Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com - Open Source Archives

Alianza Wants to Host Your Software Telco

2013-05-14T21:33:33Z

The software telco(r)evolution representing the move from hardware to software is perhaps the biggest trend in the world of carrier telecom this decade. Whenever we see such disruption in a market, it becomes an opportunity for new entrants to displace existing companies. As you may recall, Sonus Networks and Acme Packet (now Oracle) were just a few companies which were born and prospered during the transition from circuit to packet switched carrier networks.

In the past I have written about Metaswitch and their software telco solutions through NFV or network functions virtualization and their open-source Project Clearwater initiative which allows a carrier to run IMS on standard servers for free.

In both instances the company has shown leadership in the move to software which runs a telco. Another company I consider a software telco pioneer is Alianza. I wrote about them in 2011 when they announce d a deal with Clearwire to provide the company with hosted voice solutions.

I spoke with Kevin Mitchell the company’s Vice President of Marketing, about his company today and this is what you should know. Alianza has a relationship with Level 3 Communications who provides the termination, origination and wholesale services while the company provides a cloud-based voice platform. He says the company provides everything a voice service provider would need to buy, build or manage. In fact the two companies are working together to provide customers with the Level 3 Carrier Cloud Voice Solution. He continued that this could apply to a green field situation or even a migration to IMS.

The concept of “software telco” is a move from “bespoke or custom” hardware to software – there really is no reason why the solution can’t live a cloud and be delivered as a service. In fact, Mitchell tells me that his company embraces much of the concepts embodied in NFV… He says they run their own software and leverage VMware and HP servers for session management, applications and features.

Kevin further explained that a service provider using Alianza instead of hosting their own equipment wouldn’t have to deal with the CAPEX associated with the servers and other equipment needed to run the network. In fact they would just need to provide the CPE such as ATAs, soft clients or IP phones and pay Alianza as they grow. He also said that not all of his customers have the budget for SIP, VoIP and IMS expertise and as a result they turn to his company so they can in-turn focus on improving their video services and broadband speeds.

Moreover, he touted the company’s 350 web methods for integration and control functionality allowing smooth back office, customer care and billing integration. He also explained that carriers aren’t locked into preset calling/service plans… They have complete control of how their customers receive and are billed for the service they receive.

A wave of cloud-based companies are providing enterprises with cloud-based services from payroll to CRM and call recording. To date, communications service providers haven’t had many options to choose from in this area and the nature of their business dictated in many cases that they manage everything themselves.

With the advent of NFV, carriers told equipment providers that they wanted to be able to design their networks in the same way an enterprise designs its data center… Using virtualized software running on OTS servers. As this transition continues, there is no reason why a carrier shouldn’t or wouldn’t consider working with a cloud-based provider for their IMS services as well.

After all, if you are going to become a software telco, you have to explore what the benefits are of controlling all of the software yourself. Why not get a head start and host your services from a carrier that exists already, providing you APIs and referenceable customers? This of course is the vision Alianza hopes many carriers will continue to consider when evaluating their software telco options.

Be sure to learn everything there is to know about NFV and the birth of the software telco at Software Telco Congress, Nov 19-21, 2013 in Santa Clara, Ca.

Is Apple Too Sexy for MWC?

2013-02-15T11:53:46Z

In deciding not to exhibit at the Macworld events, CES and MWC, Apple has shown the world that it doesn’t need others to be successful. It can control the conversation far better when it holds its own press conferences which are invitation-only by design.

While this philosophy was very successful for a number of years, what Apple didn’t count on was the innovation gap between its products and the rest of the market closing to the point where a large-screen Android smartphone is actually preferable by the masses to the company’s iOS based phone offerings.

In other words – the “Apple attitude” we’re too sexy for your trade show was a great marketing concept for a number of years but now it seems like a bad choice. In just over a week as tens of thousands of movers and shakers descend on Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, we will see every competitor Apple has – we will witness launch after launch but nothing from Apple.

In fact Samsung is expected to make a major splash and launch a Galaxy S4. Last year they dominated the city as you may remember from my posts on the matter relating to the special art exhibit they had in the center of town and launch of the Galaxy Note 10.1. The S4 in case you are wondering is expected to contain a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED+ screen and possibly an 8-core processor.

You could make the argument that Apple has everyone it needs at its own press conferences but this just isn’t the case. In the age of citizen journalism you need to reach every influential citizen. These people, to the dismay of Apple, go to non-Apple events in far larger numbers than they do the company’s press conferences.

Now it’s up to Tim Cook to make Apple change with the times. Will Apple still think it’s “too sexy” to be at MWC and other events after Samsung and others steal the show? We’ll see.

A Larger iPhone - Apple Will HAVE to Listen Now

2013-01-08T13:20:54Z

Sometimes I feel like a broken record MP3 player but when you know you are right and you are a student of history, you see the mistakes companies make before they do. On July 8^th of 2010 I told you that larger Android devices would be a threat to Apple. The point was that Apple is repeating its mistake from the eighties where it had its own hardware competing against many manufacturers. At the time price/performance was the Achilles heel of Cupertino but now the challenge is not only price/performance but form factor.

Apple can’t possibly come out with every size phone and anticipate market needs but they could have done the obvious and come out with a wider phone after reading my piece which is exactly 2.5 years old today.

Now Barclays estimates the phablet market will grow to $135B in 2015. Where is Apple in this game? Nowhere, unless you count the iPad mini which isn’t a phablet but a slightly smaller tablet which is bigger than most of its competition.

I have been consistent about my thoughts on the matter as you can see from my past entries:

There are finally reports that Apple will come out with a larger iPhone and it is about time. The company can’t predict every trend but to me it was an obvious mistake to make the iPhone 5 taller and not wider as I have mentioned before. It is indeed surprising that the company has been so slow to react to this market opportunity.

Google and Dish Were in Talks to Launch Wireless Biz

2012-11-16T00:16:42Z

Some time back I commented on rumors of a Sprint takeover by Google and at the time many thought the idea was crazy. Fast forward a few years, tens of thousands of Android devices and a Motorola Mobility acquisition later and now Google is reportedly in talks to launch a wireless service with a number of companies including Dish Networks. As you may recall, Steve Jobs too wanted to launch a wireless network and if Google is seriously exploring this option this means Apple has to be doing the same.

The next frontier of advertising revenue for Google is mobile and if carriers and Apple decide to lock the company out of this lucrative market (even partially), then they have no choice but to own the wireless pipes. Now the question of spectrum comes into play… Is T-Mobile too expensive? Is Sprint worth another look? Assuming the rumors were true of course.

All of this shows the future for all successful companies is to own everything - at least they think this is the case. Like Apple which owns chips to distribution. This is counter to much of what we saw in the PC space in nineties when Dell bought off-the-shelf components and cleaned Compaq’s sales clock in the process. At the time Compaq was meticulously designing components at high-cost to extract a bit more performance than what you could buy on the open market from common component suppliers. Dell showed them and others that it made mores sense to become a marketing machine and sell computers based on commoditized parts.

But the target is Apple. Amazon designs its own tablets because of Apple. Microsoft has stores because of Apple. Almost every phone maker has its own music store because of Apple. Microsoft Surface was a response to Apple.

If Google does indeed want to get into the wireless business beyond the WiFi hotspots it offers around the country, it is probably because they heard Apple was about to do the same.

Mobile Profits are Skyrocketing as 67,000 Are Laid Off

2012-11-15T22:44:09Z

Mobile is not your father’s tech space.

Over the past two years, profits from the top eight mobile vendors has risen from $5.3 billion to $14.4 billion for a whopping increase of $9.1 billion and all this while over 67,000 people have been laid off in the technology. How is this possible you ask? I posited a similar query two months ago regarding Corning’s shares losing value – even while they supply Gorilla Glass to much of the booming mobile market.

FierceWireless sums up some of the companies shedding jobs in the wireless space just this year alone.

Google/Motorola shed 4,000 jobs but these were anticipated. Motorola like others on this list is losing share to Apple and more recently Samsung.
RIM shed 5,000 jobs and is betting the company on Blackberry 10 which is due out in Q2 of 2013.
Alcatel-Lucent has let go of 5,490. Similar to Nortel’s troubles, the company has suffered from a seemingly perpetual slowdown in carrier spending and competition from Asia.
Nokia has shed 10,000 jobs which makes sense as they lost the leadership role in smartphones to Apple and Samsung.
Nokia Siemens Networks has shed 17,000 jobs and faces similar challenges to other carrier equipment providers.

AT&T, Verizon and many other carriers around the world are benefiting tremendously from the massive spending on wireless connectivity from its customers and yet this money is not reaching the majority of equipment providers or device manufacturers. It is worth mentioning Cisco is certainly a beneficiary here and they will now get into the small cell market, making life even more difficult for existing players in the space.

In the past they haven’t been immune to cuts though as they recently laid off 11,300 people.

Sony too announced plans a while back to lay off 13,000 workers. This is the company that invented the mobile audio space, has historically produced some of the lightest and sleekest notebooks on the market and with its SonyEricsson division really led the way in mobile phones for a few years.

The challenge is the wireless market has a lack of competition for now. Apple and Samsung are so dominant the other players have to eke out a living in the shadows. Samsung has done an amazing job using technology and a plethora of devices sizes and shapes to fight this war. Another challenge – the aforementioned organizations are so large they can afford to design and in Samsung’s case, manufacture their own mobile chips. What this means is typical suppliers to a thriving market like Texas Instruments have trouble making a living. This is why TI announced they too are laying off 1,700 wireless employees… A staggering amount for an arms supplier in a wireless arms race.

This is a brave new world for technology – when the PC market was thriving there were hundreds of companies providing computers – some which you put together yourself and others which were bare bones models at discount prices. But now, prohibitive marketing budgets, need for a patent arsenal and carrier relationships have made it difficult for a no-name company to become a market leader overnight.

Google and Amazon are exceptions but they can afford to lose money in mobile for as long as they need to in order to further their core businesses.

Instead, the growth seems to have to come from the aftermarket space – meaning ecosystem plays. Apps makers, hardware add-on companies like Square and case making are the angles to play to generate big money in wireless. For traditional hardware arms suppliers like NSN and TI, mobile is not your father’s tech space.

A Little Heavy Chrome

2012-11-01T15:49:07Z

Google has a new heavy metal-based TV commercial which has a Halloween undercurrent. The ad touts the $249 Samsung-made Chromebook as being smaller, better on batteries and good for “scaring off viruses.” It goes on to discuss its lack of phantom files and crashes. Although the video has had under 100,000 views I can see it going viral and perhaps adding a zero to that number.

What is unclear is how much demand there will be for a cloud-based laptop which seems to ape the look of an Apple computer at a fraction of the price.

It’s worth noting the device has seen good reviews and includes so many free services it actually gives you $20 back after you outlay your $249!

If you haven’t been paying attention, this is one of the most exciting times I can recall in the hardware wars. Amazon has come on strong with its Kindle Fire HD and is blasting the iPad Mini – as being inferior. Then there is Samsung who recently released their 5.5 inch Galaxy Note II which is an awesome phone/tablet hybrid. Throw in the Galaxy S3 and the new HTC Windows Phone 8X and it becomes obvious that innovation is alive and well.

As you can see, manufacturers are serious about mobile and are fighting fire with fire. And if consumers continue to lust after and purchase them as fast as companies can make them, the tech market should see their balance sheets back in black in no time.

WebRTC: The Phone meets the Web

2012-10-19T17:40:22Z

We have seen the multi-billion dollar communications market get disrupted as the phone met the IP network. In the video below Phil Edholm describes how with WebRTC, the phone meets the web. As he describes, even though IP communications has been around for more than a decade, there hasn’t been a fundamental change in how we communicate. We still hang our phones off servers which allow communications to take place. Now, every web browser will become a multimedia communications engine, allowing browsers to communicate to other browsers directly. This is a totally new way of working – I like to refer to it as putting the power of an open-Skype into every browser.

Phil believes WebRTC will change communications the way the web changed the way information is shared. In other words – you can communicate very easily with others – without the need for continuous and central command and control.

As you may know, Edholm was Vice President of Technology Strategy and Innovation for Avaya GCS and previously the CTO/CSO for Nortel Enterprise Solutions. He knows the industry well and has been a past keynoter at ITEXPO. TMC has partnered with him and Crossfire Media to launch a new conference called WebRTC EXPO in order to educate the world on the power of this new technology.

Here is a partial list of people who should attend the event and why, according to Phil. The last one is my addition:

Enterprise IT: How will WebRTC integrate or even potentially replace your unified communications systems? Will you need to integrate WebRTC into your contact center to more fluidly communicate with current and potential customers?

Carriers: The implications of every browser allowing for rich communications to impact your business model can’t be overstated. In short, the pace of communications disruption continues. The simple question is, “Will you be driving or under the steamroller?”

Website owners: Does the addition of communications to the browser change your business model? How do you benefit from WebRTC? Can you use it to add value or generate more revenue for example?

Developers: This is a ground floor opportunity to change the world by writing new and innovative applications which weren’t possible before.

Investors: The entire phone network has just come under increasing pressure as a result of WebRTC. Moreover, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and other companies with large reach have the ability to become their own phone network overnight.

WebRTC Expo takes place in South San Francisco, Nov 27-29, 2012 with keynotes from Plantronics and Thrupoint. We hope to see you there.

Simultaneous Voice & Data: AT&T's Big iPhone Advantage

2012-10-16T13:11:34Z

While Verizon has a great 3G network and more recently a great 4G network, there is one drawback iPhone users still have using 4G LTE and that is you can’t access simultaneous voice and data over the 4G network. This is a pretty big limitation and AT&T users can rest assured that even if they have worse coverage, they will be able to multitask by surfing and talking or emailing and talking.

Want to surf the web or send email while talking on your iPhone 5 using Verizon or Sprint? Well, you may as well be holding this:

More from Ars Technica and Apple Insider

The iPhone 5 is Missing This Crucial Feature

2012-09-12T21:39:33Z

I am just going to come out and say it – the iPhone 5 is yet another incremental upgrade to the iPhone line of products. Yes, Apple deserves great credit for making smartphones ubiquitous – they have turned mobile devices into web-surfing gadgets and so much more. But this doesn’t mean that Apple is innovating as fast as it could be.

In fact, TMC writers have discussed with me in private that Apple may be purposely holding back on their phone upgrades to ensure people will keep buying new devices on a regular cycle.

So what is the missing feature? Simply making the phone wider. You may recall I said the iPhone 5 has the wrong form factor a week ago today. To answer such criticism, the company says they want the phone to fit in the hand. Since Apple has been famous for having a reality distortion field, at first you may be inclined to take this answer at face value. But if you do, I suggest you stay away from leatherglovesonline because they have something they call a glove sizing chart which seems to show that human beings actually have hands which are different sizes.

In fact the smallest hand for a woman is 6 inches and the largest for a man is 12 inches which means that hand sizes are vastly different, ranging in size by a full 100%. See chart below. This tells us that a blanket statement about a device fitting in the hand doesn't actually make any sense - in fact we see from the wide range of hand sizes there is room for the company to widen the iPhone and fit in "most hands". Moreover, there are few if any complaints about hand-fit from competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Other than that, Apple has made all the right improvements – a better camera, faster processor, its a better gaming device due to superior color saturation, etc. Siri has been improved dramatically, iCloud is better integrated into the OS and you can even communicate on your social networks via speech. Finally, it is gorgeous – all glass and aluminum.

Oh yeah, and the new phone supports LTE which may mean Samsung has grounds to countersue the company into oblivion depending on the technology which is used and what the lawyers and courts decide. Perhaps Samsung’s patents will cancel out the other patents Apple holds meaning these companies will be forced to compete exclusively on innovation rather than on who was fastest to patent the latest feature or function.

The one factor which I have learned from years of covering and analyzing Apple devices is there is always more to these gadgets than immediately meets the eye. In other words, even if the company has a slower processor than the competition, web surfing and other features could be faster on iOS because the company spends so much time optimizing the user experience. So too with the iPhone 5 - even if users were expecting a wider screen, the combination of better camera, new OS, faster processor and LTE can make the iPhone 5 seem like a major upgrade over the iPhone 4S in actual use.

Other features include:

Siri can give you sports scores and team schedules as well as make reservations at restaurants for you
The camera has a sapphire cover making it thinner and more durable
The device can take panoramic photos which used to require a separate app like Pano
There are 3D maps and turn-by-turn navigation to compete with Android
Facebook is integrated into iOS6 which is standard on this new phone and compatible with 3GS and higher and iPad 2 and higher
iOS6 also supports coupons, boarding passes, shared photo streams, reply to phone call with text message, VIP lists so you don’t’t miss important email messages and more
The company says the new OS is coming soon
Jony Ives says this product has the best fit and finish of any product the company has ever made – a huge deal if true
This level of precision extends to manufacturing where crystalline diamonds are used to machine each product
The variances of each device are now measured in microns due to a manufacturing process which the company calls extreme.
The iPhone 5 is not only faster and manages battery better, it is 20% lighter
The new screen is 4-inch diagonal with Retina display compared to a 3.5-inch screen on the 4S – both screens sport 326 ppi
Virtually all radio standards are supported – now HSPA+, LTE and 5GHz WiFi
The front camera now sports 1.2 MP pictures and video at 720p HD
Video recording now has face recognition as well as photo within video capability
Earphones are now rounder EarPods with a storage and travel case – they took three years to design – seriously?
There is a new reversible Lightning connector which replaced the old 30-pin design
Battery life is increased browsing for 10 hours on WiFi as opposed to 9 hours for the 4S.

In short we know many people will upgrade their iPhones regardless of features and I feel Apple should have gone the extra step to make the phone wider when they had the chance. I think this is a negative for customers who will have to go out and upgrade their cases, alarm clocks and other devices which no longer work with the iPhone 5. And if pressure forces the company to widen its phone form factor in the future, these same customers will have to go out and upgrade their accessories again.

But the flipside is the phone is faster, thinner, has better battery life and is slightly bigger. You could argue if the current iPhone was good enough for so many hundreds of millions, the new iPhone form factor will be even better. Still, I think there is plenty of room for Samsung and other manufacturers to pick off millions of customers who were hoping the iPhone 5 would not only have all of the features above but give them a larger screen as well.

Update 9/14/12: Buzzfeed has a funny rendition of the iPhone 10 which ties in nicely with this post. Via NetworkWorld:

Dialogic: The Disruptor Combats Disruption

2012-08-30T21:10:06Z

Perhaps nothing has disrupted communications more than Dialogic innovations. This post shows how they are reacting to disruption they initiated

Disruption is not a new concept. We all get that Amazon disrupted Circuit City, the advent of the MP3 reduced sales of CDs and digital photography wreaked havoc on filmmakers like Kodak. But what of companies who develop new technologies which disrupt multibillion-dollar markets – only to see these innovations turn on them, causing their own product line to become legacy in short order?

Dialogic is one such example and they recently announced replacing CEO Nick Jensen with Kevin Cook (pictured). The company is legendary for those of us who have been in telecom for a while as much of the technology that enabled computer telephony and pioneered VoIP came from their engineers. Companies like Interactive Intelligence have leveraged off-the-shelf PCs and DSP resource boards made popular by Dialogic to build contact center solutions to disrupt proprietary solutions from the likes of Avaya.

More importantly, a slew of CLECs and other new communications providers providing services such as calling cards have relied on technologies pioneered by Dialogic to disrupt the incumbent carriers of the world. Without these boards in fact, telephony might still be a proprietary and closed technology where office phones are not interoperable and Skype didn’t exist.

It is indeed ironic that the same innovations which made the world of telecom dramatically more competitive have turned on the company’s leading-edge products to make them considered “legacy.”

Some History

As mentioned above, the core business at Dialogic was once DSP resource boards you would need to enable a PC to record and playback voicemail. These products had huge markups and competitors like Aculab, Rhetorex and NMS fought tooth and nail for marketshare by appealing to developers – like Interactive Intelligence who would place these boards in their systems. The good news is once a product win was achieved, you rode the wave of the product’s success without having to do very much. After all, it would be a herculean effort to rip-and-replace a DSP resource board.

This once margin-rich business evolved over the years as the processors in typical computers became powerful enough to handle what once needed proprietary DSP-based solutions. In other words, over time you could purchase software allowing the host processor to handle the media processing (HMP) which helped commoditize the market and pushed prices lower. In addition, a new competitor emerged last decade in the form of open-source/Asterisk coupled with lower priced boards from Sangoma and Digium.

As a result of the pressure on margins, Dialogic looked to new forms of revenue and moreover thought it made sense to consolidate the market purchasing Cantata, NMS and others.

The Focus on Video

At the leadership of Nick Jensen, Dialogic not only went on an M&A tear, it devoted a tremendous amount of energy to the video market. Nick was a major evangelist for getting service providers to provide video-based services which consumers would pay for. In fact these enhanced services have been the holy grail of the communications space for as long as I can remember. As you may know, some new service ideas fail spectacularly and others like music-based ring tones and SMS have become multibillion dollar markets few saw coming in advance.

Video is much more processor-intensive than voice so if there was a way for Dialogic to help carriers profit by providing such services it would have been spectacular for the company’s sales. And it’s obviously a rapidly growing market – just one that’s been tough to monetize effectively. After all, consumers have fast broadband connections in much of the world and don’t need the carrier to do much. Then there are app stores and Skype which make it more challenging for carriers to add any value they can charge for.

For parts of the world where bandwidth is constrained, consumers will pony up some money for video services but the challenge is, these parts of the world are generally poorer by definition meaning less revenue is to be gained by providing such enhancements.

The Financial Reality and Helm Change

Dialogic’s combined assets at the peak of their worth would likely command a value north of $1.5B but the market cap as of this writing is under $20M. The company combined wstith Veraz Networks in October 2010 and from the chart, between the arrows you can see the entire value of Dialogic has been eliminated since the merger.

The company was proactive in restructuring its debt and as a result, $39.7M owed to Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC has been converted into stock. Typically, these are the sorts of situations where companies change management and this explains part of the reason Kevin Cook has taken the helm. I spoke with him recently and the story he tells points to a future where the company’s new solutions are beginning to sell at a sufficient rate to offset the reduced sales from legacy businesses.

On a related note, company execs tell me additional shares due to debt conversion are likely to increase Dialogic’s market capitalization in the near future.

Streamlining Everything

Kevin spent time explaining that the elimination of the Tennenbaum debt also reduces interest payments to the tune of just under $10M per year. Moreover the company is spending its energy consolidating areas of redundancy and slowing R&D in areas which won’t provide a return while investing more in growing areas.

These changes have resulted in the company lowering its quarterly breakeven point from a cash flow perspective from $60M six quarters ago to roughly $40M today.

But What’s Next?

Since video has been the company’s obsession for many years we’ll start there. They will still focus on mobile video but watermarking and analytics will be spun off or discontinued. The areas of focus going forward will be PowerMedia HMP, softswitching, optimization and SBCs among others.

But What of The SBC?

It’s no secret that the SBC space was one of the hottest areas of telecom for a number of years and although the performance of the publicly traded companies may not show it, the future of the market is expected to be quite good. Dialogic seems to agree and Cook says he has reinvigorated the R&D in the SBC space with an addition of 25-20 heads. The company’s BorderNet 4000 SBC is doing well in the peering space and works quite symbiotically with the company’s softswitching solutions he says.

Cook believes the performance of this product line is ahead of the competition and expects to be a more potent threat to Acme Packet and Sonus in the future as more features will be added. The company’s BorderNet 2020 SBC plays in the access market on the border of carrier networks and the sales funnel for this product are ahead of projections he explained. He believes the company’s transcoding and multimedia capabilities will be a differentiator as the product moves upstream.

This product line also has potential to expand into the enterprise especially with IP based contact centers.

Who is Dialogic Now?

For most of its history Dialogic was a building block company then a video enabler for carriers. I asked, what should the company been known for now? Cook says, “We’ve staked out a claim in an area we call mobile experience management.” He went on to say the company has a lot more experience in the mobile space as opposed to Genband or Sonus or others who have more experience in the fixed line area.

Moreover there are a few parts to this vision. The first is service creation which is the value added service parts of the business like video gateways and video enabling applications which could for example allow a carrier to provide a social game where users could watch other players over their mobile devices.

Then there is the PowerMedia platform where people are building applications like mobile videoconferencing, roaming and signaling. Moreover, the company’s PowerMedia XMS solution provides a software media server allowing standards-based media control (XML, etc.) in a data center or cloud as part of a carrier’s IMS architecture.

Service delivery is another area of focus – where the company supplies softswitches as well as SBCs. Service optimization is another one and perhaps one of the most important from my perspective. Here the company supplies myriad solutions from the radio tower to the mobile switching center with the I-Gate Session Bandwidth Optimizer Mobile Backhaul which optimizes Abis and Iub data streams, including both ATM and IP-based Iub streams in 2G and 3G networks. Cook says it provides optimization of 70-80%, has customers like Telefonica and other major operators around the world, and sits between the RAN side of the network and the MSC.

Cook said, “The product does more header compression,” and continued to tell me this optimization is pretty unique to Dialogic and incremental to compression already done in switches from companies like Huawei and ZTE.

From there he discussed the company’s core network bandwidth optimization product, the I-Gate Session Bandwidth Optimizer (PDF) used in major networks around the world, which handles traffic optimization in and between VoIP and 3G networks.

The company is making a big bet on a product code named internally as DV which is short for data and video optimization and he says, “There are some very unique things we can do with this product and we’ll do some proof of concepts this December and launch in 2013.” He continued to tell me he the product can optimize 20-30% on top of what all the other players are doing, and that it is targeted for LTE/IMS networks. He invited me for a deep dive discussion which may take place at some point in the future.

The story got better with the addition of a slew of board members who are really well-versed in managing public companies as well as a discussion of customer diversity. No single customer in fact makes up more than 4% of the company’s revenue and North America revenue is less than 40%. The point is the company is more diversified than many of its competitors from a customer and country standpoint.

The Concern

Carriers want to work with companies who are in solid financial shape and this presents a chicken-and-egg problem for a publicly traded company. Dialogic needs to increase its stock price to be more attractive to its customers but in order to do so it needs to sell more products.

Conundrum may be the best way to explain this challenge.

The good news for the company is they already have a solid relationships with so many companies and carriers and they’ve been around for so many decades that they likely get far more leeway than other less-known organizations.

The Future

The takeaway from the conversation is the company is beginning to see traction in its new products. The legacy lines are seeing less investment and there has been large amounts of cost-cutting between office closures and debt conversion making interest payments less onerous.

There is an impending data crisis in the world and mobile carriers are scrambling to provide bandwidth to towers around the globe. The optimist will likely point out it is always cheaper to maximize the bandwidth of existing circuits than it is to dig trenches and shoot new fiber meaning sales growth of products which help in this area should be a given.

Moreover, carriers do want to reduce churn and managing the customer experience is obviously an important part of doing so.

At the end of the day, Dialogic must execute and if they do they could be in solid shape. Of course some of their future is dependent on carriers feeling optimistic enough to spend money improving their networks. Moreover, if legacy product sales decrease more rapidly than anticipated or new product growth stalls, the company will likely have to make more and painful cuts. But again, the optimist will say Dialogic's unique compression solutions will produce a rapid ROI for carriers who will spend more freely. And since mobile broadband growth is predicted for years to come, the company does seem to be positioned to take advantage of some of the investments carriers are bound to make.

See Dialogic at ITEXPO, Oct 3-5, 2012, Austin, Texas in booth #308. Disclosure - I am the Chairman of ITEXPO.

Google Leverages Home Page to Promote Nexus Tablet

2012-08-28T10:08:12Z

Google has been "different" for over a decade because the company always resisted overt advertising seen throughout the web. Through the entire pop-up era where so many websites capitulated and ran ads for security cameras and other items, Google stood almost alone.

But as you can see from the page above - click to enlarge, Google has now decided to use its premium real estate - the home page to run ads. The first ad is for the company's Nexus tablet.

Sure, the company has been making sponsored links look more and more like regular ads over the past few months and years - this trend isn't new for the company. Moreover, we have seen the company promote Chrome and other software products in the past - most of these however have been free products.

For those people who said the company would become "evil" shortly after becoming a public company - you may be right (assuming you consider this sort of behavior to be bad." For those of you who said the Motorola Mobility acquisition was "stupid" well perhaps you are wrong if the company rings up massive sales as a result of perhaps the best marketing strategy on the internet.

Will public backlash be so great that the search leader is forced to change course? We'll see - but if people are OK with Amazon promoting Kindles on its home page then perhaps Google too can get away with this new method of promotion.

The question now is what sorts of ads will we see next and will Google start to let others promote themselves on the web's perhaps most prime real estate.

Thanks to All the Press and Analysts Coming to ITEXPO in Austin

2012-08-23T19:55:19Z

I wanted to thank all the press, analysts and bloggers coming to ITEXPO Oct 2-5, 2012 in Austin, Texas. We really appreciate the time you take from you busy schedules to spend with us at the show.

The event is 39 days away and already we are seeing the list build momentum. Some of the companies I’d like to thank are IMS Research, Forrester Research, Intellicom Analytics, GigaOM, Slashdot/Geeknet, Ovum, El Mundo Newspaper, Compass Intelligence, Penton, Network Products Guide, Light Reading and Penton Media. I’d also like to thank all the other media companies listed here as well as everyone else coming to the show.

We are looking forward to hosting you at the expo and this event will be fantastic – so will the collocated events such as and free workshops. I hope to see you there.

The Most Comprehensive Interop 2012 Video Interviews

2012-05-16T21:46:27Z

In case you missed Interop 2012 in Las Vegas and even if you were there – I have some really good news for you. TMC was there and we shot about seven hours of the most important and engaging interviews possible. We have all the companies you need to know about in spaces such as private and public cloud to big data, analytics, network testing and more. We spoke with the small upstarts and the giants like HP, Cisco and IBM. In short we wanted to present you with a wealth of information which you could use to make better decisions in your companies.

Does a vendor you are looking to buy from have a solid plan for its future – the answer is likely in these videos. Do they have a product which makes your job easier? Again, the answer is below. Do they have a solution to your company’s increasing reliance on AWS – something your IT department has little to no influence over? You know what I am going to say don’t you?

What about solutions to the problem of your departments storing information in the public cloud which may be in violation of numerous regulatory agencies – SARBOX/HIPAA, etc.? Again, the answers you seek are below.

Trends can be boiled down into software defined networking, faster connections (40G and 100G), WAN acceleration as well as cloud, cloud and more cloud – private and public.

I have some of the videos below highlighted and a full list in a spreadsheet follows. I hope you find them useful.

Red Hat discusses its new open-source based storage solutions

Cisco discusses the results of their most recent cloud survey – “This is the year of the cloud”

Alcatel Lucent discusses their enterprise UC and collaboration solutions

Enterasys outlines their networking vision for the future

F5 Networks discusses how their SPDY proxy/gateway will SPDYfy any application for a 50% performance increase for end users

Here is the complete list of Interop 2012 Las Vegas companies which were interviewed - many will tell you what is new, what is next and what you could see at their booths.

Company Name	Interviewee Name	Video Header/Title
Opengear	John D. Bedrick	Open Gear discusses Remote Management products
Nimbula	Jay Judkowitz	Nimbula helps companies deploy cloud services
Innovolt	David McGirt	Innovolts power management solutions
WildPackets	Joe Habib	WildPackets discusses their network optimization solutions
Interface Masters	Ehud (Udi) Yuhjtman	Interface Masters discuses latest network monitoring offload applications
Alcatel Lucent	Jack Jachner	Jack Jachner with Alcatel Lucent discusses his companies open touch collaboration products
XIRRUS	Dirk l. Gates	Xirrus details their wifi growth The smart phone and tablet explosion has helped fuel the growth of Xirrus in the education and conference market according to Xirrus founder Dirk Gates
CradlePoint	George Mulhern	Cradlepoint details its wireless solutions at Interop 2012
Esnatech	Davide Petramala	Esnatech discusses UC cloud solutions
Spiceworks	Nicole Tanzillo	Spiceworks details how it helps IT pros with Rich Tehrani at interop 2012 in Las Vegas solutions
ESET	Andrew Lee	ESET North America details their security solutions
EchoStreams Innovative Solutions	Gene Lee	Echostreams innovative solutions provides OEM and ODM solutions for the cloud
Aryaka	Ajit Gupta	Aryaka details WAN optimization solutions
Amtel	Richard Bliss	Amtel details its MDM solutions
CloudSigma	Jack Duffy	Swiss-based CloudSigma details its Infrastructure as a service solutions leveraging its newness to the market
IBM	Dan Tuchler	IBM details software defined network technology
SmithMicro Software	Douglas Louie	Smith Micro software discusses how MDM helps with BYOD
Endace	Tim Nichols	Endace discusses network monitoring solutions at interop 2012
Kerio Technologies	James Gudeli	Kerio Technologies Discusses their IT solutions at Interop 2012
Enterasys	Chris Crowell	Enterasys president and CEO details networking vision at Interop 2012
Net Optics	Ran Nahmias	NetOptics discusses its network management products at Interop 2012
HP	Mike Banic	HP details networking innovations at Interop 2012
Cavium	Steve Klinger	Cavium discusses their networking processor solutions at interop 2012
Open Networking Foundation	Dan Pitt	ONF discusses its role in promoting open flow and SDN
IXIA	Eddie Arrage	Ixia details new acquisition and more
Aryaka	Sonal Puri	Aryaka details customer use cases of WAN optimization as a service
Motorola Solutions	Radha (Rad) Sethuraman	Motorola solutions discusses application centric networking at Interop 2012
F5 Networks	Erik Giesa	F5 Networks discusses SPDY network support
Network Instruments	Charles Thompson	Network Instruments discs public and private cloud adopt survey
exinda	Brendan Reid	Exinda discusses its unique approach to WAN optimization resulting in record growth
NSFocus	Vann T. Abernethy	NSFocus discusses the need for its DDOS solutions
NCP Engineering, Inc	Rainer Enders	NCP Engineering discusses their secure remote access solutions at Interop 2012
IPsoft	Bijan Hafezi	IPSoft discusses their IT automation solutions at Interop
OnApp	Kosten Metreweli	OnApp details their cloud provider automation solutions at Interop 2012
ShoreTel	Peter Blackmore	ShoreTel gives update on its communications solutions
Cormant(CableSolve)	Michael Phares	Cormant discusses HTML5 and other cable solve news
IP Infusion	Sandy Orlando	IP Infusion details is SDN Solutions
Barracuda Networks	John Peterson	Barracuda Networks details products and marketing message at Interop 2012
Emulex	Shaun Walsh	Emulex describes discusses cloud HPC and data centers at Interop
Myricom	Nan Boden, Ph.D.	Myricom discusses Emulex partnership at Interop
LSI	Troy Bailey	LSI details their network acceleration technology at Interop
Coyote Point Systems	Michael C. Hayes	Coyote Point details EQ/OS 10 and broadening ADC line at interop
NETGEAR	Matt Pahnke	Netgear unveils SMB storage innovations at Interop
Telcombrokers	Nancy Ridge	Telecombrokers discusses expansion into wireless and desktop management at Interop
QUEST SOFTWARE	Bryan Forrester	Quest Software details how Foglight Helps Customers at Interop 2012
CloudPassage	Rand Wacker	CloudPassage details public and private cloud security solutions
QualiSystems	Lior Koriat	QualitySystems discusses Lab management solutions at Interop
CISCO	Inbar Lasser-Raab	Cisco details their global cloud survey results at Interop 2012
ExtraHop Networks	Jesse Rothstein	ExtraHop Networks discusses new Citrix APM solution
SonicWALL	Dmitriy Ayrapetov	SonicWall discusses next generation fire walls at Interop
NetScout	Steven P. Shalita	Netscout shares latest network performance management solutions at Interop
Mellanox Technologies	David Barzilai	Mellanox Tech outlines its latest InfiBand and Ethernet solutions at Interop
Opnet	Todd Kaloudis	Opnet discusses its application performance management (APM) solutions at Interop 2012
NetSupport	Marcus Kingsley	NetSupport discusses their software based PC remote control solutions
APCON, Inc	Dave Hubbard	Apcon discusses network aggregation and filtering solutions at Interop
Aerohive Networks	Abigail Strong	Aerohive network discusses move from Wi-Fi to enterprise networking equipment provider
Reflex Systems	Preston Futrell	Reflex Systems discusses their private cloud automation solutions at Interop
Vineyard Networks	Jason Richards	Vineyard networks discusses DPI solutions at Interop
JDSU	Assaji Aluwihare	JDSU discusses their packetPortal's network intelligence solution at Interop
Panzura	Ranajit Nevatia	Panzura discusses its cloud storage solutions at Interop
Server Technology	Calvin Nicholson	Server Technology discusses its PDU products at Interop
Axis Communications	Steve Surfaro	Axis Communications details it's IP cameras at Interop
ONPATH Technologies	Brian McCann	OnPath Technologies discusses it's network monitoring and testing solutions at Interop
Napatech	Nick Arraje	Napatech discusses 40G network analysis adapter at Interop
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc	Ed Breay	Hitachi ID systems details it's ID management suite at Interop
HotLink	Oded Haner	HotLink describes it's heterogeneous hyper visor management solution at Interop
Dimension Data	Lawrence Van Deusen	Dimension Data describes it's cloud and mobile solutions at Interop
Red Hat	Tom Trainer	Red Hat details gluster powered storage solutions at Interop
McAfee	Dana Torgersen	McAfee details it's network security products at Interop

Company Name	Interviewee Name	Video Header/Title
Opengear	John D. Bedrick	Open Gear discusses Remote Management products
Nimbula	Jay Judkowitz	Nimbula helps companies deploy cloud services
Innovolt	David McGirt	Innovolts power management solutions
WildPackets	Joe Habib	WildPackets discusses their network optimization solutions
Interface Masters	Ehud (Udi) Yuhjtman	Interface Masters discuses latest network monitoring offload applications
Alcatel Lucent	Jack Jachner	Jack Jachner with Alcatel Lucent discusses his companies open touch collaboration products
XIRRUS	Dirk l. Gates	Xirrus details their wifi growth The smart phone and tablet explosion has helped fuel the growth of Xirrus in the education and conference market according to Xirrus founder Dirk Gates
CradlePoint	George Mulhern	Cradlepoint details its wireless solutions at Interop 2012
Esnatech	Davide Petramala	Esnatech discusses UC cloud solutions
Spiceworks	Nicole Tanzillo	Spiceworks details how it helps IT pros with Rich Tehrani at interop 2012 in Las Vegas solutions
ESET	Andrew Lee	ESET North America details their security solutions
EchoStreams Innovative Solutions	Gene Lee	Echostreams innovative solutions provides OEM and ODM solutions for the cloud
Aryaka	Ajit Gupta	Aryaka details WAN optimization solutions
Amtel	Richard Bliss	Amtel details its MDM solutions
CloudSigma	Jack Duffy	Swiss-based CloudSigma details its Infrastructure as a service solutions leveraging its newness to the market
IBM	Dan Tuchler	IBM details software defined network technology
SmithMicro Software	Douglas Louie	Smith Micro software discusses how MDM helps with BYOD
Endace	Tim Nichols	Endace discusses network monitoring solutions at interop 2012
Kerio Technologies	James Gudeli	Kerio Technologies Discusses their IT solutions at Interop 2012
Enterasys	Chris Crowell	Enterasys president and CEO details networking vision at Interop 2012
Net Optics	Ran Nahmias	NetOptics discusses its network management products at Interop 2012
HP	Mike Banic	HP details networking innovations at Interop 2012
Cavium	Steve Klinger	Cavium discusses their networking processor solutions at interop 2012
Open Networking Foundation	Dan Pitt	ONF discusses its role in promoting open flow and SDN
IXIA	Eddie Arrage	Ixia details new acquisition and more
Aryaka	Sonal Puri	Aryaka details customer use cases of WAN optimization as a service
Motorola Solutions	Radha (Rad) Sethuraman	Motorola solutions discusses application centric networking at Interop 2012
F5 Networks	Erik Giesa	F5 Networks discusses SPDY network support
Network Instruments	Charles Thompson	Network Instruments discs public and private cloud adopt survey
exinda	Brendan Reid	Exinda discusses its unique approach to WAN optimization resulting in record growth
NSFocus	Vann T. Abernethy	NSFocus discusses the need for its DDOS solutions
NCP Engineering, Inc	Rainer Enders	NCP Engineering discusses their secure remote access solutions at Interop 2012
IPsoft	Bijan Hafezi	IPSoft discusses their IT automation solutions at Interop
OnApp	Kosten Metreweli	OnApp details their cloud provider automation solutions at Interop 2012
ShoreTel	Peter Blackmore	ShoreTel gives update on its communications solutions
Cormant(CableSolve)	Michael Phares	Cormant discusses HTML5 and other cable solve news
IP Infusion	Sandy Orlando	IP Infusion details is SDN Solutions
Barracuda Networks	John Peterson	Barracuda Networks details products and marketing message at Interop 2012
Emulex	Shaun Walsh	Emulex describes discusses cloud HPC and data centers at Interop
Myricom	Nan Boden, Ph.D.	Myricom discusses Emulex partnership at Interop
LSI	Troy Bailey	LSI details their network acceleration technology at Interop
Coyote Point Systems	Michael C. Hayes	Coyote Point details EQ/OS 10 and broadening ADC line at interop
NETGEAR	Matt Pahnke	Netgear unveils SMB storage innovations at Interop
Telcombrokers	Nancy Ridge	Telecombrokers discusses expansion into wireless and desktop management at Interop
QUEST SOFTWARE	Bryan Forrester	Quest Software details how Foglight Helps Customers at Interop 2012
CloudPassage	Rand Wacker	CloudPassage details public and private cloud security solutions
QualiSystems	Lior Koriat	QualitySystems discusses Lab management solutions at Interop
CISCO	Inbar Lasser-Raab	Cisco details their global cloud survey results at Interop 2012
ExtraHop Networks	Jesse Rothstein	ExtraHop Networks discusses new Citrix APM solution
SonicWALL	Dmitriy Ayrapetov	SonicWall discusses next generation fire walls at Interop
NetScout	Steven P. Shalita	Netscout shares latest network performance management solutions at Interop
Mellanox Technologies	David Barzilai	Mellanox Tech outlines its latest InfiBand and Ethernet solutions at Interop
Opnet	Todd Kaloudis	Opnet discusses its application performance management (APM) solutions at Interop 2012
NetSupport	Marcus Kingsley	NetSupport discusses their software based PC remote control solutions
APCON, Inc	Dave Hubbard	Apcon discusses network aggregation and filtering solutions at Interop
Aerohive Networks	Abigail Strong	Aerohive network discusses move from Wi-Fi to enterprise networking equipment provider
Reflex Systems	Preston Futrell	Reflex Systems discusses their private cloud automation solutions at Interop
Vineyard Networks	Jason Richards	Vineyard networks discusses DPI solutions at Interop
JDSU	Assaji Aluwihare	JDSU discusses their packetPortal's network intelligence solution at Interop
Panzura	Ranajit Nevatia	Panzura discusses its cloud storage solutions at Interop
Server Technology	Calvin Nicholson	Server Technology discusses its PDU products at Interop
Axis Communications	Steve Surfaro	Axis Communications details it's IP cameras at Interop
ONPATH Technologies	Brian McCann	OnPath Technologies discusses it's network monitoring and testing solutions at Interop
Napatech	Nick Arraje	Napatech discusses 40G network analysis adapter at Interop
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc	Ed Breay	Hitachi ID systems details it's ID management suite at Interop
HotLink	Oded Haner	HotLink describes it's heterogeneous hyper visor management solution at Interop
Dimension Data	Lawrence Van Deusen	Dimension Data describes it's cloud and mobile solutions at Interop
Red Hat	Tom Trainer	Red Hat details gluster powered storage solutions at Interop
McAfee	Dana Torgersen	McAfee details it's network security products at Interop

Is Skype Microsoft's Only Chance for Mobile Success?

2012-04-26T17:33:59Z

If you are looking for increased competition in the mobile space, Apple’s recent and seemingly constant record earnings are bad news. Worse yet for the competition, Apple has transcended its original position of a computer and electronics maker to become a major force in the publicly traded markets and even the US economy. Its phones are status symbols the world over and its tablet is so far ahead of the rest of the market the company can charge hundreds more and consumers will pay for these products with a smile.

So news of Microsoft losing share to in the mobile space should hardly be considered news. In fact even if the company purchased Nokia and RIM the challenge of integration would far outweigh the benefits. Sadly this would be true if both companies were given to Redmond at no charge. How bad is the situation? Well between December 2006 and December 2011 the Microsoft went from having 34% of the US market for smartphones to a paltry 5%! And all this while the smartphone market in the US has been exploding with growth.

Microsoft knows how bad things are. Sadly, they were way ahead in mobile – I used to rely on the HTC/UT Starcom Verizon XV6700 and called it the near-perfect device in March of 2006. It deserved this designation because it was truly a mobile office in your pocket.

I complained at the time that different carriers selling the same device were calling it something else and moreover there was really no branding for the device at all.

I think this phone may have been the last opportunity Microsoft needed to exploit to stay a mobile leader.

Sure, they have the relationship with Nokia but it will be a really tough sell to unseat Apple and Android at this point – unless something dramatic and unforeseen (by others) happens like Android or iOS exhibiting a massive security flaw driving users into the hands of the competition.

But Microsoft still has Skype as its last hope to attain some relevance in the smartphone space. If the software company is serious about the market and we all know they have to be, there will have to be serious handset subsidization. Even then, it is unclear it will be significant player in the market.

But a simple way to subsidize is by bundling Skype credits with phones – there is a huge arbitrage play here between what carriers charge for their voice minute bundles compared to what Skype charges.

To offset some of the cost, Microsoft will have to show ads which could be powered by Bing.

The challenge of course is voice calls are becoming less important each year as consumers use social and text as their preferred method of communications.

But the window is still open for Skype phone which is subsidized heavily – one which consumers would have to consider because the price is so low. Of course the challenge here is carriers like Verizon provide a number of phones for free with a contract such as the LG Enlighten and the Samsung Illusion. So Microsoft would have to potentially give you a free phone as well as unlimited calling or some number of minutes per month, etc. Also this strategy assumes carriers won’t mind Skype becoming the keeper of the carrier relationship. Sure, many wireless providers have partnered with Skype in the past but it is unclear if they are still happy to do so.

In short, Skype may be the last chance for Microsoft to become successful in mobile – and in the US, the subsidized approach to providing phones and service may make it very difficult to find success. Skype integration may be a better option in other countries where devices are generally purchased on their own.

I don’t want to come off as optimistic mind you – this strategy will be expensive and basically bribes consumers to take a product they don’t want. It’s worth pointing out a similar strategy in the past used by Bing to gain share from Google was a failure. But mobile is so important, the company may be forced to give the idea a shot – and if so they better start soon.

Skype may not be the only hope as Microsoft also owns a significant portion of Facebook - tight integration with this social network may be another option for Redmond to attack mobile. But it is unclear that Facebook would be willing to work exclusively or even semi-exclusively with a platform which has limited appeal - unless the price is really right.

Goodbye Android, we hardly Knew You

2012-04-02T20:23:37Z

New research is showing that Android has some real problems. Obviously Google knows this and it’s part of the reason they purchased Motorola and as Henry Blodget points out are opening an online tablet store. David Beckemeyer too weighs in with a chart showing just how dominant Apple is becoming.

But before we get into that I was at my accountant last week and while he was crunching numbers I decided to tell my wife it was time to get my oldest daughter a refurbished laptop because her netbook takes longer to boot than the time it takes for us to assemble all the documents for the IRS. Without skipping a beat the accountant looked up and said, “Why don’t you get her a Macbook?”

Now mind you, I like my accountant and all but I didn’t ask him for his advice and/or perspective. Worse yet, I think I may actually be getting billed for a discussion I didn’t go there to have.

But putting that aside (I really hope he doesn’t read my blog) it shows just how loyal people are to Apple. Again, unsolicited testimonials and suggestions on what to purchase are pretty much the realm of only Apple these days. Eight years ago you would hear similar things about the Blackberry keyboard and fantastic email capabilities but can you imagine anyone telling you to go out and get a Windows laptop? It is just counter to everything we know about consumers and the PC relationship; in fact most relationships with consumers and computer companies are devoid of the passion Apple seems to exude.

Part of the challenge has to do with the ease of use factor – many women I know and men above a certain age seem to hate Android while techies love it. I guarantee that science fiction aficionados (also known affectionately as geeks) strongly gravitate towards Android.

Back to Beckemeyer whose above chart detailing how people access the web shows that for all the talk of Android dominance, in the future we will live increasingly in an Apple-dominated world.

Part of the reason has to do with the fact that iPhones and iPads are still easier to use. I know many people who purchased an Android device because it was all Verizon offered and can’t wait to get an Apple. Moreover, the words of Roger McNamee below seem to be ringing truer by the day:

What if Apple doesn't get 10-15% market-share in tablets but instead 60-70%? Then Apple will be the largest hardware company out there by a mile.

If this trend continues and I am not sure what can stop it, it will be an about-face for how the tech market has traditionally worked. Remember, that with computers and laptops, the PC won the war because the price/performance curve favored open ecosystems where hardware vendors were forced to compete on an open, level playing field. The Macs too in the eighties and much of the nineties weren’t so special from a design perspective so everyone competed to provide the most computing power for the least dollars.

But Apple has turned the computing market into fashion– meaning iPhones are more like personal statements of character than merely consumer electronics. You wonder why Apple doesn’t event show up at the CES show? Well maybe because they consider their products to be fashion statements which just happen to need a power cord.

And even their flaws somehow turn into selling points. Witness Siri, which doesn’t work that well and people love it. Jim Cramer rants about it on CNBC – so much so that I believe they must have optimized it for his voice.

As I have said in the past, Samsung and perhaps Sony are in the best position to put up a fight against Apple in terms of making gadgets which look great. But let’s face it, the clock is ticking and at a certain point, Android will take a back seat to iOS when it comes to competing for developer time and attention. And once that happens it will be very tough for Android to once again gain share.

So yes, the new Google tablet store and coming out with Google branded tablets which are likely to be given away at a loss are the only ways to blunt the iOS onslaught. So it may be a bit premature to declare Android dead but it is clear that Google seems to be panicking.

Disclosure: I own Apple shares.