Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com - Smart Ecosystem Archives

Cisco Underestimated Skype's Value. Acts against Microsoft Acquisition

2012-02-15T21:35:30Z

Cisco is far from the most open company in tech so it is ironic it is concerned about a monopoly over video conferencing a result of the Microsoft acquisition of Skype. The company’s Martin De Beer said, “For the sake of customers, the industry recognizes the need for ubiquitous unified communications interoperability, particularly between Microsoft/Skype and Cisco products, as well as products from other unified communications innovators.” This statement coincided with Cisco challenging an EU court over the acquisition.

One has to wonder however if Cisco underestimated Skype’s value. After all, the company has been sold twice in the last few years and the networking company didn’t close the deal either time.

The thesis that Cisco did not realize Skype’s importance is backed up by Cisco’s other actions – launching its consumer video service Umi - a Skype competitor. As you may recall I immediately said this service would fail and backed it up with ten reasons.

Here are the first three as a reminder - #1 is the most important for now:

1) Skype. Elaboration would be talking (writing) down to you.
2) Cisco's solution at $599 for the equipment and $24.99 per month is insane for a new consumer technology which has little to no network effect related to Metcalfe's Law. Oh and you need 3.5 Mbps upload speed for 1080p calls - meaning higher broadband bills for some.
3) Facetime: Apple's FaceTime is free and even though at the recent ITEXPO many people commented that using the software on an iPhone 4 is not great because inevitably your hand gets tired and falls to your stomach causing a nose-hair view of yourself to be transmitted - we can expect Apple to Facetime-enable everything they sell. Will Umi interoperate? If not, how will it compete?

And yes, the service failed shortly thereafter.

What is Cisco’s stance on video openness? In October of last year, the company responded to critics regarding its somewhat closed video ecosystem and decided to become more open. But this was five years into selling their telepresence products.

If anything, Cisco has been one of the more closed vendors in the market.

Remember what happened when Cisco announced it would buy Tandberg? Well, Stefan Karapetkov, Emerging Technologies Director for Polycom said the following:

Cisco announced today that they will acquire Tandberg, and this will have significant impact on the video communications market. It will reduce competition, and limit customers' choices, especially in the telepresence space. It will, hurt Radvision who now fills the gap in Cisco's video infrastructure portfolio.

I am however more concerned about the standards-compliance that have been the pillar of the video communication industry for years. Tandberg and Polycom worked together in international standardization bodies such as ITU-T and in industry consortiums such as IMTC to define standard mechanisms for video systems to communicate.

Cisco on the other hand is less interested in standards, and considers proprietary extensions as a way to gain competitive advantage. The concern of the video communication industry right now should be that the combined company will be so heavily dominated by Cisco that standards will become last priority, far after integrating Tandberg products with Cisco Call Manager and WebEx.

Telling is the fact that both Tandberg and Cisco declined participating in interoperability events over the last few months.

But this doesn’t mean Cisco hasn’t done the correct things for its shareholders by being more closed than most other companies. After all, if you are a dominant provider of a solution you aren’t required to open up your product unless a government forces you to. And this is why Cisco has inserted itself into the regulatory approval in Europe of the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft. De Beer continued, “Cisco does not oppose the merger, but believes the European Commission should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability, to avoid any one company from being able to seek to control the future of video communications.”

And this is the challenge Cisco faces. Last week, Microsoft had a Lync Pavilion at ITEXPO in Miami and it was mobbed – lots of attention and buying – and it will expand in ITEXPO in Austin, Texas. And this was before Skype integration. Based on what I saw, enterprise buyers and resellers want UC solutions from Redmond.

Cisco will no doubt lose more share to Microsoft in the enterprise – this seems to be a given. But when FaceTime is a fast-growing competitor and is very closed, do we need to force Skype and Microsoft to open? In fact, in five years I predict Cisco having to worry more about Apple in the enterprise than Microsoft and Skype. And good luck getting Apple to open up.

It seems Cisco grossly underestimated Skype’s value and importance. The company had been burned by failed consumer product company purchase after purchase and didn’t want another mistake. This makes sense. But by the same token, Microsoft is facing a titanic battle with Apple and needs any advantage it can get. And this doesn’t even take into account the damage done by Google in the mobile and other spaces.

In a free market – companies should be able to make the decisions they think make the most sense for themselves and shareholders. I believe it would be an error to force Microsoft/Skype to open up.

Moreover, with the pace of IT consumerization is speeding up, Cisco will no doubt be playing a very difficult game of making purchases of pure B2B companies while having to understand which B2C companies are indeed crucial in the B2B world as well.

Woz, I Agree. Now What if the Samsung Galaxy Note Ran iOS?

2012-01-17T20:06:47Z

In July of 2010 I penned a piece about the ensuing marketshare loss Apple could face as a result of repeating the same mistake from the eighties in which it tightly coupled hardware and software while other companies were free to innovate on hardware alone. In a post titled Is Is Apple Repeating its Mistake from the Eighties? I explained how the thinness and lightness of the Motorola Droid X won me over in a few minutes. In December of 2010 I followed up with And Then it Hit Me, Open Always Wins and a few months back with Apple Screwed Again?

I witnessed firsthand how in the eighties the price/power curve of the PC clones helped make PCs much cheaper than Macs of equivalent power and over time as a result, software developers once loyal to Apple switched over to the PC. The Mac was superior to the PC in most every way except cost – the reality was though that most people would take 80% of the usability for 50-60% of the price or perhaps less.

A huge and imposing banner promoting the Samsung Galaxy Note at 2012 CES

Fast forward to today – there are quad-core 4G Android smartphones with better screens and battery life than an iPhone 4s and they are gorgeous. The Samsung Galaxy Note is just example one example of an Android smartphone on steroids – it supports HSPA+ up to 21 MBPS as well as 4G LTE has a breathtaking 5.3” WXGA HD Super AMOLED screen displaying yes a staggering 1280x800 pixels. The iPhone 4S has a resolution of 960x640) Although it has just a 1.4 GHz dual core processor it pulled up web pages at CES lightning fast and moreover can accept stylus input making it really part tablet, part smartphone and part paper notebook. Moreover it uses what the company calls an advanced smart pen which I saw in action allowing you to press a button to take a screen shot and circle a portion of it to copy and share.

So if you thought there was device consolidation, you would be wrong. In fact the 5.3” device which fit nicely in my shirt pocket is the newest must-have gadget to add to your collection of smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs and Ultrabooks. But the cool thing about the Galaxy Note is not only the device but the fact that Apple didn’t come out with it.

You see, in the last five years the tech world has been ruled by Apple. Even faithful blackberry users who would never abandon a keyboard are being spotted in Apple stores the world over as they get wooed by the Apple sex appeal of sleek devices coupled with sleek software and speech recognition software which still needs a lot of work.

Who invented the touchscreen smartphone? Apple. Who invented the tablet that people actually wanted – with touch input? Apple. The laptop that weighs a few pounds and lasts a day on a single charge – no not the Ultrabook companies, Apple with its MacBook Air. But this new 5.3" form factor didn’t come from Apple and while my critics will be quick to point out – this device is not a big deal, I would argue it is. After all the iPad is just a large iPod Touch – the 5.3” form factor device with the smart stylus is new. It’s fresh. It’s different and it is the perfect hybrid device because it fits in a shirt pocket comfortably and allows near-tablet size video consumption.

This brings us to Woz – the Apple cofounder who says he is a big fan of Android phones – and here is the interesting part – he describes what I have been saying for years:

There’s a theory that Android could do to iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) what Microsoft Windows did to the Macintosh in the 1990s. Microsoft triumphed because it licensed its software to many different hardware makers and ultimately had much greater market share than Apple, which would only sell its operating system on its own hardware.

In the mobile space, Apple is using the same playbook, tying its software tightly to its own hardware. And with Android, Apple is facing the same kind of foe that it once faced in Windows. “I can see the similarity,” Woz says.

Worse yet, this time, he says, Apple is up against a stronger competitor, since in his mind Windows was never a very good program, while Android actually is. “There’s not as big a difference [between iOS and Android] as there was between Mac and Windows,” he says.

The question is what can Apple do about it?

The company has dabbled with allowing clones but pulled back the experiment after a short time.

In my opinion if it was to go forward with allowing hardware makers to get a crack at its software – it may want to try working with one company at a time. I’ve used Samsung as an example throughout this piece – why not get the iOS running on the Galaxy Note?

Sure I understand the negative ramifications from Apple’s perspective but the company is losing share left and right already to the Amazon Kindle Fire – eventually Cupertino could end up being in a situation where it is too late to change course. We saw that the last time Apple started to lose share to Windows and Intel – the question is whether the company has enough innovation up its sleeve to keep the cutthroat competition in the dust.

Disclosure: I own Apple shares

CES, Ultrabooks and Lowered Expectations

2012-01-08T20:40:43Z

It has been a few years since I have been to CES and I have to be honest, I have never seen the kind of lowered expectations for an event. There have been numerous stories from mainstream publications this past week telling us not to judge the future of the industry based on what the hot product at the show happens to be. For more see the end of this article.

While on the one hand this is good advice backed up by lots of flops like the Microsoft and HP tablet of a few years back that was supposed to be an iPad killer but was never released.

I’m wondering if it is just me who is skeptical about new technology in general. In other words CES or not you never really know if something is going to be the next big thing. Even when we are sure as an industry that a technology will take root, we have seen timing and other factors are more important than being an early player.

So just because 3D technology which was a hot trend at CES a while back is not mainstream it doesn’t mean it won’t be. Skype was way late to the VoIP game – MagicJack even later but both became successful examples of IP communications technology – a space left for dead by the majority of investors after the nuclear winter in telecom of late 2000.

This brings us to Ultrabooks – a topic I cannot be more delighted to discuss. Without a doubt this will be a major theme of this event and moreover I am writing this post on an ASUS Zenbook Ultrabook and love this device. How much? I am out here at CES this week and when I leave the room and don’t take it, I leave it in the safe.

The Asus is like a piece of jewelry – a fine watch as they say. In case you didn’t read my last post on the matter the keyboard is something I haven’t totally adjusted to – it lacks travel and forces you to hit it harder than normal to ensure all your letters appear on screen.

For a few years now we have heard the term consumerization of IT and to me this means bringing in really cool and trendy devices such as iPhones, Android smartphones and tablets into a company – and merging this with a wave of new software and applications designed to take these consumer tools and make them business tools.

While Ultrabooks are pretty much powerful laptops in sleek packaging – nothing new in terms of operating system or even software for that matter, they perform a slightly different function. They bring the power of desktop computing to tablet form factor. In other words these devices are the MacBook Airs of laptops. Having spent a fair amount of time in various Apple stores – my most memorable time was at the one on Greenwich Ave in Connecticut where a father gave his daughter a choice between the MacBook Air and the iPad.

I spent some time watching her go back and forth as she made the decision.

We all understand that there are big differences between these devices – one has hundreds of thousands of free apps which run on it from the app store – many of course have been written because the same tablet device doesn’t run Flash. The MacBook for its part is more powerful, has a bigger screen, etc.

But the point is the Ultraboook is the PC version of the MacBook Air meaning that if the MacBook Air is a serious competitor to the iPad then the Ultabook is the biggest threat to tablets in general.

Now the Asus I am using costs just a bit less than $1,500 and an Amazon Kindle Fire will set you back only $200. A big difference. Still there are worthy Ultrabooks on the market from the likes of Toshiba for $800. In fact the Toshiba is thinner than this Asus but the lack of bluetooth and less impressive screen resolution may be deal breakers for power users.

So to me this week at CES where a number of new Ultrabooks are expected is about not only innovation and design but competition.

I have spent my life in technology and have seen how competition has driven down prices incredibly – especially when Moore’s Law is thrown into the mix. In high school I wrote all the programs for TMC’s computers – they were all on a proprietary UNIX system but when it came time to migrate to a more powerful computer I hand-built a PC with an AMD processor running SCO UNIX – the price was much much lower and this new server was a monster in terms of disk space and processing power. The company which had sold us the proprietary UNIX system was named ZILOG and closed in the eighties at some point no doubt because proprietary has a tough time competing with open.

We are seeing the same thing happen in the Android ecosystem – it happened in the PC market, with laptops and numerous other spaces.

And it will happen to Ultrabooks. In a year a Zenbook equivalent to what I am using now will likely cost $899 or less.

So yes, trends in tech are tough to nail down – especially when it comes to timing. But the Ultrabook is evolutionary as much as it is revolutionary and as great as tablets are they really stink at doing things you need a PC for – they aren’t wonderful for content creation for example – switching windows on an iPad is still tedious as compared holding the Alt button and hitting Tab repeatedly.

And then there are the websites – how many times have I tried to complete an ecommerce transaction on a tablet from RIM or Apple only to find the formatting is not designed for a tablet and I have to wait to get to a PC to do it right.

The price discrepancy between a Kindle Fire and Ultrabook is massive a 4x differential or in my case 7.5x.

But we are at the beginning of a new subcategory of product and unless you believe the consumerizaion of IT is just a fallacy you better realize and quick that your executives will be asking about Ultrabooks soon. Moreover a gift to corporations may come in the form of more users buying their own Ultrabooks and bringing them to work – saving companies who allow foreign equipment into the mix a good amount of money.

So sure, lower expectations all you want. But from where I stand, Ultrabooks are a must-have at this price point – just wait until the competition heats up this week at CES.

For more see articles relating to products unveiled at CES and how they have failed:

The 'CES curse?' Gadget show has poor record, AP, Peter Svensson
CES not always the greatest guide for commercial success, CNET, Roger Cheng

Bluetooth Smart Ready Shows Potential

2011-12-19T17:51:59Z

Bluetooth to me is one of the most convenient technologies I use as it allows me to get rid of the cord from my mobile and desk phones. I am surprised actually that everyone doesn't use a stereo bluetooth headset - at gyms around the country it seems like one out of 10 music listeners have given up their typically white cords in favor of new technology.

Frankly I just don't get it but am hoping that the new bluetooth 4.0 standard which is more miserly with power will make a good technology even more useful. It is worth pointing out the SIG wants you to refer to it as Bluetooth Smart Ready.

In theory the power consumption is so low that you can get a year out of a device using a button size battery - now that's low-power.

As you might imagine, applications in home automation and the medical field are prime examples of where such a low-power wireless technology will shine.

Thanks to Kickstarter there may soon be an automotive app - one which syncs with your iPhone 4S which was the first phone to support bluetooth 4.0 BTW. The solution constantly updates your car's location via a small device which is connected to your automobile. It then allows you to find your vehicle when you need to - let's say after that trip to the mall around holiday time when your car is lost in a sea of steel and paint somewhere in a 100 acre lot.

But more interestingly this new bluetooth spec means there is some new competition in the M2M space and technologies like NFC and perhaps ZigBee may lose some marketshare as a result.

I am not holding my breath for the world to go bluetooth when it comes to stereo headphones but perhaps they will at least embrace it for a wealth of other activities which make their lives better.

Hat tip Richard Sprague who retweeted Scott Jenson

Google Pays Half Million Per Patent for Motorola Mobility

2011-08-16T11:58:14Z

Google just purchased patents as part the acquisition of Motorola Mobility – 24,500 of them to be exact. At a $12.5B valuation that puts the value per patent at $510,204 apiece. But the search giant also gets 19,000 employees on top of the 29,000 it already has.

The question is does Google want these employees or to manage a business which is so different from software and advertising that it makes your head spin. I spoke with Kris Kendrick of Sonus who used to be with Motorola and he sees this acquisition as Google picking up the hardware “wedge” into software.

But I just can’t see Google wanting this hardware business and if the company does want to enter this space, picking up Motorola seems odd as the company has had management issues for over a decade and although the company has always had great technology, they have never been able to execute properly. After all, when Apple collaborated with Motorola on a cell phone, it was a flop – it was so bad that Steve Jobs realized how dysfunctional cell phone makers were and subsequently embarked on his own phone design.

Yes, Motorola can boost Google TV but again, I don’t see it – does Google want to get into the low-margin hardware business? Especially after failing with the Nexus one – a phone of their own design – manufactured by HTC?

It seems far more likely that Google wants to open-source everything Motorola has and do it for the express purpose of having a platform across phones and televisions where it can show its ads. The best way to do this is to white-label everything Motorola makes and OEM it all to the tech ecosystem.

With all these new patents, the company has ample protection from Oracle, Apple and Microsoft so now the hard work begins of taking products which are generally sold to or via service providers and instead wholesaling them in the hopes of taking Android to the next level and moving upmarket with regards to hardware design.

There are many moving parts here and I am looking forward to seeing how Google procedes with this major purchase.

Sprint Telehealth and M2M Event 2011

2011-07-26T20:38:32Z

Last week I spent time at the Sprint Telehealth and M2M Event which they call Emerging Trends and Solutions in Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring and Wellness Forum. It was an intimate event but full of partners like Digi and many others who were thrilled to show off their solutions which work in-part with Sprint's networks. BTW - for those of you who go back to the UNIX days of dumb terminals - you may remember DIGI used to be a player in the space of allowing many terminals to attach to a PC-based UNIX system. Yes, we are talking pre-Linux here - in the late eighties/early nineties.

The mood was upbeat and positive, this part of Sprint's business is doing well and a wave of partners are enthusiastic about the future of telehealth, telemedicine and the machine-to-machine (m2m) markets.

It was exciting to see how technology is being adapted to solve real-world problems such as those in the medical space where remote monitoring and diagnostics can reduce costs while improving quality of life for the disabled, elderly and really anyone who takes advantage of the latest solutions which are continuing to be rolled out.

I took a good deal of video at the event which took place at the Sprint M2M Collaboration center in San Bruno, CA. Here they are for you viewing pleasure. I have embedded two of the videos and the rest are links which will open up when clicked.

Sprint M2M On-Body Monitoring Mood Widgets

Sprint M2M Home Health Monitoring

BlackBerry PlayBook First Thoughts

2011-05-19T15:15:55Z

In my review of the BlackBerry PlayBook I must say I am impressed with the device - it is small - not too heavy, feels good in your hands and runs Flash like a champ. The back of the device is rubberized which holds the promise of increased durability and a large degree of scratch-resistance. TMCnet's Stefanie Mosca has more thoughts on the device and as a BlackBerry user it was certainly more functional for her. She also thinks it is an ideal device for traveling which is tough to disagree with - it likely even fits in most purses. But if you don't have a BlackBerry smartphone you may be disappointed as the PlayBook doesn't have native Microsoft Outlook connectivity yet. A BlackBerry smartphone lets you not only tether it to this tablet to gain access to your contacts and email but you can utilize the 3G connection as well. This is important as the PlayBook currently lacks connectivity to cellular carriers.

During my testing I think the nearby iPhone and iPad actually got jealous as I went through a number of TMC videos on the screen and enjoyed them in native Flash format. Until HTML5 becomes common on websites, I find the support of this format to be crucial for all computing devices.

The tablet is similar to an iPad in many ways such as allowing you to pinch and zoom with two fingers. Due to its smaller size, typing is quite comfortable in landscape mode while a larger tablet requires single finger typing - unless you rest the device on your lap or a table.

The sound the PlayBook makes when typing is satisfying and minimal haptic feedback makes the onscreen keyboard feel real. And it actually has a Web browser which works very well - especially when you consider how poorly many other BlackBerry devices render Web pages. It may be a tad slower at rendering pages than an iPad 2 but it certainly isn't a terrible delay.

Multitasking doesn't trip it up either - you can be listening to Slacker Radio while viewing Flash videos and both music sources can be heard simultaneously. You can also upgrade the OS via WiFi which is a breakthrough compared to having to connect to a PC and the process took me about 15 minutes to complete.

The swiping gestures allow you access to everything the PlayBook has to offer. Just swipe from the very bottom and very top to access virtually everything you need such as settings and options. In fact the swipe replaces the home button which doesn't exist.

So is it as good as an iPad? In some ways yes as it is more portable and allows you to actually see all websites - not just ones without Flash. I also found it to be a great size for viewing video. Where if falls down is in polish - the software while awesome is not quite as refined in terms of usability as an iPad or iPod. Moreover, there are far fewer apps available for this device.

This gets us to the controversial question of device size - in my opinion the PlayBook is small enough to carry very comfortably and still it is large enough to read web pages and books all day long. It does generate a fair bit of heat - more than either iPad 1 or 2 but nothing like a laptop. In terms of screen real estate you're talking about 2.5-3 smartphones in total.

Obviously being able to view all websites makes the PlayBook a far better purchase decision than an iPad or iPod but the flipside to this benefit is the massive number of apps in the Apple App Store vs. the BlackBerry App World. Moreover, in the case of the iPad the larger screen will likely be seen as better by most users. If you don't have a BlackBerry smartphone on and near you, Outlook email access is not currently possible - except via OWA and perhaps third-party apps.

If you are BlackBerry smartphone user and the limitations above don't put you off - definitely consider this tablet. For non-BlackBerry users - a software update with Outlook compatibility will make this device a solid choice - but you may want to hold off till then.

TMC Launches New Logo for Online Communities or OCs

2011-03-18T20:43:10Z

Many of you know TMC has been building viral, content-generated online communities for over a decade and in response to all the questions we have received over the years about community building, we have even launched an informative, objective and educational webinar centered on community building for companies in every industry whether they be in the B2B or B2C space.

Today we unveiled a new logo for these communities - and I wanted my readers to be the first to see it. I really hope you like it... Especially our new tagline, "Connect in the cloud." Also - notice how the cloud is a puzzle - which is supposed to symbolize "connecting."

Electronic Warfare is the Future. Are You Ready?

2011-02-14T15:16:46Z

Stuxnet is Victory at Entebbe 2.0

The Stuxnet worm alleged to be the work of Israel and the US was designed to target and disable Iranian centrifuges by increasing their speeds to dangerous levels while reporting to operators that all was well. The latest report from the New York Times shows this worm has also hit five industrial sites in the land of Ahmadinejad.

It’s no secret most of the world does not want Iran to get nuclear weapons and the best weapon being used to deter the country’s nuclear program was sanctions and if they are working it would be tough to know it as the country are prospering greatly as the price of oil is much higher than what Iran has budgeted.

So electronic warfare is a nice and neat way to disable a portion of the country’s operations without the need to go to war, risk lives, etc.

Because of the nature of this attack some predict the Iranian nuclear program has been set back by two years, making this attack historic in its ingenuity. It is really Victory at Entebbe 2.0. As you may recall, Operation Entebbe was a daring hostage rescue mission pulled off by the Israel Defense Forces in 1976.

Cyberattacks are not new by any means but the level of sophistication and damage created by this attack make it something bad guys everywhere will be trying to emulate. And this means as we interconnect more systems from smart grids to smart homes… From automobiles to transit systems and full cities, we need to understand the stakes are higher than ever. Rogue countries and terrorist organizations have a new standard to try to beat and it is not out of the question to see countries engaging in more frequent cyberwars in the future. This could be in conjunction with conventional wars like when Russia and Georgia had their recent conflict or full out cyberwars like Stuxnet or when Russia targeted Estonian web servers with DDoS attacks.

For the tech industry this means massive new budgets will be allocated to not only defending against such attacks but developing ingenious new ways of disabling enemies.

And while cyberwar sounds less ominous than having bombs dropped on your head, there is no telling what sorts of damage citizens of the future will be facing if cyberterrorism and cyberwar escalates.

Austin, Texas Selected For ITEXPO West 2011

2011-01-27T23:13:32Z

I have some very exciting news to share regarding ITEXPO. I alluded to it a few weeks back and now it’s here. ITEXPO West 2011 will be moving to the Austin Convention Center in Austin Texas, on September 13-15, 2011. ITEXPO was launched in San Diego, CA at the Hotel Del Coronado and moved to Long Beach and eventually Los Angeles. This move reflects the requests of many exhibitors and attendees.

One exciting benefit of the move for the communications and technology community is free WiFi in the convention center. The convention center is also located 15 minutes from the airport and is within walking distance of 6,000 downtown hotel rooms. Moreover, many refer to the city as the live music capital of the world.

It should come as no surprise that with less regulation, fees and taxes, the business-friendly Lone Star State is doing far better than California in terms of business growth and unemployment rates and although I look forward to bringing more events to California in the future, it is worth noting that show organizers want to host conferences in cities and states where the politicians create the most favorable business climate.

Moreover, Austin is surrounded by technology companies and the communications corridor of Dallas/Richardson is within driving distance. The response so far from those in the know has been very positive and we look forward to seeing you there and discussing the move further next week, Feb 2-4, 2011 in Miami at ITEXPO East 2011 and as soon as the show is over, expect the ITEXPO site referring to Austin to be up and running.

Getting to Know ITEXPO Participants

2011-01-25T01:33:48Z

AT TMC, we painstakingly attempt to ensure you know as much about the participating companies at our events as possible before the conference so you can get a sense of who is there, where there expertise lies and if they may have something of value to offer you as you look to make purchasing decisions in the world of technology and communications. As a result we survey ITEXPO speakers and exhibitors before the event and ask questions which can help you connect with thought leaders you believe might be of assistance at the event.

Not everyone answers but we do send the questions to hundreds of companies and they seem to trickle in each day. Here is the list of people and companies who responded to my questions and links to their answers. I truly hope you find it useful.

Oh and one note you should know... Many of these interviews are with speakers and/or exhibitors from the 13 collated events with ITEXPO such as Smart Grid Summit, Etc.

NAME	COMPANY
Mike Ross	4PSA
SANDRA XIMENA DIAZ HOYOS	SMART NETWORK SOLUTIONS
Mark Armentrout	Texas Institute
Alon Cohen	Phone.com
Jim Machi	Dialogic
Nathan McNeill	Bomgar
Mike Coffee	Commetrex
Jonathan Fuld	SIP Print
Alex Ferdman	Telinta
Ian Colville	Aculab
Christine Holley	ININ
Dina Vance	Ulysses
Matt Larsen	WISPA
Shawn Tsetsilas	Cellular Specialties
Ryan Lynn	Qwest Communications
Carl KS Teo	Ecocarrier Inc.
Bill Prout	Astaro
Tim Titus	PathSolutions
Aidan Connolly	Idiro
Andy Huckridge	VSS Monitoring, Inc.
Mark Ricca	IntelliCom Analytics
Michael Oeth	Junction Networks, Inc.
Michael Wheeler	NTT America
Tim Whittington	Aastra USA
Toby Holmes	WORKTANK
Doug Mohney	HD Voice News
Greg Maudsley	Juniper Networks
Steve Johnson	Ingate

-50F With Wind Chill. Escape to ITEXPO in Miami

2011-01-24T20:01:54Z

You know I would never stoop to reminding you about the weather to persuade you to attend what I believe to the be the best tech and telecom conference in the world - OK, maybe I would.

So I was driving along this morning on the way to work and noticed I couldn't feel any of my fingers. I decided to check to make sure I was wearing gloves. I was. Then I realized I couldn't feel any of my toes and yes I had shoes on.

I then looked at the temperature reading and it said one degree. I decided to risk my life to take the picture above while driving - I could have pulled over but hey, I was late for my first meeting and I would do just about anything for you, my faithful reader. Attention law enforcement professionals - some elements of this blog post may have been overly sensationalized in order to provide dramatic effect.

But getting back to Connecticut where TMC is based - one coworker who lives in Danbury, CT said it was -11 degrees when she left her house this morning. And that's nothing. If you can believe it... CBS News reports temperatures with wind chill hit as cold as -50 degrees F!

BTW, in AP biology back in high school we learned that -40F is the same temperature as -40C - this little bit of trivia courtesy of Mrs. Beers my 11th grade teacher. Hope I spelled her name right.

Oh, but back to the point of this meandering post... It is freezing out. There is one show in Miami next week where you can go to network with those who matter in the world of tech and telecom. Almost forgot to mention it is called ITEXPO East 2011. Every important topic is to be discussed from super WiFi to SIP to open source to virtualization and cloud computing. It is all there - in Miami under a single roof where you will also get to hear keynotes from former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin as well as executives from BT, Adobe, Aculab, GENBAND and Digium - the creators of Asterisk. Its the only industry event with a networking party at Mangos, one of the hottest spots on South Beach. Yes, there are other places to network as well.

So I hope to see you there and I look forward to greeting you in person.

Here is the ITEXPO show site, collocated events, free workshops, exhibitor list and giveaways you can win such as a new Jeep.

Former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to Keynote ITEXPO

2011-01-20T16:24:39Z

I just got word from my team that Former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be giving a keynote at ITEXPO on Wednesday, Feb 2nd, 2011 at 5:00 PM EST at the Miami Beach Convention Center! This is huge news and as a result, I apologize in advance for some scheduling changes we'll be making to accommodate his participation.

Two things are worthy of sharing:

FCC Chairman are best as speakers when they are not chairman... Only then do you get any insight on their positions on various matters. I learned this when FCC Chairman Michael Powell gave a great keynote to ITEXPO attendees a few years back and was able to speak freely.
Chairman Martin will speak about the femtocell market and related topics such as LTE/4G in a 30 minute presentation which will be followed by Q&A.

This addition makes the event that much more critical to attend and we hope to see you in two weeks in Miami at ITEXPO East 2011 and collocated events.

Tom Keating's take.

Adtran, IBM, Apple Blow Out Earnings

2011-01-19T13:53:29Z

ITEXPO gold sponsor and TMC Global Online Community customer Adtran just announced blowout earnings – fourth quarter profit doubled and sales grew 33%. Net income was $35.96 million or $0.56 per share. Broadband growth was 75% over the previous year led by sales of the Total Access 5000 platform while internetworking grew 37% and optical grew 24%.

Some of this growth was likely due to the Government’s Broadband Stimulus rollout but the declaration of a 9 cent per share dividend shows there is strong confidence that the company sees a bright future even as the program has ended.

Moreover, this news comes on the heels of blowout earnings from both Apple and IBM and this tells us that tech continues to be a very bright beacon of light for the global economy. As always, I look forward to watching the tremendous opportunities in tech and telecom translate into large amounts of real business getting done at ITEXPO, Feb 2-4 in Miami, FL.

An App Store is an App Store

2011-01-13T22:07:14Z

I generally agree with Microsoft that the term “app” is generic – meaning it is a general word used commonly and not associated with any company or brand. Certainly the term “killer app” has been around for decades so the use of the term “app” is not new. The term “store” too is generic so it is tough to consider “app store” to be anything but generic.

It is worth pointing out I don’t recall the term “app store” to be exceedingly common before Apple started using it.

In the nineties I was involved in a preliminary injunction suit where a competitor sued us because the name of one of our magazines was something they didn’t like. Incidentally we had a registered trademark on the term but we were still sued. Over a million dollars later the plaintiff settled with us because they weren’t able to prove any confusion.

In our lawsuit the company which sued us had the burden of proving there was confusion between our two brands. Based on surveys the company did, they could not prove any confusion and this is why they settled.

This suit taught me a tremendous amount about the US legal system and helped shape much of my business ideas and actions in the future.

Not to gloat but the company which sued us subsequently stopped printing the publication and changed its name and went through bankruptcy. I often wonder if they had focused more resources on serving customer and less on lawyers, would they have avoided the bankruptcy.

Although I am no attorney I learned in the suit that McDonalds owns a family of brands which begin with “Mc” so if you launch a “McVeal” sandwich in your restaurant expect a potential lawsuit. You could make the argument that Apple has a family of brands which beginning with “i” but they certainly weren’t first which is why you can buy iPod accessories from iHome.

I also learned that Lexis the information company sued Lexus the car company because of a confusingly similar name but the courts ruled that you can’t confuse companies in different industries – in other words, you don’t put a child seat in an information service.

Perhaps most interesting is you have to protect a brand from becoming generic which means Xerox has to run ads and launch lawsuits to ensure their trademark is not used generically. This is why Rollerblade had to stop competitors from using the term rollerblade generically – this is how the term “inline skating” came about. If you don’t protect your mark from becoming generic then when you eventually sue someone they can show the term is used as a generic mark.

One common way of solving disputes such as the ownership of “App Store” is a settlement where companies agree to use their company name in association with a product. Such as always making sure the word “Chevy” precedes the word “Volt.” Or in this case, “Microsoft App Store” Vs. “Google App Store” Vs. “Apple iTunes App Store,” etc.