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Jangl
April 18, 2007
Michael Cerda is the CEO of Jangl. Michael thinks big. Cerda wants his company to be the biggest thing since Skype. In speaking with him you get the feeling he really wants to leave a mark – something huge.
His VoIP 2.0 company Jangl differentiated itself from others by focusing on spaces such as online dating where they provide Match.com subscribers with a bidirectional anonymous phone number for $6.99/month.
While online dating and associated websites are a nice opportunity the people at Jangl realized they couldn’t take over the world in this fashion. So like many other companies who have huge ambitions they came out with a widget which could be embedded on blogs, websites or social networking pages.
The widget allows you to enter a phone number. You then receive a Jangl number which you can use to communicate with others. The service supports SMS messaging as well.
But still, this is a nice communications niche – it isn’t world domination stuff.
So Michael is bent on unsiloing communications. He points out the various stores we check from voicemail to e-mail to IM. The company would like to collapse all of these modes.
Instead of being a typical call forwarding service like some other hot VoIP companies Mike’s company allows you to enter an e-mail address, get a phone number and have your voicemails e-mailed to you.
Users will be able to set up their modal preferences and in this way perhaps communicate more effectively. Jangl even has the ability to become a modality hub if they play their cards right and get enough subscribers.
They see their company as providing a mashup between the mobility and the web and again – like some other large VoIP players – it is all about scale. How big can you grow your network?
To that end the company just announced it has partnered with Tagged a social networking site for 13-24 year-olds. Now how do these age-limiting networking sites work anyway? Does your password expire on your 25th birthday? ;)
Does it even matter as it seems this is the generation is in the heart of the social networking space and the older generation really doesn’t get it anyway? At least not yet. Rumor has it Geritol, Ben-Gay and Buick are joining forces to launch a social networking site available only to those who keep their teeth in a glass. ;)
Getting back to the 40 million users and visitors to Tagged… This will make a nice target audience for Jangl and gives them an opportunity to grow their pie even bigger.
Greg Tseng is the CEO of Tagged and he thinks this deal is great for his company as it adds an offline way to keep users connected and also increases site stickiness. These are the reasons that virtually all online communities should consider such VoIP 2.0 services and it sounds like room for growth.
Jangl hasn’t taken over the world yet but 40 million here, 40 million there… Pretty soon you are talking a whole Google I mean googol of users.
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Trixbox Buyer’s Club
April 18, 2007
Airlines have frequent flyer programs. Hotels have them. Credit cards have them. I am sure you were wondering why the open source communications community to date has not thought to also have a frequent buyer program. C’mon. Be honest. I know this is what keeps my readers up at night. :)Responding to industry demand or just emulating what has worked in countless other industries, Trixbox now has something they call a Buyer’s Club. They say this club is their way of giving back (OK I paraphrased a bit) to the open-source communities of Asterisk and Trixbox.
What you get is discounts on 1,200 products which will live in the virtual store called of course -- trixStore.
The Buyer’s Club discount also extends to Fonality’s new trixbox Appliance and trixbox technical support packages.
What do I think? I think all open-source related activity should be free and the store shouldn’t charge at all. Yeah right ;)
The idea is sound and certainly frequent purchasers such as resellers should get a reward for buying more. I wonder if the company will take the next step and start offering gold, platinum and executive platinum levels of this program.
I can see the free upgrades and other offers on their way. Hey… Whatever works. I fly American Airlines now more than ever because of the status I have achieved with this carrier. I would likely do the same in the world of open-source communications products and services.
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Rumor: HP to Acquire Comverse
April 18, 2007
I just heard a rumor which I can’t verify at the moment that HP will acquire or at least has shown potential interest to acquire Comverse. I have no idea if it is true so please take with healthy salt. I thought it worth passing along.
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Ringback Tones
April 18, 2007
According to Alan Sege VP and General Council of Roamware, his company invented ringback tones 4-5 years ago in Hong Kong using Dialogic boards. It seems businessmen from this area had “Chinese wives” and when they visited China and received a call -- they wanted it to seem like they were still in Hong Kong. So the first ringback tone sounded like the phone ringing in Hong Kong.
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Voicemail Transcription
April 18, 2007
I am not sure what the category of product is that converts voicemail to e-mail but I suppose voicemail transcription covers it nicely. Recently wrote about SpinVox and how the company converts voicemail to e-mail automatically.
I am in a conference today where I cannot take calls. I did however receive an e-mail just now:
---------------
Daddy. I want Daddy to talk. Bye.
- Powered by SpinVox.
---------------
My daughters are 2 and 3 years old so I am not sure which daughter it was who left the message. Regardless… Getting an e-mail like this right after it is left cannot be done without voicemail transcription. And it certainly brightened my day.
Expect a very large software company (who has an e-mail and speech solution) – not from California -- to add this functionality to their next version of e-mail software. I can’t tell you who without getting in trouble. See this article for other reasons why voicemail transcription is the future.
Oh and incidentally, many analysts think SpinVox uses humans to clean up their transcription service. The company says they do not.
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SIP to SIP Gateways
April 18, 2007
I am at a Dialogic analyst meeting today where the company’s Jim Machi tells the audience he thinks there will be an opportunity for his company to supply SIP/SIP gateways. The concept is scary as SIP as is supposed to be the standard that removes the need for a gateway. Unfortunately not every flavor of SIP interoperates and Jim is likely correct. There will be a need for this device if there isn’t already.
Most companies in the industry suggest the gateway market will grow around 30% this year and when you realize that even a protocol like SIP potentially needs a gateway you wonder if this number is conservative.
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Huawei
April 18, 2007
I recently had a meeting with Huawei executives and they have grand plans. The company is a leading Chinese equipment provider and moreover has a surprisingly large suite of products ranging from EVDO cards for laptops to WiMAX and optical networking equipment.
In fact a look at the company’s product portfolio shows there are few products lacking from their arsenal. You name it and they seem to make it… Cell phones, DSL, 3G and FTTX are just a few other examples of where they excel.
Currently 60% of their business is international in nature while China accounts for the remainder of their business. They told me Europe and Asia are their fastest growing markets at the moment while in the US they have 20 customers and networks in 25 states.
An area which they hope to lead is in IMS and FMC solutions and they think they have the background in related technologies to be able to become the world leader in both.
Meeting with the company’s executives gives a fresh perspective on how Chinese companies differ from American ones. In my meeting I felt more like I was in China than in any meeting I have ever had.
When I meet with some of the largest telecom equipment manufacturers from the US and other countries I feel as if these companies have much larger egos than at Huawei. I don’t want to lump all companies together but some definitely have bigger egos than others.
Perhaps the best way to describe my 30 minutes or so with Huawei was egoless. For such a big company this was very refreshing.
Huawei simply wants my readers to know they exist. They are looking to raise their profile. Furthermore they are doing well and would like an opportunity to compete for your business.
This sort of meeting is not what you expect from the largest telecom equipment provider in the largest and fastest growing market in the world. It reminded me in some bizarre way of Big Stick Diplomacy and the old adage, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
But cultural differences aside the company is making inroads into the US and they seem to be under the radar of many service providers. One wonders if the Chinese culture will be as successful in the US as it is elsewhere. Personally I felt more compelled to write about the company because I respected the way the executives carried themselves. This same approach seems to be enabling Huawei to sell products competitively worldwide. The question worth asking is will Huawei become a major US supplier soon and if so will they force other vendors to reconsider their approach to customers and journalists?
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Blackberry Service Down
April 18, 2007
CNBC reports Blackberry had a shut down last night for the western hemisphere. Here is a running report of the news from Fiscal Times.
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TMCnet Goes International
April 18, 2007
Today is a momentous occasion for me as TMCnet has gone international developing continent-specific editions for Latin America, Europe, Asia the Middle East and Australia. You will find these country choices on a grey horizontal bar at the top of most of our pages. TMCnet is the largest communications and technology portal in the world and this move allows people everywhere to see news specific to their needs.
We believe this move is a good one for TMCnet visitors and the advertisers looking to cost-effectively target communications buyers – service providers, enterprise decision makers, resellers and developers worldwide
TMCnet has approximately 2 million unique visitors per month and here are Alexa’s statistics on TMCnet’s international reach as of this writing:
Tmcnet.com users come from these countries:
United States 54.6%
Canada 5.0%
United Kingdom 4.8%
India 4.2%
Australia 1.9%
Malaysia 1.5%
Germany 1.4%
Philippines 1.2%
Singapore 1.1%
Israel 1.1%
China 1.0%
Tmcnet.com traffic rank in other countries (lower numbers are better. 1 is the best):
United States 809
India 2,134
Canada 2,736
Australia 4,032
United Kingdom 4,213
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