a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
From Steve Jurvetson…
From the local demos of Longhorn, it seems to me that OS X is the Longhorn preview. As far as I can tell, Microsoft is hoping to do a subset of OS X and bundle applications like iPhoto. Am I missing something?
It seems that the need to use a Microsoft operating system will decline with the improvement in open source device drivers and web services for applications. [The J Curve]
Maybe it’s just me, but I always notice small details that are out of place in ads… like the Mac browser window on the PC, which was left in by the creative department, or take the new print campaign for Verizon Wireless’ VZEmail with Wireless Sync which features a man sitting in his car clearly looking at the calendar on his Treo!
The frigging headline says, “VZEmail with Wireless Sync is always on for automatic email delivery and instant productivity.” I don’t think they were referring to the productivity you get from your calendar…
Nice quick thought piece from Jeremy Allaire over at PaidContent…
Jeremy believes and I agree that soon we will see new models for content distribution based on models and systems being developed now through blogs, aggregators and subscription services. It’s already becomhg very easy to subscribe to audio content through things like iPodder, which download the enclosures through RSS 2.0. Once the tech can be fully hidden from the user, this becomes easier to market and sell to people who get the benefit of more media to enjoy.
Now that video can be produced cheaply and with reasonable production values, and now that it can be affordably distributed and perhaps even easily monetized, will we see an emerging new class of “video site producers” rather than classic textual content. In 1994 when the Web really emerged, it helped bring forth an explosion in the amount and richness of text that was produced and available globally. I believe we’re at the front-end of a very similar curve in video, and this world / opportunity is not going to look very much like how we as consumers find, acquire and view video today. [paidContent.org’s ContentNext Series]
Herb Greenberg over at CBS MarketWatch, doesn’t think too much of the Netflix / TiVO partnership and has a fair bit of information that seems to sour the deal rather than make it seem as sweet as you might have thought.
In the hoopla over a possible linkup between Netflix and TiVO, something appears to have been lost on investors: Even if the two strike some kind of deal allowing Netflix (NFLX: news, chart, profile) subscribers to access movies by downloading them onto a TiVo for a monthly subscription price or on a pay-per-view basis, it’s unlikely the library of titles will be anywhere near the 25,000 Netflix now claims — at least not any time soon. Ditto Netflix’s plans to offer download services, which the company has suggested will happen next year.
Blame that on a complex web of film rights and so-called use windows granted by movie studios, which are different for “hard goods,” such as retail or DVD-by-mail, and “electronic,” which can include the Internet or TV. “The big ah-ha for a lot of companies is that the availability [of] these movies is gone because of the rights that have already been sold,” says Bob Greene, senior vice president of advance services for the StarzEncore Group.
It’s likely that the vast majority of Netflix movies will have to be streamed rather than downloadable give the way rights are handled for digital vs hard goods. That makes receiving a reduced streaming quality version that much less attractive to me… I was already thinking it would be very difficult to beat the quality and potentially the depth of catalog from the cable players. My current list of movies on demand from Time Warner is quite good, feeling much like a trip to blockbuster used to. Factor on top of that the addition of the video on demand services from all the major premium stations (HBO, MAX, SHO, STRZ) and I’ve got a very nice package of movies, shows and specials that I can watch at anytime at the same (non-HD) quality level I am accustomed to today on my cable system.
Greenberg, goes even further thinking that the TiVO deal is further away than the Newsweek article alluded and that means more pressure on Netflix from Blockbuster with their recently launched subscription service…
As I mentioned the other day in Herb Greenberg’s RealityCheck, the company was making it harder to cancel — making anybody who wants to cancel call in rather than quit online. That meant being put on hold for what can be more than a few minutes. (Interestingly enough, the company switched back to the old way as quietly as it switched away from it.) Then there was the conveniently leaked story to Newsweek about a supposedly imminent TiVo (TIVO: news, chart, profile) deal, which Netflix now says is not on any rollout timetable.
And this just in: Further signs that Blockbuster must be taking a toll on Netflix come from my assistant, Samantha Soga, who received an e-mail Wednesday from Netflix offering a 30-day free trial to “friends and family” of existing subscribers. That’s double the usual free-trial period.
Andy at VOIP Watch notes that Skype has now expanded their offering to officially support the Pocket PC over Wifi and that SkypeOut is fully supported as well so you can make calls to other Skype users just as easily as you can to mobile or landlines.
Andy is actually fortunate to be learning of all this at DEMO Mobile and heard from Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder who called in via wifi and even did a conference call demo.
I’d love to see support for Skype on Palm via Wifi… I knwo the Treo can’t possibly handle it over GPRS or even 1XRTT data though perhaps someday the network will be capable. It would be cool to make VOIP calls using an unlimited data connection at no additional cost.
Skype on!
I was listening to some audio samples of voice talent today for work and it occurred to me through a simple change in how the samples were created I could get much more out of the experience. As you probably know, ID3 tags contain all sorts of helpful information about the track of music, or the audio book, or the whatever happens to be in the format.
I listened to about half a dozen MP3 files which had been emailed to me and a few others as links… when I clicked them iTunes opened up, though it could have been any media player…As is my habit, I looked over at the album art / now playing area but saw nothing. It probably would have taken the talent house about 30 seconds to add the head-shot of the person whose voice I was listening, but they clearly did not do that and I am guessing it’s because they just did not think about it.
As Adam Curry recently mentioned on his daily Source Code audio blast, there is simply too much focus on the music …speaking about devices and licensing. I agree though certainly music is the sexy part of portably players much more so than audio books and way more so than audio talent, but since we use the same interfaces for these things, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the tools.
Dave Winer has been broadcasting morning coffee notes and while he’s been driving across the continent, he’s included a nice photo (yes I know that link was for a video, but he left a still on the audio, which was the same) as the art behind each file. It’s a nice way to contextualize the experience and squeeze get a bit more flavor out things.
Good question… I don’t think so either. Phone plans are no longer offered (unless you really have a tough time affording service) with limits other than minutes. Everyone pushes time on rather than where you are calling – outside of international which is still premium. Though Skype is certainly working to reduce that pain as well.
Do area codes really matter any more? These days, I’ve gotten used to plenty of people I know having mobile phone numbers from some distant place where they used to live, rather than where they live now. With so many plans no longer having any real marginal costs for long distance calls, it hasn’t much mattered, other than as a status symbol. The same is starting to come true in the VoIP world, as well, as people are even purposely ordering VoIP phone numbers from locations that don’t represent where they live. [Techdirt]
This is a very interesting sign of how things have changed… I recall how about 10 years ago (1995), AOL hosted (and perhaps still does) live chats with celebrities in their forums. Now it’s all being done from the mobile…
Last week, AT&T Wireless and Upoc Networks hosted a moderated, live “TXT Chat” for fans of swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps. Subscribers were invited to join the chat session by texting the word “swim” to the number 11111 from their handsets, and could then send in their questions for Phelps via text message, according to a company press release. [textually]
I like this idea a lot… this could be a solid driver for new subscriptions for both services and lets TiVO compete outside the existing VOD services currently offered on Cable and Satellite. The main difference will most likely be depth of catalog, but it really seems like only a matter of time until Cable MSOs offer a deeper selection. At the moment, my currrent VOD offers from Time Warner is very similar to what you would find at Blockbuster on a given week.
As has been commented as well at the PVRblog, consumers are going to have to accept a reduced quality and a potential delay in delivery.
Tomorrow’s Newsweek carries a story about a new Netflix/TiVo partnership that sounds perfect for anyone that has a subscription to both TiVo and Netflix. [PVRblog]
Subscribers who belong to both services will be able to download their Netflix DVDs over the Internet directly into the TiVo boxes in their homes, instead of receiving them in the mail.
What the hell took so long???
Biran Cooley over at ZDNet believes that simply based on scale and relative goodness that the the MSN music service will knock iTunes down. I am not so sure… I’d bet that enough people have been exposed to the simple elegance of iTunes and iPod that they get how it should work. Microsoft has a high bar to match even if they can outspend Apple… they probably won’t out-cool them.
There’s also the missing piece of the player itself. They just have a store, and many others will probably roll out very similar stores based on their platform — and let’s not forget confusing DRM.
It’s all part of the objectivity and professional skepticism that goes with the job, but come on. In the end, Microsoft’s strategy for the music wars should simply read like Reagan’s plan for the Cold War: they lose, we win. Then, you just spend your competitors into a hole.
Apple’s iTunes store and iPod players have been earning a 4.0 grade point average. But Microsoft merely has to get a 3.0, multiplied by the Windows user base, and it wins. All of the online music stores sell the same music from five major labels (and a handful of indies who don’t make or break anyone’s business). And even if Apple does have leverage with the labels now, I can assure you that all five of them will throw Steve Jobs under the bus when the Windows music store starts heating up. [ZDNet AnchorDesk]
I’m a loyal cable guy for now, but this probably is good news to many people… the price is actually quite competitive, though I am capable of getting up to 6MB down…
Though Verizon has yet to issue a press release or official announcement, our users are now ordering and receiving 3Mbps/768kbps DSL service. Only customers in former Bell Atlantic territory are seeing the upgrades, while Verizon West or Ex-GTE customers are still waiting. Users report it’s not available for those served via a remote terminal, or to those further than 11,000 feet from their CO. The tier costs $39.95 bundled, or $45 stand alone; the upstream speeds making it particularly attractive to many cable users (if they qualify). [broadband reports]
This site was just linked in my comments on the previous post and shows who really owns your number… pretty interesting to decode the players based on your phone numbers. Looks like Vonage is buying from quite a few players and Verizon, not surprisingly is a primary seller. It’s also interesting to note that even though my number was ported from Nextel to T-Mobile, Nextel actually owns it.
And yet another article covering the VOIP market… The NYT takes on AT&T CallVantage. The more I’ve thought about it since my last post on the topic, the more it seems like AT&T is really pushing this harder than Vonage. I realize Vonage has yet to really launch a consumer campaign, but do they ever have their work cut out for them.
AT&T spent $25 Million just during the Olympics… I received another DM piece today as well — I believe that makes 4 so far this summer. A little birdy told me that later in the year AT&T is set to shake it up a bit with some enhanced product offerings for CallVantage…Game on!
CallVantage, which connects calls over broadband lines and also avoids some taxes imposed on phone companies, is 20 to 30 percent cheaper than ordinary phone service.
AT&T hopes the lower price will help it draw customers who would have abandoned the company for the Baby Bells, which now offer a full range of telephone services. In the coming months, AT&T also plans to introduce a wireless plan that, in theory, could be packaged with its Internet phone service at a discount.
But it is far from certain whether AT&T has the muscle to win control of the emerging Internet phone market from start-ups like Vonage, which already has 250,000 subscribers, or its more powerful rivals among the regional Bell companies.
Nor is it clear that its favored mass-market approach – which typically involves spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising and promotions – is the best way to invigorate its consumer business. [New York Times]
Assuming this is the reality, it’s quite disappointing to hear. Though I am primarily a Mac user I was really interested in seeing Redmond push the limits. If anything this is a fantastic opportunity for Apple to really hit a homer with Tiger. It will give them an enormous technology lead and given the hits Windows has taken over security, reliability and cost…
According to developer sources, Microsoft is cutting back Longhorn client’s planned feature set so as to be able to make its current delivery targets: Beta 1 by next year and final release some time in 2006.
Microsoft is expected to announce officially later on Friday its future roadmap for the desktop version of Longhorn. And while developers and customers who expected they’d be required to rewrite their applications to take advantage of Longhorn may be happy with Microsoft’s roadmap changes, others who were banking on promised Longhorn features, such as the next-gen Windows File System, will be far less so.
The end result? Longhorn is going to be a lot more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary Windows release.
Andy points to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about the looming price war in the VoIP sector. Price war for all voice services is more like it, and in many ways this is the second phase of telecom’s financial meltdown. [Om Malik’s VoIP Daily]
Great piece… This ties directly into my thoughts for Vonage / ATT yesterday, not too mention the interview with Dave Dorman I just noted in the previous post.
In an exclusive Face to Face interview, AT&T CEO David Dorman tells ZDNet’s editor in chief, Dan Farber, that he’s going after an untapped market — VoIP. Dorman sizes up the competition, discusses claims that his company is undervalued, and defends AT&T’s declining top line. [ZDNet]
It’s clear to me that Vonage is in deep now since ATT CallVantage has really been pushing their service out on a very mass, very aggressive level. As I evaluated VOIP services I considered both but felt I should go with Vonage since I had read so many favorable things about the service and how many bloggers and tech leaders had been digging it.
It struck me today how of course I felt that way based on my media consumption — primarily aggregated feed reading of blogs and news services. The ATT people have skipped that early-adopter market since they’ve already been reached instead going straight to the meaty part of the curve, suggesting a revolution in phone service for consumers. If you watch the commercials, you’ll see that they are bright and upbeat and focus on cool features that enhance and benefit life. That might be a stretch, it is after-all just phone service but they really are aspirational… the employees featured are Inventors, which seems cool. Their marketing and site is much more consumer facing that that of Vonage which feels techie.
Vonage and others (I have no experience or interest sorry in Packet8) fall into an easy trap in marketing their service… They focus on the fact that it’s a tech product. Sure you hook it up to your router and it uses your broadband connection, but that should be secondary to what can be done with the service. I just did a quick comparison with ATT and realized that while it may cost $5 more per month, it’s actually a more feature rich service and in thinking about it, I want those things… or I’d like to see Vonage counter with some additional options.
Let’s break down some of the cool benefits which clearly need to be communicated sooner rather than later since it’s already starting to get pretty noisy out there.
That’s pretty much it for the current major features. Vonage does offer additional virtual lines and toll-free service which can all ring on the same original line you subscribed with.
Even though Vonage established the market here, they are clearly in serious risk of being forced into being a marginal player based on ATT’s fast product development and superior marketing clout – both in dollars and in presence. I can’t speak with any technical understanding, but on the surface the products are essentially the same. It’s only a matter of time for the hardware to be compatible (as I am sure it is now actually but not allowed easily for quality of service issues I presume) across service and people will be able to switch just as easily as they did back in the Phone Wars of the 80s and 90s. ATT is pretty comfortable in this space since that is how they were birthed… Vonage could be left standing as another tech company that innovated, but could not get out of their own way.
ATT is seriously going for it… pushing TV and Direct Mail (I’ve gotten at least 3 kits) hard, and working the retail channel now as well.
The partnerships underscore the importance of VoIP in AT&T’s long-term plans. The phone giant recently said it would stop selling local voice services to new residential customers because of changes in regulatory law. At the same time, the company said it would aggressively market less-regulated VoIP services.
The company also has been pushing CallVantage through co-marketing programs with cable companies such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications. [CNET News.com]