Recently in Speech Technologies Category

I just came across this web page with some important details on ITEXPO. I mentioned the keynoters in a recent post and I still think they are one of the best combinations of thought leaders in our space. Google Voice, Sprint, Digium, Polycom, Skype and Verizon Wireless are some of the companies you will hear from at the show.

In addition there are a full eight conference tracks you cannot find anywhere else:

• Business Communications Delivery Options
• Call Center
• Developer
• Enterprise
• HD Voice
• Service Provider
• Unified Communications
• Video Communications
• TMC University Microsoft OCS

As always, we poll the collective minds of the entire TMCeditorial team and industry when we put together the conference program for TMC events and I believe this is a major differentiator. It seems like just yesterday when TMC launched our first telecom event in Atlanta, GA but it was really 1986!

What I have learned in running communications and tech conferences for 20 years is that if you continue to give your customers unsurpassed value, they come back again and again for more conferences and bring others with them.

To all of you who have attended TMC events over the years - thanks.

I really think this next show in Miami - ITEXPO East 2010 will be our best to date and I am looking forward to welcoming you personally.

Here are more details on this can't miss conference.

If you don't think the Google business model of giving away as much as possible and subsidizing it through ad revenue is striking fear in the hearts of the tech world, you would be wrong. Even Steve Jobs seems afraid; you may be surprised to learn that Apple has filed a patent which has to do with showing ads in exchange for free entertainment. The patent specifically has Steve Job's name on it and specifies that users must respond to verify they are paying attention. It moreover details increasing levels of difficulty (a smaller and smaller box to click on, etc) of ad verification for the user, meaning you have an incentive to respond in order to show you are paying attention when you get a prompt to do so. Obviously this patent filing describes a user experiance which is very un-Apple like but perhaps the company realizes as I do that showing ads in exchange for entertainment, software and hardware is the natural conclusion of competition from Google.

Google already gives away gobs and gobs of free hardware in the cloud, why is a smartphone or laptop any different than massive amounts of hard disk space and processor time?

And in this perfect world dominated by ads, every hardware vendor is in trouble as they are effectively competing with free or as some call it, less than free.

If you think this idea is far-fetched, consider that Apple seems to have met with Admob, the mobile advertising leader a few weeks before the company was purchased by Google. Whether it made an offer is unknown but you have to imagine the company realizes, like Microsoft that advertising is playing a crucial role in the way technology is being adopted and Google seems to change the rules of the game on a daily basis.

What is unclear is how any of the players in the market will be able to combat the sheer advertiser ecosystem Google has already developed. This head start does not seem like it can be duplicated but with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer all trying to figure out a way to compete, perhaps we will see more innovation in the ad market in the coming months and years. It makes one wonder if these three may be planning some sort of "we hate Google" ad summit with Rupert Murdoch and other newspaper heads in the near future.

You remember a while back I discussed how the real apple tax is the lack of Flash support from Apple? I further explained how virtually all websites with video have to create duplicate video formats for their content - Flash for most devices and H.264 for iPhones. It gets more complicated for a site like TMCnet which has a Flash-based media player which scrolls through article graphics when you visit the site. These graphics didn't show up at all on the iPhone and if we wanted anyone to see them on the world's fastest-growing smartphone platform we would be forced to reprogram the site.

Check out the red arrow for what I mean

Well we reprogrammed the site using jQuery/JavaScript and this allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to now see the feature graphics of the latest articles as TMC editors and designers intended. If you have any problems seeing the player on any devices/browsers please email our webmaster.

There is a wrinkle - my web team is also building some device-dependent mobile sites and at the moment, these mobile Safari browsers get redirected to a mobile site which is in the process of being  be improved.

To bypass being redirected to our mobile site just go to this URL - www.tmcnet.com/a.htm. The highlighted part is all you really need to remember. If you want the iPhone specific site without graphics and with rapid performance be sure to go to i.tmcnet.com and if you want our site dedicated to iPhone news not the device, go to iphone.tmcnet.com.

We are in the midst of a violent transformation of our communications networks which involves an immense amount of control being wrestled away from carriers and given to developers and end-users. Visit the iTunes App store or check out what is happening with free turn-by-turn GPS on an Android 2.0 device to get an idea of what I mean. The trend is not new by any means; the first time communications systems were allowed to interoperate with computer systems was in the eighties when the first Rockwell Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems started to communicate with IBM mainframes to give us CTI or computer telephony integration. This allowed screen pops which dipped into CRM databases allowing contact center agents to know who was calling and more than likely why. Moore's Law coupled with telephony hooks like TAPI and TSAPI from Microsoft and Novell respectively meant this capability went from costing around a million dollars to tens of thousands of a dollars just a decade later.

Enterprise communications systems have continued to open up and hosted IVR systems, application generators and APIs for DSP resource boards from companies like Dialogic and Aculab allowed greater and greater telephony transformation allowing migration from fixed-function communications systems to more open software-controlled components which could be mixed and matched in a best-of-breed fashion.

The Internet accelerated this trend with its ability to allow cloud-based solutions to be easily accessed and mashups has been a great catalyst - allowing complex data to be represented in new and more interesting ways. Today we can combine the power which we were given by companies like Dialogic and marry them with the cloud and this means anyone can now develop sophisticated applications which leverage all internet and corporate data.

And when you combine open APIs, mashups, communications and social networking in a well thought-out and integrated fashion you are able to provide levels of productivity and customer service heretofore not possible. Any corporate or government process which has friction due to communications delays between people can be lubricated by the effective use of communications technology as it intersects with APIs and rich information sets which can live anywhere.

Perhaps the most respected name in the business of voice mashups is Thomas Howe, CEO, Light and Electric. If you want to know the past, present and future of communications - especially as it pertains to the cloud, you want to speak with Thomas and get his thoughts. If you are a carrier, large enterprise, integrator or government organization, you need to pick his brain to position your organization to take advantage of the ongoing evolution of communications.

Thomas and I have spoken over the past years about how TMC would love to partner to bring his visionary thoughts (all the good stuff locked up in his grey matter) to our audience of millions of global communications and technology decision-makers.

I am happy to announce that at the next ITEXPO which takes place January 20-22, 2010 in Miami, FL you will get a chance to come and hear Thomas speak. In addition you will soon be able to benefit from webinars and screencasts which our companies will jointly participate in.

I hope to see you at the show and as always, at TMC we are looking to provide you with the absolute best information on communications and technology - allowing you to quickly learn whatever you need to further your career and meet your organization's evolving needs.

• See how British Telecom is ahead of the curve as it relates to this transformation and bought Ribbit for over $100 million to make it so.
• Here is a past podcast I had with Thomas Howe for more on his ideas.

Recently I commented about how Verizon's doubling of its early termination fee to $350 makes sense as the company needs to keep investing in ensuring its network is the best in the US. I may be the only person who appreciates having a fee go up as evidenced by the noise from journalists which is not subsiding. One of my favorite writers and video producers, David Pogue of The New York Times comments today that Verizon is gouging and has a plethora of ideas the company can implement to save consumers money.

Pogue has the following and very interesting comment to share:

Why wouldn't it be a hugely profitable move to start pitching yourself as the GOOD cell company, the one that actually LIKES its customers?

Verizon has some of the best customer service in the country. It has the best network by far. Everyone seems to want to switch to Verizon if they were to carry the iPhone for example. This is because the company has made absolutely massive investments where the competition has cut corners on a relative basis.

So perhaps the most succinct question to pose is what is the cost of being on the best network, having the fastest data download speeds and the least dropped calls? For many, there is no price tag too high to pay for these features and parting with an additional $5/month for phantom data charges and even more for high termination fees is fair.

I look at Verizon Wireless like I look at BMW. Both tout relatively low prices to start. But if you purchase a 328i, metallic paint will cost you $550. Cruise control costs $2,400! Navigation (which Google now gives away) is $2,100, and 19" wheels will cost you over $5,000!

If you think BMWs make some of the best cars around, you hold your nose and pay. Ditto for Verizon Wireless.

Verizon has always been the most restrictive carrier around and they locked down Bluetooth on their devices for many years except for pairing with a headset. Likewise, GPS has been locked down on most devices unless you purchased VZ Navigator for a minimum of $9.99/month or $2.99/day.

But as a customer, these annoyances and high fees were balanced by consistent spending of billions of dollars on wireless and now fiber networks.

Users should keep in mind they can always switch to AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint if they think Verizon Wireless service isn't worth the extra money.

In fact the massive defection away from Sprint shows consumers consider more than price when it comes to making phone/network purchase decisions. In fact, I would say from a pricing perspective, Sprint may be the most customer friendly company around. I would posit that if AT&T Mobility didn't have the iPhone, consumers would be fleeing from them as well.

The iPhone threw Verizon for a loop and as predicted it is getting clobbered because it did not have the foresight to work with Apple when it had the chance.

So now, the enemy of its enemy is Google and Verizon is allowing a number of new Android phones on its network. They will get a cut of ad revenue by doing this but they are giving up virtually all services which they used to be able to charge for. Google just gave away turn-by-turn GPS for example meaning Verizon can no longer charge $10/month for the same service.

Moreover, Google will roll out dozens of new services which will be ad supported. Verizon will not be able to launch competing services as we all know a carrier can't compete with a software company.

In a moment, Verizon went from being the most closed network in the US to perhaps the most open and there is a cost associated with this move. Again, this is all pro-consumer behavior.

In fact, it seems at this point Verizon has leapfrogged AT&T in terms of openness. Especially when you consider the restrictive policing of the App Store by Apple/AT&T. Anyone who has seen the rich applications and joyous battery-sucking multitasking available on a jailbroken iPhone understands how users are being penalized by Big Brother Apple/AT&T.

So the full question to those upset with Verizon's fees should be, would you pay more for the best network and the most open ecosystem where you can take advantage of the best applications and service values around without the worry of a nanny telling you what you can and can't do?

The author switched from Verizon to AT&T because he wanted an iPhone. For about a year he carried around a Verizon phone for voice and an AT&T phone for data but that proved cumbersome and now he experiences dropped calls and other network snafus which he didn't deal with on Verizon Wireless. He not so secretly despises the App Store Nanny.

HP is acquiring 3Com for $2.7 billion and there are a number of reasons for this move. First of all, it is obvious the tech market is hot and Cisco and other companies are optimistic about the future as evidenced by the pace of tech acquisitions which is reaching the pace of the glory dotcom days. Moreover, large companies with strong balance sheets are able to access capital if they need it, allowing them to more easily acquire.

3Com for its part is a company with a broad range of networking gear which HP needs to go head-to-head with Cisco. Specifically, 3Com focuses on the SMB space while the TippingPoint division focuses on Security and H3C focuses on large enterprise and is very strong in Asia. I was at 3Com's headquarters about five weeks ago and spoke with Anna Dorcey and John Vincenzo who were very high on the company's future.

You may not know this but 3Com has about 35% marketshare in China and a strong manufacturing base there, meaning their costs are low. Their go to market strategy is customer focus and value. 3Com has been a networking and communications value player for years but at the beginning of the decade, the company left enterprises hanging with a shifting strategy which enraged many resellers and customers.

Over the last few years, the company has improved its management and it seems unclear as why now was the time to sell. Perhaps HP gave an offer which was too good to refuse? Or perhaps company execs realize with the HP brand behind them, the company can raise prices and compete with Cisco and have fatter margins.

The worst part of this deal for Cisco is that we can expect the EDS division of HP to really push 3Com products at the expense of Cisco.

Also, if you are playing chess, you would imagine Dell and IBM are picking up the phone and having conference calls about purchasing Adtran and or Brocade as they are similar in product-line to Cisco and 3Com. Remember Dell just picked up a systems integration firm Perot Systems and the next step for them would be to add more products to their mix.

Other targets with substantial integration value worth watching are Plantronics, Polycom and Avaya.

While I am in the predicting mood, expect Cisco to pick up wireless backhaul vendor DragonWave or Ceragon in the near future as they build out their wireless networking strategy focused on wireless carriers.

But in the end, there are only a handful of tech companies who have shown they can acquire well. Oracle is best, Cisco is second best and IBM is good. HP is also doing pretty well in their area. It is early to predict how Dell will fare.

I am frankly surprised at the absolute pace of M&A activity but I should point out that this is great news for tech and telecom as it is a signal that companies feel confident about the future of the market and the growth in spending they anticipate in the future.

For the record, Google Guide is not a product or service developed by Google. To learn what I believe this service can become, please keep reading.

I spent some time with the new Motorola Droid this weekend and I interviewed customers and employees of the store and came away fairly impressed with what I heard and saw. Certainly my outing at the Verizon store was better than my recent experience checking out the Blackberry Storm 2. The Droid is about the same size and weight of an iPhone but has a full keyboard which slides out from the side of the device. Typing on it was a satisfying experience and although some have complained it is thin and does not provide adequate tactile response, I believe the compromise between size and feedback to be good.

In terms of device speed, the iPhone 3G S and the Droid render web pages about exactly as fast as one another. I tested both using the native 3G networks each device utilizes by browsing numerous Global Online Communities on TMCnet and other websites which are graphically rich. Although the Droid boasts double the number of pixels as the iPhone, in typical web browsing it is difficult if not impossible to see the difference. Perhaps a photo editing program or advanced game would be better able to take advantage of these pixels.

The benefits of Motorola's Droid over the iPhone are that it allows for multitasking, has free turn-by-turn navigation, a full keyboard, has tight integration with Google services and works on the Verizon Wireless network. The downside to the device is it still not as slick or as charming as the iPhone and doesn't sync with iTunes. Its software is more Microsoft-like than Apple. I did however notice that each Android update seems to imitate the iPhone more closely and aside from software patent issues, it seems Google knows it needs to basically duplicate the iPhone experience to make the phone as desirable as Apple's device.

The challenge for Google is the ecosystem issue and whether it can get developers (currently Android has one tenth the number of applications - meaning 10,000 to Apple's 100,000) to take its products seriously enough to program for them. Verizon Wireless staff members told me sales for this device were strong and prospective customers I spoke with seemed very happy. Ironically, I walked to the nearby Apple store and saw less people there than at any time in the past few years. I asked a salesperson if this was normal and he said no, it is light. Certainly my mall visit does not make a trend but nonetheless it is ironic to see light traffic at the Apple store on the day Droids are selling briskly.

Another Android phone came out this past Friday as well, the HTC Droid Eris and it is a pure touchscreen device (no keyboard) with hardware which is inferior to the Motorola device. Sales of this phone were slower than that of its more powerful sibling I was told.

A number of people in the telecom industry who played with the Motorola Droid these past few days told me they weren't so impressed with the device and from a UI perspective this is understandable. The challenge for Google now is to rapidly improve this phone to the point where it is enjoyable to use. Yes, you read that right. People like to pick up the iPhone and they expect to like the way phones work. Even though the Droid hardware is not as slick as the iPhone, we can forgive this transgression because at least it gets the Verizon network. Users however won't forgive a substandard UI and poor hardware. If this thing is supposed to kill the iPhone, it needs to get users to say "wow" when they pick it up. Until I start hearing "wows" I am not declaring it an iPhone killer by any means.

But let's not leave it there as Google has done a masterful job of changing the rules of the game by giving away turn-by-turn GPS and other services such as Gmail. You see, Google is a machine of doling out free services which customers once had to pay for. We can expect Google to compete viciously by providing free service after service which is optimized for mobile devices. Unified communications, Google Wave, Google Voice, etc. The company is uniquely positioned in fact to provide you with a service which uses your browsing habits to determine your local interests. Meaning if you often search for the phone number of a local sushi restaurant, Google can use that information to let you know when you are near other sushi restaurants in unfamiliar areas. Let's call this forthcoming service which for now is imaginary, Google Guide.

Is this a service which may make users switch cell phones? Perhaps, but not immediately. In the mean time, Google will devote its significant resources to filling application holes with its own services in the hopes of developing killer apps which can't easily be duplicated on the iPhone or anywhere else.

We are thrilled to announce a slew of top notch keynoters for the upcoming ITEXPO which takes place in Miami, FL Jan 20-22, 2010. I will share them with you by first explaining why they were invited:

A keynote picture from ITEXPO East 2009 in Miami

Open Source

One of the biggest trends in tech this last decade has been open source and while you may not know this, I was a UNIX (the Linux precursor) system admin at TMC back in 1982 or so and I am a big fan of this OS which is reliable, stable and the strong basis for cost-effective solutions in a number of fields. Without a doubt, Asterisk is the major force in the open-source communications space and as such, Digium's CEO Danny Windham (the company behind Asterisk) was the perfect choice to address the audience of businesses, carriers and resellers. By the way, Digium Asterisk World (DAW) is collocated at this show and I hear it just sold out of exhibit spaces and my team is looking for ways to get the waiting list
of companies into an expanded DAW pavilion on the exhibit hall floor.

Digium Asterisk World Photos from ITEXPO East 2009 this year

Google Voice vs. AT&T

Google Voice has been one of the most disruptive influences in telecom these past years and this service has single-handedly become a point of public argument between the search leader and Apple and AT&T - with the FCC acting as referee of sorts. The argument revolves around net neutrality - the concept that carriers will apply discrimination to traffic on their networks based upon traffic, application type or source. Google obviously wants their services to run on any network in an unencumbered fashion while AT&T has said since 1995 when they were SBC that they want to charge for their pipes. AT&T actually then pointed out to the FCC that Google Voice does not terminate all calls on its free Google Voice service meaning it is not adhering to the principles of net neutrality. The reason of course as Google points out is traffic pumping and bizarre intercarrier compensation rules which allow some rural carriers to charge exorbitant rates for calls terminating in their areas. Craig Walker founded Grand Central, the company purchased by Google and the basis for Google Voice and as the Group Product Manager for the Real Time Communications Group at Google, he was a natural person to invite to speak with us at the show. It seems his accomplishments have unleashed a firestorm of controversy which should hopefully clean up some of the ugly mess that is telecom policy and regulation.

Exhibit hall pictures from ITEXPO East 2009 in Miami

HD Voice/SIP and Video

Another major trend in our markets is that of HD voice, video adoption and of course SIP endpoints. AT ITEXPO last year, we had the first panel in the world focusing on HD voice (video) and since then I am excited to see other conference organizers throwing their hat in the HD ring. A major player in all of the above spaces is Polycom and they have done an amazing job of working with disparate vendors on interoperability issues which has moved the market forward by reducing the friction caused by proprietary endpoints. In the world of video, the company has been a major player - developing telepresence systems all the way down to video phones. To get a bead on where this market is heading we invited Polycom Co-Founder, and the CTO of the Voice Communications Group Jeff Rodman to join us as a keynoter.

HD Voice Panel I moderated from ITEXPO East 2009 in Miami

Skype

No matter how you break out the IP communications market, Skype is likely a factor in changing the market in a pro-consumer manner. By giving away global voice calling with quality which far exceeds the PSTN, they have disrupted while getting users used to better voice quality. On top of that, they give away video calling as well, making them a company which excites consumers and scares carriers and anyone else who dares compete with their network of hundreds of millions of subscribers.

Interview I had with Skype's Ian Robin

Skype has been making a major push into the enterprise and is working on enhancing relationships with carriers as well. They are even looking for channel partners who can share in the newly created revenue streams from a number of products like Skye for SIP. When you take all of this into account, it does make great sense to invite Skype Chief Strategy Officer Christopher Dean to speak, doesn't it?

Smartphones, Wireless and Smart Ecosystems

One of the biggest trends in the world of communications is smart devices and ecosystems. What is an ecosystem you ask? Well it is a group of companies who develop products which work with a product or service offered by a host company or companies. The iTunes App Store may be the best example but certainly Avaya's DevConnect or Cisco's Partner Programs are good examples as well. You may know that TMC has focused a tremendous amount of resources on educating the world on smart ecosystems via our new SPEC site. I truly believe ecosystems have a bright future.

In order to bring attendees up to speed on all these topics we invited two top keynoters to present on the matter. Sprint's Mathew Oommen is the vice president of device and technology development at the company and uniquely positioned to share with us his company's view on the future of wireless technology. Oh and by the way, be sure to check out my recent interview with Sprint's Wayne Ward who heads up the company's M2M activities (did I mention there is a collocated M2M conference at ITEXPO?).

To get a handle on wireless devices as they pertain to ecosystems we invited Brian Higgins the Executive Director for Ecosystem Development within Verizon Wireless to join us so we can learn where the company thinks the market is headed. Verizon has been very ambitious in its goal to develop an ecosystem of products and applications which interoperate in the hope of one-upping the iTunes App Store.

We continue to work to add fantastic new speakers to our roster and you can expect this ITEXPO to be the most comprehensive and educational ever and a must-attend. I personally hope to see you there.

Oh and by the way, we have secured great rates this year at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel - you can save $150/night if you book now - the rate is $249 vs. what is typically a $399 rate at prime season. There are many advantages to staying at the show hotel such as networking, etc - and I have always been a fan of the Loews. In fact I was a guest the first day the hotel opened about ten years ago or so.

I got a tip that Adtran was acquiring Objectworld. My take? Objectworld is a company with great UC technology and no brand recognition. Adtran is a company with a product line similar to Cisco but much smaller. Still, with a market cap of over $1.4 billion, Objectworld can really get a boost from Adtran's access to capital, infrastructure, reseller network, carrier relationships  and improved branding.

Here is a link to a cached page mentioning the acquisition. Keep it tuned to TMCnet and my blog for more.

Just a kid, that's all I was in the early eighties in high school as I took a class in BASIC. I was always fascinated by all things electronic and whether it was video games or advanced scientific calculators, I couldn't get enough. At Westhill high School, they had a Prime minicomputer and it was on this machine where I was instructed how to program. I also had a Commodore 64 at home and with it I wrote my own video games at night and on weekends.

In the early eighties, Route. 128 in Boston was the stuff of legend... It is where all the minicomputer companies lived - Wang, Prime Computer, DEC and many others. Prime was my link to this area and it seems like it was yesterday when I wrote a math quiz program on the schools's minicomputer which I used to better prepare me for the math portion of the SAT. Today, Rt. 128 is a distant second to Silicon Valley in terms of technology and of course all the minicomputer companies missed the PC altogether and are gone.

If you are wondering why Silicon Valley took the lead over Boston, you may want to refer to this article from Vivek Wadhwa which discusses how the Valley follows a more open model where innovation is more readily shared with small companies and moreover spread through job hopping. In addition, he points out a book from AnnaLee Saxenian (which was published in 1994 predicting that Boston would be the loser in the tech race

Here is an excerpt from the article:

She noted that Silicon Valley had an amazing dynamism about it. There were extensive professional networks, job hopping was the norm, information was exchanged openly, and the culture encouraged risk taking. The Silicon Valley ecosystem supported entrepreneurial experimentation and collective learning. In other words, Silicon Valley was a very open network--a giant social networking site working in analog before the concept of such a thing even existed.

This organizational mechanism was in sharp contrast to that of Route 128. Dominated by large, vertically integrated, and secretive minicomputer producers such as DEC, Wang, Prime, and Data General. Technology, skill, and know-how were trapped within the boundaries of the large corporations.

The differences were evident at many levels: venture capitalists in Silicon Valley had deep roots in local networks and were far more nimble than their east coast counterparts; educational institutions and research labs in the West partnered with local startups as well as more established firms, while those in the East worked only with the largest corporations; and the meritocratic openness of Silicon Valley made it a magnet for non-traditional talent and immigrants.

By the mid-1990s the east had missed the shift from minicomputers to personal computers as the flexible Silicon Valley ecosystem sped ahead with innovation across a diversifying range of components and systems going from chips, routers, and application software to ecommerce and search engines. Today Silicon Valley is the leading location for cleantech venture activity, an area widely considered to be the next big value creation engine for the U.S. and the world.

Boston, however, is no slouch. The Route 128 community remains the second biggest in the U.S. in terms of venture funds committed. Boston has powerful research institutions, still, and lots of very strong companies. In some areas, such as biotech, Boston may even rival Silicon Valley. But overall, its pretty clear that the Valley has not only won but is racing further ahead.

Most entrepreneurs and engineers that come to Silicon Valley, come to experience this network and to embrace the culture it has created. That's why I came, too. Network effects don't just work for fax machines. But then again, most of them knew that intrinsically. University guys like me need to do a bunch of surveys to figure it out. They voted with their hearts and feet.

At this point the game is even tougher to win if you aren't in Silicon Valley due to the propensity for exit strategies to present themselves more readily where the acquirers are. Yahoo, Google, Cisco and Oracle are just a few of the companies responsible for billions of dollars worth of M&A dollars. And as this these companies have grown, they  have made so many millionaires that they in turn go out and launch new companies and/or invest in others which are nearby.

If you are looking for a lesson here it is that a company which mirrors Silicon Valley and is more open, flexible and shares information more readily will likely always beat the company which is inflexible and contains many silos.