In what had to be one of the more quiet market entries, I just learned that SAP has officially entered the telco billing sweepstakes with SAP/Telco. My guess is they are going to be doing more than just billing and seeking a greater role in the BSS/OSS... Read more »
Two Must Read Posts From Today
It's great to see those who are really in the know sharing their thoughts. Today, two very insightful posts came up from former clients of mine, David Beckemeyer, co-founder of Earthlink, and Larry Lisser with whom I worked leading up to the exit of Mobivox. David, in his post about the so called myth of Android dominance, basically called bullsh*t on Google in a no holds barred post, which if you know David, you'll understand. It was succinct, correct, fact filled and not long winded. Larry, in his sales strategist style, extolled the virtues of Enterprise Connect, the confernce and... Read more »
Gartner IT Report Tells IT Managers To Get Their Heads In The Clouds
Consumerization of IT (Photo credit: Ross Mayfield) They BYOD (bring your own device) movement is weakening the IT departments ability to manage and if I go Post Hoc Ergo Proctor Hoc (if this, therefore, thenfore that) consumerization of the enterprise (COtE) would be the death star for IT Managers according to Gartner which makes their money mostly from those managers. When reading through today's post by GigaOm's Barb Darrow I also had the feeling that the more BYOD and COtE increases the less reliant anyone becomes on Gartner or other large analysts firms, and the more they become dependent on... Read more »
Cable Operators Are Your Next Telco
Image via CrunchBase Earlier this month Comcast announced their moves into the business and enterprise market with VoIP, all based upon their prior acquisition of NGT and the fact that they have pretty much updated their patchwork network they inherited from their may cable company acquisitions that seemed to be put together with spit, chewing gum and bailing wire in some places. The long time coming, one network architecture doesn't happen overnight, especially when you look at some of the companies they bought along the way and how those cable operators came to be, and where they were. With the... Read more »
Drug Dealing Model Comes to Wireless Data
CLEARWIRE LOGO.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia) NetZero (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Image via CrunchBase Some in marketing call it the razor blade strategy, where you give away the razor and make the customers buy the blades. On a more urban level, the idea is cruder, but every bit as effective. It's called the drug dealer strategy where the first hit is free, then you get hooked on drugs. It's not a tough model to put out in public, and based on the moves that Clearwire is making with FreedomPop and NetZero, we have what is going to be the makings of the... Read more »
We Need More Wired Access
Image via CrunchBase In an Op-Ed type of guest column in Forbes, founder and CEO of Level3 Jim Crowe has called out the FCC, AT&T and Verizon in what could become the firestarter of a battle in Washington, D.C. over wired and wireless access. It's a far reaching but clear "slap in the face" to get a fight going. Basically, Crowe has used the facts that the two large incumbant carriers, AT&T and Verizon, use predatory pricing schemes to provide access to the wired networks as a way to force wireless carriers to be locked into them. Crowe further alleges... Read more »
Skype is Out of Business
Over the last few months, and actually as far back as last year the signs that Skype was getting out of the business market were painfully obvious to many of us long time Skypewatchers. Fist was the discontinuation of Skype for Asterisk. Then was the abrupt departure of David Gurle who had been hired to build out a unified communication business around the P2P technology. There was then the awkwardly handled and recent departures of Christopher Dean, Jason Fischl, Jonathan Christensen and now business markets business development pro Perry Teevens who let the community know he left this week with... Read more »
Why Video is the Next Voice
Pal Jon Arnold has written a killer post about cloud based video, citing the rationale of clients Vidtel and Telesphere and why they have invested in the space, but also going more deeply into why, how come and what will make companies with their video calling heads in the clouds worth something. Jon was very thorough bringing to light all the players in the space but singling out Vidtel and Blue Jeans Network as the leading pure-play video cloud players. Jon's comparison to the ShoreTel purchase of M5 Networks also is right on the mark as it communicates the value... Read more »
Why Video is the Next Voice
Pal Jon Arnold has written a killer post about cloud based video, citing the rationale of clients Vidtel and Telesphere and why they have invested in the space, but also going more deeply into why, how come and what will make companies with their video calling heads in the clouds worth something. Jon was very thorough bringing to light all the players in the space but singling out Vidtel and Blue Jeans Network as the leading pure-play video cloud players. Jon's comparison to the ShoreTel purchase of M5 Networks also is right on the mark as it communicates the value... Read more »
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