CONVERGENCE. OF WHAT AND FOR WHOM?
There are a million ways in which the word "Convergence" is explained in the IP Comms industry. Wikipedia has the following to say: The term convergence is commonly used in reference to the synergistic combination of voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video onto a single network. These previously separate technologies are now able to share resources and interact with each other creating new efficiencies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_convergence
Great! More technologies merge to make more complex technologies. Where's the end user in this definition?
There is not one "Convergence". It's multiple trends happening at the same time, devices, networks, industries, user behaviour and expectations. I can come up with one definition that encompasses all of the above, but maybe you can give me a hand and tell your definition, so leave a comment. I'll publish mine later.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
MOBILE BROADBAND
I'm sitting at yet another airport and being frustrated yet again with trying to connect over Wifi. Thank god Mobile Broadband is growing at 100% per year, so that in the future, we don't have to worry about connecting to Wifi, and paying seperately. That's again one of the grat things about user experience, I'm sure people will use their Internet connections on their laptops more often if you wouldn't have to set up the whole Wifi connection, but just get charged on your mobile. I'm also quite sure it will be cheaper to use HSPA in the long run. At least when I am using Wifi that I pay for, I use it to receive anbd send my emails that I wrote on the plane, which means I only need a few minutes of Wifi but I'm paying for an hour.
I think most people were thinking the same about HSPA: just another minor upgrade but in fact, it is revolutionizing the industry as mobile operators can now offer broadband that was traditionally only available to adsl users.
Talking about mobile broadband, I just got back from Asia where HSPA is available everywhere (in the big cities but even on the countryside as well in some countries). Some of the operators are heavily competing with Wifi and fixed line providers. All of a sudden, your mobile-only operator can offer broadband everywhere, and bypassing your fixed line provider. This is great for competition, and also great for convergence as we will see a lot more converged services: fixed line operators going for wireless services and mobile operators going for broadband services. This is good, not only for my employer, but also for me, as I strongly believe in convergence. Next step: making it easier and richer to use...
I'm sitting at yet another airport and being frustrated yet again with trying to connect over Wifi. Thank god Mobile Broadband is growing at 100% per year, so that in the future, we don't have to worry about connecting to Wifi, and paying seperately. That's again one of the grat things about user experience, I'm sure people will use their Internet connections on their laptops more often if you wouldn't have to set up the whole Wifi connection, but just get charged on your mobile. I'm also quite sure it will be cheaper to use HSPA in the long run. At least when I am using Wifi that I pay for, I use it to receive anbd send my emails that I wrote on the plane, which means I only need a few minutes of Wifi but I'm paying for an hour.
I think most people were thinking the same about HSPA: just another minor upgrade but in fact, it is revolutionizing the industry as mobile operators can now offer broadband that was traditionally only available to adsl users.
Talking about mobile broadband, I just got back from Asia where HSPA is available everywhere (in the big cities but even on the countryside as well in some countries). Some of the operators are heavily competing with Wifi and fixed line providers. All of a sudden, your mobile-only operator can offer broadband everywhere, and bypassing your fixed line provider. This is great for competition, and also great for convergence as we will see a lot more converged services: fixed line operators going for wireless services and mobile operators going for broadband services. This is good, not only for my employer, but also for me, as I strongly believe in convergence. Next step: making it easier and richer to use...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
TO CONNECT OR NOT TO INTERCONNECT
Alec left a comment to one of my earlier posts regarding connectivity, and if your friend is on MSN and I'm on Yahoo, I can probably still not chat (I know there is an agreement between them but I have not seen it working yet).
Anyway, everyone is always trying to make a point that standards based IM is still not good enough as there are still issues that if one operator uses this standard and another uses another, the issues are obvious. Less users means less network effect which in terms leads to a downward spiral.
However, why does this issue not occur in the mobile world. When I make a phone call from GSM to a CDMA subscriber, the call gets routed nicely and I can definitely make the call. Why then do operators not spend more time in ensuring all their services are more interoperable. I guess it's about ROI, is the cost of making it interoperable is higher than the gains of having the interoperability. After all, voice services are about 80-90% of a mobile operator's revenue so there is lots to gain.
Enters IP, where in essence no operator has an advantage in the long run and there is no hiding from it either. Why then, do operators not see the potential damage they can do to their business, by not ensuring there is full interoperability on an IP level, but even more important, on a service level? Maybe they are in the wait-and-see mode, and lobbying enough to the FCC and praying Google does not get a license but someday they will, and others as well and all of a sudden an operator faces competition from all sides.
My conclusion, ensuring interoperabilty is a competitive advantage in the long term and operators should focus more on this in order to prevent others from eating their lunch.
Alec left a comment to one of my earlier posts regarding connectivity, and if your friend is on MSN and I'm on Yahoo, I can probably still not chat (I know there is an agreement between them but I have not seen it working yet).
Anyway, everyone is always trying to make a point that standards based IM is still not good enough as there are still issues that if one operator uses this standard and another uses another, the issues are obvious. Less users means less network effect which in terms leads to a downward spiral.
However, why does this issue not occur in the mobile world. When I make a phone call from GSM to a CDMA subscriber, the call gets routed nicely and I can definitely make the call. Why then do operators not spend more time in ensuring all their services are more interoperable. I guess it's about ROI, is the cost of making it interoperable is higher than the gains of having the interoperability. After all, voice services are about 80-90% of a mobile operator's revenue so there is lots to gain.
Enters IP, where in essence no operator has an advantage in the long run and there is no hiding from it either. Why then, do operators not see the potential damage they can do to their business, by not ensuring there is full interoperability on an IP level, but even more important, on a service level? Maybe they are in the wait-and-see mode, and lobbying enough to the FCC and praying Google does not get a license but someday they will, and others as well and all of a sudden an operator faces competition from all sides.
My conclusion, ensuring interoperabilty is a competitive advantage in the long term and operators should focus more on this in order to prevent others from eating their lunch.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
TAIWAN ON THE MOBILE MAP
Hi. Just arrived to Taiwan yesterday and the first thing I did was to open my mobile (yes, I am one of the civilised people that do it after customs) and immediately my new N95 found that I was in Taiwan (not a surprise as it's a global "standard for the US military") but the best thing ever was that the N95 immediately downloaded the map of Taipei and my immediate surrounding area so I was up and running in a few seconds. Amazing. This is one of the few times I was postitively surprised.
I read an article the other day that x percent of mobile phones will carry GPS chips in the near future ("near future" always stays undefined...). If they all would work as good as the N95 (ok the GPS chip itself is supposed to be quite bad in picking up the signal, but the usablity and whole end user experience was great!), this will kill TOM TOM and the likes big time!
Normally I try to look for improvements in technology but this one is done right! Well done Nokia in buying that German map software company and making it consumer friendly, even without a car! Maybe that German company had a high price, as the N95 price is .... let's say.... rather on the high end of your wallet.
Victor
Hi. Just arrived to Taiwan yesterday and the first thing I did was to open my mobile (yes, I am one of the civilised people that do it after customs) and immediately my new N95 found that I was in Taiwan (not a surprise as it's a global "standard for the US military") but the best thing ever was that the N95 immediately downloaded the map of Taipei and my immediate surrounding area so I was up and running in a few seconds. Amazing. This is one of the few times I was postitively surprised.
I read an article the other day that x percent of mobile phones will carry GPS chips in the near future ("near future" always stays undefined...). If they all would work as good as the N95 (ok the GPS chip itself is supposed to be quite bad in picking up the signal, but the usablity and whole end user experience was great!), this will kill TOM TOM and the likes big time!
Normally I try to look for improvements in technology but this one is done right! Well done Nokia in buying that German map software company and making it consumer friendly, even without a car! Maybe that German company had a high price, as the N95 price is .... let's say.... rather on the high end of your wallet.
Victor
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Widget mania
Not directly related to IP Communications but the recent hype of widgets deserves some attention. Widgets are now available for Mobile and PC, and are becoming truly "converged" services. Although the technology of mobile and PC widgets differ (Widsets for example is based on J2ME and not the typical AJAX you would expect), as long as they provide a nice user experience that's great. And I have to say, Widsets is great (check it out!).
One thing that struck me with Widsets is that it was extremely straight forward to get everything up and running. Probably the easiest setup of a rather complex process ever! I showed it around in the office and it was spreading like fire :-)
Anyway, I have two concerns/challenges/opportunities: 1) Widgets are supposed to make your life easier/better to manage but it feels there are almost as many widgets to choose from as surfing to each news site directly, and 2) How do I share widgets, and more importantly, the information in it with my friends?
//v
Not directly related to IP Communications but the recent hype of widgets deserves some attention. Widgets are now available for Mobile and PC, and are becoming truly "converged" services. Although the technology of mobile and PC widgets differ (Widsets for example is based on J2ME and not the typical AJAX you would expect), as long as they provide a nice user experience that's great. And I have to say, Widsets is great (check it out!).
One thing that struck me with Widsets is that it was extremely straight forward to get everything up and running. Probably the easiest setup of a rather complex process ever! I showed it around in the office and it was spreading like fire :-)
Anyway, I have two concerns/challenges/opportunities: 1) Widgets are supposed to make your life easier/better to manage but it feels there are almost as many widgets to choose from as surfing to each news site directly, and 2) How do I share widgets, and more importantly, the information in it with my friends?
//v
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Whole Product
I am at an airport in Europe (as usual) and it seems my office starts to look a lot like it has 4 exit windows, a lavatory in the back and front etc...Anyway, since I'm traveling much, I have a lot of communication needs in between flights. It's easy to take a laptop with you, but it's not easy to sit down, open your laptop, configure the wifi, pay etc.
The convenience of use is one critical issue with IP Communications. Obvisouly, it's now easy to make phone calls from your PC. However, you don't want all other passengers to hear about this, and you really don't want to look too much like a geek and wear a wired headset (yes in the office it looks good because your boss thinks you are working). Therefore, I carry a Bluetooth headset and a Bluetooth conferencing unit.
Now with my business background, I have always learned to think about the Whole product and not just about the product. So obviously we want to make sure that in our IP Communciations clients, we can connect seamlessly to these peripheral devices so I can make VoIP calls easy. Obviously, the Bluetooth people and hardware manufacturers do NOT think of making this easy.
I had to manually download and pay for Bluetooth software that allowed me to operate my laptop in Headset profile......ok.....
Then you are limited by having one device connected at the same time. This is an extremely STUPID design from the Bluetooth people, as obvisouly I want to make my communication needs easy, and use the Headset for my PC and Mobile at the same time. Obvisouly, they did not think of this, and once again this limits users' communication capabilities, revenue for the operators, and a bad user experience.
It's about the WHOLE product guys....
I am at an airport in Europe (as usual) and it seems my office starts to look a lot like it has 4 exit windows, a lavatory in the back and front etc...Anyway, since I'm traveling much, I have a lot of communication needs in between flights. It's easy to take a laptop with you, but it's not easy to sit down, open your laptop, configure the wifi, pay etc.
The convenience of use is one critical issue with IP Communications. Obvisouly, it's now easy to make phone calls from your PC. However, you don't want all other passengers to hear about this, and you really don't want to look too much like a geek and wear a wired headset (yes in the office it looks good because your boss thinks you are working). Therefore, I carry a Bluetooth headset and a Bluetooth conferencing unit.
Now with my business background, I have always learned to think about the Whole product and not just about the product. So obviously we want to make sure that in our IP Communciations clients, we can connect seamlessly to these peripheral devices so I can make VoIP calls easy. Obviously, the Bluetooth people and hardware manufacturers do NOT think of making this easy.
I had to manually download and pay for Bluetooth software that allowed me to operate my laptop in Headset profile......ok.....
Then you are limited by having one device connected at the same time. This is an extremely STUPID design from the Bluetooth people, as obvisouly I want to make my communication needs easy, and use the Headset for my PC and Mobile at the same time. Obvisouly, they did not think of this, and once again this limits users' communication capabilities, revenue for the operators, and a bad user experience.
It's about the WHOLE product guys....
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
To Google or not to Google
Google has done it again! This time closer to my heart and passion regarding the End User Experience to combine Communication, Content and Information. The new Personalisable Google website that was launched yesterday allows users to Fully personalise the Googglefront page. Ths is nothing new.
However, the user can add all kinds of "widgets", or "gadgets" to the main Google page such as news, weather, time, calendar, Youtube feeds etc, and can move these freely (I assume based on Ajax technology) around on the page. Even drag and drop a widget from one tab to another is possible, how cool is that (I admit this is a feature with high nerdish level but still, as a user I was happy it was possible and dit not get an error popup...).
This combination of Communication, Content and Information is really happening everywhere (as we agave already been saying this for a while but no one believed us, especially the more traditional oriented Telecom providers that believe the world still goes 1/4 of the regular speed :-).) Look at Joost, it offers IPTV. And in addition o- so- cool transparent widgets with IM, News etc.
Now wouldn't it be nice if the same comes seamlessly to all your devices....
My Final meesage to the "traditional telecom providers: WAKE UP! INTERNET IS HERE GOING AT 4 TIMES THE SPEED OF "REGULAR TIME". USERS DEMAND AN ENHANCED USER EXPERIENCE BEYONG BASIC COMMUNICATION! GOT IT :-)?
Google has done it again! This time closer to my heart and passion regarding the End User Experience to combine Communication, Content and Information. The new Personalisable Google website that was launched yesterday allows users to Fully personalise the Googglefront page. Ths is nothing new.
However, the user can add all kinds of "widgets", or "gadgets" to the main Google page such as news, weather, time, calendar, Youtube feeds etc, and can move these freely (I assume based on Ajax technology) around on the page. Even drag and drop a widget from one tab to another is possible, how cool is that (I admit this is a feature with high nerdish level but still, as a user I was happy it was possible and dit not get an error popup...).
This combination of Communication, Content and Information is really happening everywhere (as we agave already been saying this for a while but no one believed us, especially the more traditional oriented Telecom providers that believe the world still goes 1/4 of the regular speed :-).) Look at Joost, it offers IPTV. And in addition o- so- cool transparent widgets with IM, News etc.
Now wouldn't it be nice if the same comes seamlessly to all your devices....
My Final meesage to the "traditional telecom providers: WAKE UP! INTERNET IS HERE GOING AT 4 TIMES THE SPEED OF "REGULAR TIME". USERS DEMAND AN ENHANCED USER EXPERIENCE BEYONG BASIC COMMUNICATION! GOT IT :-)?
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