Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 will take place next week in Las Vegas (as usual). As I had an opportunity to attend a number of CES events in the past few years, I feel an urge to engage in fun but futile exercise of trying to predict the dominant themes of the CES 2012 – sort of “what’s hot, and what’s not”. Here is what I think will be Hot:
Coming to CES – A Look Ahead
January 8, 2012 By 2 Comments
Industry News Summary – Patent Wars, Vidyo, UCIF and Verizon LTE
August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Patents Wars At The Mobile Space
News of Google purchases of Motorola is probably known to you already.
Google acquired Motorola for 12.5 Billion USD cash deal, most likely as a way to protect Android from the recent ‘Patent Wars’ from Apple and Microsoft. Reuters supply a nice overview of the patent lawsuits in the following diagram by Reuters. A summary of the ‘Patent Wars’ situation and possible outcome is available at Zahid Ghadialy post at 3G4G: Click Here to see his post. [Read more...]
Industry News Summary – Android, Windows 7 Phone, Qualcomm and Facetime
October 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Is Android “Evil”?
Andreas Constantinou from Vision Mobile tries to give a broader explanation about how “open” Android really is.
Among the flaws mentioned – Rapid development rate of Android versions, leaving no time to phone makers to adapt and the Compatibility Testing Suite (CTS) requirements which does not cover only API but also Hardware and performance testings.
While its true Android has it flaws – Can Google really choose a different path?
One step closer to unified communications?
Apple announced it’s Facetime mac client beta, which is available to download today from Apple.com.
Facetime is the apple protocol powering iPhone 4 video-communications, being based on open standards.
While Facetime might become popular at the future – Apple has yet to enable interoperability with anything other than its own products.
Stream of reviews about the new Windows Phone 7 devices
The general tone toward the new Windows Phone 7 platform is positive. While the expected flaws of a version 1.0 product are there – Microsoft offers unique features like integration to Xbox-Live (Microsoft Social network for its gaming console – the Xbox 360) and Sharepoint integration which might prove useful in the corporate market.
Cisco is rather sure about their network router capabilities
In a campaign for their ASR 9000 they allow costumers to pull RSP units out of the router, remotely via a robotic arm, while watching a video-stream uninterrupted:
MetroPCS Turn on its 4G LTE network in Detroit
MetroPCS, while not being one of the largest carriers in the United States was the first to offer LTE mobile phone – The Samsung Craft.
MetroPCS CEO, Roger D. Linquist, stated the company plans to expand to eastern and western Michigan throughout 2011.
Qualcomm acquires iSkoot Technologies
Qualcomm announced the acquisition of iSkoot – mobile application development company that known for it’s mobile Skype clients , social networking application and mobile internet platform – Kalaida.
Kalaida enables rich mobile internet experience on low-cost devices.
IMTC Annual meeting moved to November 3 !
IMTC Members, Please mark you calendars to join us for the 2010 IMTC Annual meeting on November 3 at the IMTC office in San Ramon, California, from 10:00-12:00 Pacific. Remote attendance will be provided by both audio and video conferencing.
So what are the Business Tablets out there?
Fierce Voip explains.
To return to IMTC blog, please press here.
Events – ITExpo & 6th Annual VoIP Conference and Expo
September 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
IMTC President Anatoli Levin will participate in panels at two major events in October:
- The First – App-Time panel at 4GWE/ITExpo conference. Anatoli will participate in “The Future of Mobile Video” session, at Monday 04-OCT-2010 and in “How Video Changes the Way We Communicate” session. You can read about the event at TCMnet.
- The Second event is sponsored by IMTC - The 6th Annual VoIP Conference and Expo.
The VoIP conference and Expo is a two-day conference that include technical professionals, Telecom executives and Standards bodies. Anatoli will speak about mobile video communications in his panel – Video Communication on the Go – Realities and Perspectives:
“Mobile video is rapidly becoming the hottest subject for device manufacturers and service providers. Apple’s FaceTime once again is showing to the world what’s possible for one, and Android is making it possible for many. Are the networks ready for mass proliferation of video communications? What is the role of the Service Providers in this market? Are people ready? Who will get paid? This presentation will answer some of these questions and provide plenty food for thought (and may be even heated discussion).”
Also, among the speakers will be Amir Wolf, an IMTC fellow. His panel is called “Evolution of Mobile Video Streaming“:
“Mobile video streaming made a long a way in last decade. Starting with what used to be called standard streaming over UDP, through tunneling solutions and recently the trend in http based streaming. The session will describe the existing solutions for http streaming and the reasons for transition into http. We will also discuss the differences between mobile streaming , online streaming and TV broadcasts.”
If you happen to participate in one of the events and want to meet Anatoli or send him a specific question before the event – Feel free to contact him via Email at alevine@radvision.com.
Can Cisco introduce Telepresence technology to the masses?
September 15, 2010 By 3 Comments
A similar question would be – Can Amazon introduce E-books to the masses?
They are doing it right know – But how?
Amazon Fulfillment Center - A thing of the past?
Amazon kindle is an amazing product, with estimate sales of 1.5 to 3 million units for Q4 2009 and after selling more e-books than hard-covers in July 2010 – It is E-book for the masses.
But is it the Kindle device itself that enabled all of those E- books sales? Amazon won’t tell -
Judging by the popularity of the Kindle iPad-application, it’s probably not. According to analysts the iPad already sold more units than all kindle versions together – and the kindle is on the market for almost 3 years.
If this trend to continue and Amazon’s kindle application will remain so popular on the iPad – The Kindle hardware itself will become less relevant as most kindle users will read their E-books on the iPad.
Kindle Application on the Popular iPad tablet
It might be possible that in order for Amazon to keep it’s superiority in the E-book field they must support the most popular tablet on the market – The iPad. And while not an E-book device it seems to be an adequate reader by itself.
Unlike E-book readers that remains a niche product – iPad or an iPad like device is something many of us will find at out homes and briefcases within a few years.
Cisco doesn’t sell E-books, with the Cius they expect to sell something that is even more of a niche product – Telepresence systems.
As with the Kindle/iPad situation, Cius might kick-start the engine, but I don’t think it will fuel the revolution.
Cius and Kindle are niche products, they do what they do well, but most consumers prefer one thing that does everything – With the iPad, it is possible.
At 499 USD, the lowest cost iPad cost only 10 dollars more than the highest end Kindle DX. The Kindle is still a monochrome E-book reader and not a high-end tablet with high resolution color screen suited for video.
Cisco Cius - HD Video-Conferencing Tablet
Cisco’s Cius can’t really cost much less than a modern tablet, as it hardware should be suited for HD video.
So the question remains – At a similar price point to an all-around multimedia machine, with many applications – Can the Cius really compete?
As Sagee Ben-Zedeff from Radvision said in his blog-post about Cius – Cisco isn’t targeting Apple with this move. But if we look further ahead – Cisco might gain more from going the Amazon way, and enabling iPad users to communicate with its Telepresence platforms.
While it’s true the iPad don’t have a built-in camera, adding one shouldn’t be problematic; it’s quite easy to speculate that as with the iPhone – a front facing camera will be added eventually.
We all understand the importance of Interoperability as in this case, it might help make a niche product a commodity. The ability to phone-call a Telepresence session makes Telepresence useful for meetings that are not only-management level.
The next step, as it seems, just like the kindle service (which is now, more than just Hardware) is not only connect Cius to every other device, but to connect every other device to the Cius ecosystem. If Apple and Cisco will understand the potential video-conferencing interoperability holds for both of them – both will profit.
