By the end of the year, or at least within the next couple of years, we all might have a different perspective on unified communications, traditionally viewed as something involving business phone systems, instant messaging and conferencing apps.
There are several reasons, among them a view that the "value of traditional desk phone and desktop PC is diminishing." Remote workers and mobility might become the lead value proposition for some buyers. For others, there might be an equally strong shift to IP-based conferencing as the lead application, based on "economic uncertainty as companies look to cut cost" in areas such as travel.
Integration of communication functions directly with business applications is an on-going and underlying trend that likewise could shift attention on UC value.
http://horizonwatching.typepad.com/horizonwatching/2009/04/primer-on-unified-communications.html
Monday, April 20, 2009
Shift in Unified Communications Value?
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
97% of Business Communications Now is Email
As much as 97 percent of all business communications now occurs using email, says Bakbone. And though some executives would not place much credence on the financial impact of email outages, which some estimate can cost a 500-person enterprise about $1.5 million in lost productivity, the cost of paying employees who cannot use basic business communications such as email has been calculated by multiplying the total hours of downtime per year by $18,000 per hour.
For an enterprise of any size, that cost can range from “up to $100,000” to “up to $500,000,” Bakbone says. Then there is the cost of information technology resources that must be consumed to get email systems back in operation.
Whether one considers such soft costs significant or not, the typical email outage lasts 69 minutes, and annual email outages can total 32.1 hours a year, Bakbone says.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/offer.aspx?o=03830006em0420
For an enterprise of any size, that cost can range from “up to $100,000” to “up to $500,000,” Bakbone says. Then there is the cost of information technology resources that must be consumed to get email systems back in operation.
Whether one considers such soft costs significant or not, the typical email outage lasts 69 minutes, and annual email outages can total 32.1 hours a year, Bakbone says.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/offer.aspx?o=03830006em0420
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Sampling Works at iPhone App Store
Encouraging potential customers to sample your wares is a time-tested demand stimulation technique, and it seems to work on the Apple App Store as well, an analysis of data by Flurry indicates. Among the strongest marketing plays in the App Store are free trials of a game or application.
There's not much surprise about why this works. Potential buyers unfamiliar with a company or application can see for themselves whether any particular app is useful or entertaining before committing to a purchase.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
66 Million U.S. Consumers Now Multi-Task
Over 66 million consumers are using the Internet while camped out on their sofas watching TV, according to market research firm In-Stat. About a third of male respondents to a recent survey say they "sometimes" do so. About 25 percent of female respondents say they use a PC while watching TV.
One-fifth of all respondents reported doing instant messaging while watching TV.
That's both good news and bad news. The good news is it suggests there might be some upside for content, application providers and service providers in the area of integrating PC, mobile or Web features with the TV experience.
The bad news? One reason some people might be time-sharing is because the TV content is not that compelling, compared to alternative pursuits such as using the Internet.
One-fifth of all respondents reported doing instant messaging while watching TV.
That's both good news and bad news. The good news is it suggests there might be some upside for content, application providers and service providers in the area of integrating PC, mobile or Web features with the TV experience.
The bad news? One reason some people might be time-sharing is because the TV content is not that compelling, compared to alternative pursuits such as using the Internet.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
$5 Billion Less Consumer Spending on Mobile, Broadband, TV?
Though first quarter financial results are not yet available to confirm the possible existence of the trend, about 15 percent of respondents say they will cut back spending on subscription-TV, broadband, and mobile services in response to economic pressures, an In-Stat survey finds. Precisely what that means is the question.
If any significant trend of that sort emerges, U.S. consumers could cut spending on mobile, broadband and pay TV services by nearly $5 billion due to economic turmoil, In-Stat says.
Will consumers drop mobile, broadband or multi-channel video subscriptions completely, or simply shift consumption to more-affordable subscriptions? The former would cause a greater hit to revenue and a risk that customers do not return later, the latter might "simply" pressure on average revenue per user.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, a slowing rate of growth could be seen for at least some services, but it was hard to separate purely-economic effects from product maturation. So far, mobile service providers have seen a shift to prepaid services from postpaid.
It wouldn't be unusual to see consumers dropping some premium services or postponing upgrades in the face of a tough recession. What would make news is negative growth for subscription services other than wired voice, which has been declining, at least for some providers, for years.
We'll find out soon enough what is going on.
If any significant trend of that sort emerges, U.S. consumers could cut spending on mobile, broadband and pay TV services by nearly $5 billion due to economic turmoil, In-Stat says.
Will consumers drop mobile, broadband or multi-channel video subscriptions completely, or simply shift consumption to more-affordable subscriptions? The former would cause a greater hit to revenue and a risk that customers do not return later, the latter might "simply" pressure on average revenue per user.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, a slowing rate of growth could be seen for at least some services, but it was hard to separate purely-economic effects from product maturation. So far, mobile service providers have seen a shift to prepaid services from postpaid.
It wouldn't be unusual to see consumers dropping some premium services or postponing upgrades in the face of a tough recession. What would make news is negative growth for subscription services other than wired voice, which has been declining, at least for some providers, for years.
We'll find out soon enough what is going on.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
WeFi, fring expand VoIP over Wi-Fi Options
WeFi Inc, an open global Wi-Fi network, and fring, a leading mobile Internet community and communication service, today launched the WeFi add-on for fring that gives users mobile access to the largest database of 20 million Wi-Fi access points worldwide, said to be growing by over one million a month.
The new WeFi add-on for fring provides users with easy and free access to millions of Wi-Fi hotspots from their mobile devices. The alpha test of this service has been particularly popular with business and pleasure travelers, WeFi says.
The WeFi add-on currently works on hundreds of Symbian and Windows Mobile devices with the latest version of fring which can be downloaded or upgraded from www.fring.com/download/.
A full list of supported handsets is available at www.fring.com/download/default_PC.asp.
To locate and access millions of hotspots from these mobile devices, users simply select the WeFi add-on from the add-ons tab within fring. Users can locate their Wi-Fi hotspot location automatically using their handset’s GPS capability, or manually by typing in any address worldwide.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Bandwidth Caps a Competitive Disadvantage?
Time Warner Cable has shelved its plans to shift its residential broadband customers to “consumption-based billing”, at least for the moment, as a way of controlling excessive bandwidth use by a small number of really-heavy users and maintaining quality of service for other users who share the network. Short of investing in a higher-capacity access network, it isn't clear how some way of matching consumption to cost is avoidable, long term.
But that points out one advantage Verizon Communications has: it has ample access bandwidth to provide uncapped usage, which could become a marketing weapon wherever it competes with other providers who do impose caps or other sorts of restrictions.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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