As one of the first general posts regarding my personal opinions on IP Communications, perhaps it is good to start in general terms regarding the IT industry. For this reason, I go back to my Master's Thesis (feels like ages ago) in which I layed down a framework for the differences in services as part of the "whole product" during the technology adoption life cycle (the well-known bell-shaped curve). While writing the thesis, I "google'd" a picture that I still use in many of my presentations, and I believe every company should look at before starting R&D or bring a new technology product on the market. It strikes me how companies can put immature technologies, and market these as products to the market. Judging from the picture on the right, this is doomed to fail.

Technology for the sake of technology is as useful as....well....nothing. Whereas we Europeans love technology for th sake of technology, and are willing to accept trying 5 times to make a product work, Americans have the opposite. While sitting in a plane to the US the other day, I was reading this in-flight infamous Sky Mall magzine (for those of you who don't know it's a pretty thick magazine in which you can buy the strangest things such as a ramp for your dog so it can get in the car easily, or a personal dry cleaning system that takes about 100 square feeet of space). However, what strikes me is that, even though there is a lot of technology products in that magazine, they start (and also market this) with what really matter "THE USER AND HIS NEED".

I can write books full of examples but I think this does not have to be explained. In Europe I get offered "ADSL with a 2 MB connection", while in the USA, I get offered "fast email, downloads and no more waiting for streaming video".

I think the world would be a better place if every company and individual looks at the picture above before diving into creating somethign new. "It's the user that matters and his need, stupid"....