Posts Tagged ‘google’

Guest post: The bright future of phones

This guest post is by John Stepp, President of Free Tech Consultants. It’s typed entirely on his Nexus One. Just kidding (but he could’ve).

I know that many are saying that the phone is dead, at least the desktop and landline phone.  If that is the case then why is the mobile world so utterly controlled by the phone?  First people were going crazy to get their hands on the iPhone 4, now many are incensed to find that it has a flaw.  Nobody seems to care much about the revelation that every single iPhone ever shipped has been exaggerating the signal strength of the carrier, AT&T.  No, it is all about the phone.  It is all about the user interface and the user experience.  I understand.  I feel the same way.

When my Nexus One was not perfect and needed to be repaired because of a hardware issue, I had the option of returning it.  Although having calls dropped and having slow data speed was frustrating, I finally decided to just get it fixed.  Just like the Apple iPhone users, I was too enamored with the phone to give it up.  Now that it has the Android 2.2 software on it, the phone is better.  Sure, there is still a dropped call from time to time, but the user interface is great and the data speeds are fast.  Even as the Nexus One is discontinued, CNET tests show that the Nexus One on T-Mobile has data speeds equal or superior to the newer phones.  Whoopi Goldberg was so disgusted with her iPhone 4, she ran over it with her car, but then she went and bought an Apple 3G instead of going to a competitor. The similarity between the Android and Apple infatuation is the great application suites that come with these phones.  From the stunning displays, to the audio/optical communications tools to the immediate access to information, there is much to like.

Gartner recently said that smartphone sales were up almost 50% year over year. And the latest information from ChangeWave Research shows that the next ninety days will have the most explosive growth in smart phones ever with Apple and HTC (Android) leading the way.  However, Research in Motion, the BlackBerry maker favored by most businesses will see its’ market share erode further.  Why are phones that businesses favor in a funk while consumer phones are in such demand that there are now four week backlogs for all the favorites?  The user interface, the phone itself is driving demand and driving change.  E-mail delivery and simple conversations are not enough anymore.  We want pictures, video, social media and immediate access to information.

Businesses will be adapting to this changing landscape on mobility and on the desktop.  Productivity in the workplace will accelerate when the devices employees use in business match that of the devices used in people’s personal lives.  The business telephone and video manufacturers are providing easy to use high value applications for their user interfaces be they computers, netbooks, display phones or video portals.  The future is bright for the companies that decide that the phone (user interface) is everything.  The businesses involved in bringing these “smart” business communications devices to market will grow quickly and sooner than many predict.  And the improved productivity will help businesses grow faster as well, just like the digital revolution did in the nineties.  The phone may morph into many different types of devices, but the future of the phone is as bright as the new displays on the smartphones.

Ribbit finally shows up in BT business offering

BT spent $105 million a couple of years ago to scoop up Ribbit, back then when Internet call management was just appearing on the radar. It was a move that put BT in the pool of a Big Telecom vendor who understood the power of Internet telephony.

But after the high-profile acquisition, we just didn’t hear about Ribbit much. Rumors started swirling around about the buy — did BT make a mistake? Paid too much? Did it really understand Ribbit?

Wander no more. BT will roll Ribbit into its Onevoice business product as a beta product and hope to launch it by the end of 2010:

Ribbit provides not only a single number for incoming and outgoing calls, integrating with existing VoIP services where necessary, but also an open API. This allows companies to create their own applications for integrating with those cloud-based systems that are so popular these days.

BT also reckons companies can save a fortune by routing calls over VoIP connections when out of the office, and get access to the full exchange functionality too. So no excuses remain for failing to dial into the conference call while travelling.

Ribbit also integrates with mobiles, offering custom applications for the iPhone, among others, and is capable of integrating with any network and handling incoming and outgoing calls on any handset (using call forwarding).

Sounds like a pretty good voice product for business. Google has also mentioned previously about offering Google Voice for businesses, so let’s see which offering captures the fancy of business customers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• BT trials corporate ‘Skype’ (computing.co.uk)
• BT integrates Ribbit technology with Onevoice (newstatesman.com)

Google eyes Skype’s pie, Skype hires pie guardians

The Big G is serious about IP communications, as in both voice and video. Remember when Gtalk was introduced? Yeah, me either. The Google faithful saw the late birth of Gtalk, went meh, then continued their IMs on AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. Google may be the King of Search, but it finally admitted defeat to the Lord of IM when it integrated AIM into Gtalk. Then Gtalk evolved into Google Chat with audio and video capabilities (thanks to stealthy Vidyo technology).

Last year it acquired Gizmo5 to get nice VOIP software on the Web, desktop, and mobile devices. I’m quite a fan of Gizmo5. Paired with Google Voice (let’s not forget its acquisition of GrandCentral, another major purchase in the communications space), I can make unlimited free VOIP calls.

On Tuesday we learned that the Big G just got bigger by gobbling up Global IP Solutions (aka GIPS) for $68 million in cash. Certainly not pocket change, but I think it’s worth every penny considering GIPS supplies the technologies to an impressive list of customers.

Hmmm, is there any doubt what Google is up to? GrandCentral + Gizmo5 + GIPS = ??? I know what you’re thinking: Google likes to buy companies that start with the letter ‘G’. Okay, wait, don’t get distracted by Google’s G-fetish…

…The word out on the streets is that Big G is ready to challenge Skype. The folks over at Skype must’ve sensed something wasn’t quite right because about the same time as the Google-GIPS news broke, Skype released news of two executive appointments — a Chief Legal Officer and a Chief Marketing Officer.

Coincidence? I think not!

Skype has become quite a force to be reckoned with in both the traditional telecom and IP communications markets. Geeks use it, traveling businessmen use it, grandmas use it, relief workers use it, journalists use it, dictators use it, and it wouldn’t be long before your dog starts using it too.

But I believe Google has a much bigger appetite than to just eat from Skype’s pie. Google has hinted previously to include Voice and Chat into its business offering, so with GIPS in its arsenal it can really make a splash in the B2B market. It’s not just Skype, but a couple of other West Coast goliaths, namely Cisco and Microsoft. The Big G has made Web search as simple as it is ubiquitous. Now it’s time for videoconferencing services.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is Google Building a Skype Competitor? (mashable.com)
• Google Buys VOIP Service That Powers Some Yahoo, AOL Offerings (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Google’s VOIP buying spree continues with Global IP Solutions offer (engadget.com)

Google looks to invade enterprise UC and online collaboration markets

Companies like Cisco, Avaya, IBM, etc. should take note: Google Enterprise President David Girouard told eWEEK that his company is readying Google Voice and Google Wave for its enterprise Apps suite. When Voice and Wave gets to be part of cloud-based Apps, the customer essentially gets a complete enterprise solution around unified communications and real-time collaboration, in addition to the usual front office applications. Add on the advancing development of its Chrome browser, then Google is destined to engineer a tightly integrated, highly user-friendly solution for the enterprise:

Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard said the company will release a version of Google Voice for businesses, roll out Google Wave to all users who want it and deliver as many as 200 small features to Google Apps in 2010.

Google Apps is a suite of Web-based collaboration applications Google hosts on its servers and provisions to users for free and in a premier edition for $50 per user per year. More than 2 million business customers use the suite of hosted Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sites and other apps.

Google expects to redouble its efforts to combat Microsoft and IBM, whose on-premises collaboration software sit on the servers of hundreds of millions of enterprise customers. Microsoft and IBM moved aggressively against Google Apps in 2009 by rolling out their own collaboration apps that leverage the Web-based cloud computing model.

Girouard told eWEEK that his team added 100 discrete features to the Google Apps suite in 2009, and he expects this number to double in 2010, noting, “There will be a steady stream of new capabilities brought to the cloud.”

At a cost of $50 per user per year for the premier version.

How much money does a customer spend to deploy say, Microsoft OCS and SharePoint or IBM Lotus? Today the Google brand is gaining momentum in business, whereas decades ago nobody would dare suggest using an Internet company to power enterprise applications. Back then the sure bet was recommending someone like IBM or Microsoft. Times have changed and with the customer demanding more bang for the buck, cloud-centric products are receiving more attention than ever. That’s the sweet spot for Google.

It may still be a while for Google to catch up to established competitors in the UC and collaboration space, but the company is certain to shake things up by incorporating Voice and Wave into its Apps offering.

A beautiful thing: new Google Voice web app for iPhone

I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon to find out that Google Voice has a brand new web app for the iPhone, and it is a beautiful thing.

Kudos to Google engineers for making such a great looking and usable web app with HTML5:

Today, we’re excited to introduce the Google Voice web app for the iPhone and Palm WebOS devices. This HTML5 application provides you with a fast and versatile mobile experience for Google Voice because it uses the latest advancements in web technologies. For example, AppCache lets you interact with web apps without a network connection and local databases allow you to store data locally on the device, so you don’t lose data even when you close the browser.

It took a while, but I’m glad I didn’t go the jailbreak route just to get a third party native Google Voice app on my iPhone. This web app is very close to the performance and features of a native app.

Are you also a Google Voice user, be it iPhone or Android? Do you think it’s ready for prime time?