesman for Experian, said the company alerted Citigroup in the last week of May that its regularly scheduled delivery did not arrive. Girard said the tapes were headed for its Data Center in Allen, Texas.

Black at UPS said his company and Citigroup are launching internal investigations, adding there was no evidence of theft or fraudulent activity. UPS ships some 14 million packages a day.

CitiFinancial is inviting customers to enroll via a toll-free number, 1-888-469-8603, in a free credit monitoring service for 90 days. It said it earlier enrolled the customers in a separate service to help prevent identity theft.

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IPCC Meeting

I had 20 minutes to kill so I opened my laptop to work. The SuperComm convention center McCormick Place charges $10 for the day. So I decided to use EVDO and to my surprise the speed of this Verizon service in Chicago was blisteringly fast. It will probably slow as more attendees get to town but I am impressed more than ever with this service...

I just got to the IPCC member meeting (I am sitting here now) and Mike Tribolet of Vonage is giving a great presentation about the growth of Vonage. He goes went on to explain the intricacies of getting a technology product to retail and also training an army of 40,000 sales people in retail locations.

He mentioned also that Jeff Citron having built a consumer service before (in the financial market) is well versed in the complexities of the back office. Jeff focused on billing first and then grew the company.

He also mentioned that AT&T had 3 shots at this. A billion dollars in Net2Phone and a billion in Concert/BT and then CallVantage -- which as he said, "Speaks for itself."

He went on to say there is tremendous complexity in building a VoIP network. On the positive side the broadband market is huge. There are 41 billion broadband users in the US. That gives him 39 million other potential customers! Also, the rest of the world is seeing massive broadband growth meaning more opportunities.

Q1 is where Mike says they crossed the chasm. He says things are going well. He isn't losing sleep over the reliability of the network as they scale. Many in the industry had told him they would never be able to scale effectively.

They don't want to be the lowest priced or the highest but they want to have the best value. Features and applications are where they will differentiate themselves.

As Mike says they will have to do in 120 days what the telecom industry had 50 years. He was obviously referring to the recent FCC mandate on 911. He didn't complain but implied the FCC has not given enough time to get this done. They have 911 in two states and it took none months of bureaucracy to make this happen.

Mike showed a chart from SmartMoney where they did a blind survey where Vonage was the leader in quality followed by Verizon, Packet8, CallVanatge and Broadvoice. He mentioned that his cell phone dropped calls 3 times at the show. While I didn't have any dropped calls today the quality of my cell calls was pretty terrible today as well.

Vonage sees videophones and WiFi phones as the future.

The talk was very upbeat and mike really knows his stuff. I came away more enthused than ever about the future of our industy.

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Speaking at Interactive Intelligence in Philly

I will be speaking at an Interactive Intelligence seminar in Philly on Thursday morning. I hope to see you there.

Here are the details.

Here is the schedule:

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Supercomm Future of VoIP

Here is my Supercomm Future of VoIP presentation from today's session. I think this was one of my best presentations ever and audience feed back seems to corroborate this. Perhaps it was the ten minutes we each had to speak. Having such a short window to cover so vast a topic as VoIP is an interesting excercise. It is like summarizing your life experiences on a page. There was some great feedback from the audience at the end of our presentations. This was a really good session over all and hats off to Mike Khalilian of the IPCC for moderating the session and really educating the audience. Thank you SuperComm for giving me the opportunity to speak.

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VoIP Controversy In The Sky

Of course we are used to all the controversy VoIP is causing on the ground. From naysayers that will tell you the quality is bad to others that will say it is a management headache and government regulators who tell us it isn't secure enough. A new, vibrant and growing industry can get used to such things. But get prepared for the latest discussion -- VoIP in the sky. You heard that right... United Airlines has just announced they have been approved to allow internet access on their planes. This is the first domestic carrier to get this privilege.

We are a year away from deployment and no doubt VoIP will be a major reason people will use this service. Of course having dozens of people chattering on a flight is going to annoy other passengers. This is exactly what has happened on the trains here in the NYC area.

In fact you are supposed to get up and walk away from people on the train if you are on the phone. Where do you go on a flight? The bathroom? Most planes don't heave enough space for people in the bathroom and now we can expect to see lines forming outside restrooms as corporate executives hold confidential conference calls inside.

But what really gets me is that for years the FAA and flight attendants have been telling us to turn off all our electronic equipment on flights during take off and landing. Our wireless devices especially need to be turned off the whole flight. Now airlines are going to provide in-flight WiFi. Will ironies never cease? Next we're all going to get complimentary nail clippers in our snack bags.

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