"Voice as a Feature" is Business Customer Future

For the last decade and a half, at least, communication applications increasingly have been decoupled from network access and also are starting to be available across a range of devices used by a single person.

Another way of saying that is to note that “application-specific networks,” built to deliver a single lead application, no longer are the norm. Instead, virtually all major networks now are “multi-service” networks.

In some ways that has helped service providers, who now can sell multiple anchor products on a single network (voice, video and data). On the other hand, modern networks also fundamentally separate “access” from “applications,” meaning “over the top” competition now is easy.

That of course also has the added danger of removing service providers from direct customer relationships on a wider range of products, services and experiences.

According to analysts at the Ericsson Consumer Lab, traditional communication verticals such as telephony and video conferencing will continue to exist as profitable businesses. "Voice as a Feature" is Business Customer Future - Carrier Evolution

Broadband is Cable's New Anchor Service

Many have been making the argument that all fixed line networks will be foundationally based on broadband access services in the future. Recently even some cable TV executives have been saying that is the case. Recent U.S. cable operator revenue growth figures suggest the trend is well underway.

That is not to dismiss the importance of the legacy video revenue, any more than it makes sense to dismiss the continuing importance of voice revenues for mobile or fixed network communications providers. But growth rates point to where all the networks are going.

It's all based on broadband.

Kindle Fire Has Changed Tablet Market

The Kindle Fire has changed the tablet market.

Up to this point, the issue has been to create a device, and an application ecosystem, to rival the Apple iPad. That still is true, but what is new is that the tablet market now has at least two "lead" devices, including the Apple iPad and the Kindle Fire, each representing a distinct segment within the tablet market.

Granted, some will continue to view the Kindle Fire as a capable "e-book reader," while the Apple iPad is a "real" tablet. Others will continue to argue that niches and segments exist within the tablet category.

But rumored movement by Google to create a "reference" tablet that will compete in the tablet space might take the form of a tablet positioned about the Kindle Fire, not the Apple iPad.

That, at least, is what some component suppliers now believe.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said the company plans to launch a high quality tablet device "within the next six months."

The sources believe that Google will launch the own-brand tablet in March to April of 2012, featuring a seven-inch panel and Android 4.0 with a price less than $199 to compete against Amazon's Kindle Fire. Google tablet PC believed to be targeting Kindle Fire

Why Do People Use Landline Voice?

From a fixed network service provider perspective, there are some perhaps-worrisome findings in a recent survey by KPMG International of 9,600 consumers in 31 countries, even though the survey also suggests most people have landline voice service.

Some 80 percent of respondents to a global survey say they have landline voice service, which some (including KPMG International) might say that shows the resilience of demand for fixed line voice service.

That isn’t the only logical conclusion, though. The survey also suggests 52 percent have a voice landline because it is necessary to get their Internet connection.

That might suggest that in many cases, purchase of the first product (voice service) is necessary to buy the second product (Internet access). KPMG International survey

Such “product tying” can continue to work so long as consumers have no other alternatives.

But some also would say actual demand for fixed network voice lines cannot be determined with any precision when “sell through” is required. I other words, some people might buy landline voice because they have to, to get Internet access.

Though such tying practices increasingly are rare in many markets, product pricing generally aim to provide incentives to consumers for buying both products, or a triple play, together.

The good news is that lots of customers are rational buyers. They say they buy voice service because it is more reliable than mobile or Internet voice, or because landline is more effective for some applications.

Business users likely can provide better examples of those values than many consumers can do, and it is the business markets where one might argue the value of fixed-line IP telephony is most germane.

The worrisome results could lie in the great number of people who say they buy “out of habit,” since habits can change, or who report that they buy landline voice to get Internet access.

Over the past 12 months, around four percent of respondents to a KPMG International survey seem to have eliminated their landlines but more than 80 percent still believe their landline is important.

Also, globally, more than 80 percent of respondents indicated that they have a landline service, with the highest concentration found in Asia Pacific (83 percent) and the lowest (76 percent) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Almost a quarter of all respondents from Europe,the Middle East and Africa have no landline at all, versus 17 percent in Asia Pacific and 22 percentin the Americas.

Many respondents also seem to hang on to their landline for reasons of comfort. Some 45 percent said a landline felt more reliable. This may represent a massive opportunity for operators that can leverage this ‘stickiness’ to launch additional services over landlines that drive new revenue streams and models, KPMG International says.

The KPMG data also found that the propensity to maintain a landline depended on the age of the consumer. Only 72 percent of people aged 16-24 report having a landline, versus about 88 percent of those over 45 years of age.

The survey was conducted in the summer of 2011 and included 9,600 consumers across 31 countries. All surveys were conducted online, except in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia where telephone interviews were conducted. All respondents had to own either a laptop or notebook computer, tablet computer, smart phone or mobile phone.

Social Signals as Polling Data

The graph below compares the NBC poll with positive sentiment on Twitter. The data was collected between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30, 2011. One might note that the surprise finish by Santorum was "predicted" better by Twitter activity than by "scientific" polling.



In research Global Point has done in the past, its data tends to be about two weeks ahead of polls. Social signals and polling

The Twitter "positive" activity indicated that something was going on, that Rick Santorum was fast gaining traction.

4G, Business Access Both Benefit From Growing 10-Mbps Ethernet Trend

By some reasonable accounts, carrier Ethernet has boosted HSPA+ performance enough that it can accurately be described as “4G,” at least in terms of potential bandwidth. That might qualify wireless backhaul using Ethernet as the most-important single carrier Ethernet application, in terms of customer impact.

But a change in business customer bandwidth buying would run a close second. Many would argue that 10 Mb/s Ethernet is the new T-1.

According to Vertical Systems Group, most business buyers choose access speeds someplace between T-1 at 1.5 Mbps, to T-3, at 45 Mbps.

Carrier Ethernet is the most popular technology choice within the intermediate-speed category, Vertical Systems estimates. By 2014, Ethernet connections will exceed all other intermediate-speed options by a factor of about 2.5, Vertical Systems Group also predicts. Carrier Ethernet enables 4G

Kindle Fire Cut Into iPad Sales

As many as two million fewer iPads were sold this holiday season because of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, according to Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt.

That wouldn't strike many people as unexpected. Amazon says it sold more than four million Kindles in December 2011.

Selling at $199, compared to $499 for the lowest priced iPad, the Kindle Fire would be expected to take some "tablet" share, even if some observers would say the Kindle Fire is an e-reader, not a tablet. Kindle Fire Cut Into iPad Sales

McCourt now estimates sales of 13 million iPads in the quarter, down from 16 million, while boosting his projection on iPhone sales to 29 million, from 27 million. He now estimates that the company sold 4.8 million Macs in the quarter, down a hair from his previous projection of 4.9 million. iPad sales down

He estimates the Amazon Kindle Fire sold four million to five million units this holiday season, likely trimming iPad sales by one to two million units.