Skype a success? Define success.

by Ted on May 7th, 2008

Alec did an interesting post about the coming-of-age of his Voice 2.0 Manifesto. But in the first paragraph, he says something I have to take issue with:

I wish them luck, if so. If there’s anything that the last 4 years have shown, it’s that it’s hard to build a PC based soft phone. Skype is really the only company that has made a success of it, and it’s only in the last 12 months that sound quality has reached acceptable levels.

Skype a success? Sound-quality may’ve improved, but as a business, Skype is anything but successful. Several things worked against Skype’s success over the last several years–and the majority of them are merely tactical shortcomings on the part of Skype’s management:

• Relying too heavily on viral marketing rather than traditional brand awareness and even TOMA.
• Not distributing prepaid calling-cards to retail a la iTunes store cards. Heck I can buy these in my grocery store. Imagine if the same convenience were afforded to would-be Skype customers. Sure, credits are prepaid, but selling them in traditional retail reinforces the Skype brand and would’ve created an uptick in adoption to people my age (31) and older.
• No SIP. Makes the Skype network unattractive to businesses. Look, I’m not asking Skype to put SIP in the client, but SIP would be a great value-add to the SkypeOut/SkypeIn gateways around the world, especially when you consider the energy behind SIP-based products like Microsoft’s Office Communications Server.
• Not integrating with eBay the way everybody wanted. Let’s face it–that was the only real tangible opportunity hidden in the multi-million-dollar Skype buyout, and the company dropped the ball. Years have passed and I still don’t have the option to click-to-call an eBay seller. Moreover, it was Google who beat eBay to the punch by putting click-to-call in their own AdWords ads.
• Not offering client access using familiar technologies so people could expand the base platform. I mean, come on. VBScript, JavaScript, even Applescript. Where’s the client-side support that makes this thing accessible to mere mortals?
• Call-recording.
• Some kind of social network integration from the Skype client. Facebook status. MySpace status. Profile links in the buddy browser or better yet, a profile browser like Spyder build into the client. Yes, I know this is outside the bounds of Skype’s core functionality, but remember, we’re talking about the reasons they failed to receive mass adoption.
• Free-calling-in-exchange for ringbacks with advertising in them. Skype alone was/is in a position to succeed with this model.

MS and Apple trade cash positions–here’s why

by Ted on May 5th, 2008

Apple is not the startup eater that Microsoft is. Nor is it the wontonly-investing-into-ill-fated-projects type of company it used to be (and Microsoft remains).  When things change at Apple–like the introduction of new projects and initiatives, the world stands alert and gets excited.

Why? Because Apple, while breaking new ground at what often seems to be a snail’s pace–that is, folks always talk about things they wish Apple would do but Apple never does–Apple has identified sharply-defined, effective market verticals to embrace while stockpiling tons and tons of cash.

Microsoft once had 64 billion (with a b) in the bank. Today, they have 25 million (with an m). Meanwhile, Apple’s billions grow.

So, for Apple shareholders, the question is whether to be happy with the cash position or to begin wondering what their investment is going to DO with all that cash.  I mean, does Apple start taking bigger risks now? Or are things like a video-game console or a car-puter still too risky for Mr. Jobs?  Yet the paths to these ends are obvious.

The iPod Touch is already the basis of a car-puter. All it takes to complete that puzzle is GPS hardware.
And the Apple TV, for all its simpleness, already has graphics, storage, and memory horsepower to compete with the PS3, Wii, and Xbox. So could Apple do these things, with all the cash they have? Sure.

But will they?

Part of the reason Microsoft is where they are today is their history of arrogant rampantness. Yeah, we can dominate any vertical, right?  Not so, apparently. The Xbox isn’t the cash cow MS would’ve liked. Neither, then, is Windows Mobile. For that matter, neither is the Mac Business Unit.  But Microsoft dived right into these things believing that only dominance across the board would guarantee survival in the long term.

It turns out that you only need to dominate a few things–like music distribution–to survive, and, in Apple’s case, to flourish.  It’s still better to innovate than absorb, and creative thinking beats strategic thinking.  This is how Apple is beating Goliath: instead of fighting the battles Microsoft picked, they’ve created their own battlefield, and its name begins with a lower-case “i”.

VoIP-rich infrastructure holders find a way to survive: go wholesale

by Ted on April 30th, 2008

Offering consumers a free calling plan on their computer or on their house phone is no way to make money, as exhibited by the likes of Skype, Jajah, and others. Heck charging for minutes delivered by VoIP is a tough business proposition when your primary target is end-consumers. But Jajah’s recent deal with Yahoo is about combining their relative strengths so that both can use VoIP to produce something of value.

Yahoo is good at content federation and advertising, while Jajah is good at switching VoIP packets. The result? Both have a better shot at actually turning a profit.

Alec’s advice to would-be Open Voice devs: be careful

by Ted on April 30th, 2008

After AOL waffled and eventually backtracked from their AIM VoIP platform, Iotum and other developers were really hung out to dry. Alec Saunders tells the tale on his blog, and offers a word of caution about AOL’s new Open Voice initiative. In a nutshell, Alec is saying don’t believe the hype.

Wordpress 2.5 Initial Thoughts: I’m Digging It

by Ted on April 30th, 2008

Whenever somebody asks what they should use to publish a web site, I adapt the slogan, “I’m thinking Arby’s” around my favorite web publishing system, Wordpress, and I say, “I’m thinking Wordpress.”

2.5 is worlds better than previous iterations. Tags (which appeared in 2.3 along with a category to tag converter) are helpful, and the new administrative GUI is clean and 2.0-ish (it took them to 2.5 to get there though.)

The media browser is also much, much better.

Sightspeed Lite Widget for MySpace

by Ted on April 30th, 2008

Probably the first prominent A/V communications add-on for MySpace (and maybe the only significant MySpace “App” to date), Sightspeed is now offering a videoconferencing plugin that you can park in your MySpace page. Due to MySpace’s ColdFusion-polluted legacy-paralyzed architecture, however, you won’t be able to control WHERE it appears on your page. Check it out here.

IfByPhone on the Facebook wagon

by Ted on April 30th, 2008

I have been wanting to try this–as well as Sightspeed’s MySpace plugin.

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CHICAGO, April 29, 2008—Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, today announced a new Facebook application called Phone-Me-Now that enables users to place free calls from their friends’ Facebook profile pages, without revealing either party’s caller ID.

Facebook users can register for a free Phone-Me-Now account within their Facebook profile. Their Facebook friends can then contact them by setting up a two-person conference call—with the click of a button.

To place a call, a friend visits the Facebook profile of the Phone-Me-Now user with whom he or she wishes to speak, provides the number of the phone they want to use during the call and hits “click to call.” Then Ifbyphone rings both telephones, blocks the caller IDs and conferences the two callers together.

The application enables Facebook members to have personal conversations with other members while still keeping their phone numbers private. Users are also able to review the Facebook names of the last 10 callers and block specific callers.

“Even In this age of online social networking, there are times when only a real-time personal phone call can convey the right message between two people,” said Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone CEO. “Phone-Me-Now makes it easy to connect privately with a friend by phone, without automatically divulging personal contact details the way caller ID does, and without leaving Facebook to make the call.”

The Phone-Me-Now application widget is a phone mashup that takes advantage of powerful Ifbyphone technology to enable all types of phones—whether mobile, VoIP or even old rotary handsets—to connect via the Web. Ifbyphone mashups enable inbound, outbound and click-to-call telephone applications with integrated interactive voice response dialogs.

Phone-Me-Now is an extension of Ifbyphone’s “voice of the Web” services that give small and medium-sized businesses enterprise-level presence on the Web for a fraction of the cost, through click-to-call, toll-free number, voice mail and other communications tools.

The first 1,000 Facebook users who sign up will receive free Phone-Me-Now accounts and 100 minutes per month of calling time to U.S. phone numbers. These free accounts expire in six months. Standard Ifbyphone subscriptions start at $14.95 per month.

The widget is available under Applications at Facebook.com by searching under “Phone-Me-Now” or through the following link: http://apps.facebook.com/phonemenow/.

The Phoenix rises from the ashes

by Ted on April 29th, 2008

Dude, all I’ve got to say is MySQL 5.0.51 has issues. And apparently so does Wordpress 2.0.1. A confluence of issues has had my blog down for the last few weeks. But we’re all up to speed now. Expect more in the coming weeks. Oh, and for those of you who noticed, yes I lost about 1.5 months worth of posts.