Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Doing what I do in real life, I’ve had the chance to present clients to lots of industry analysts who cover a variety of technologies - particularly in the wireless and mobile space.

One analyst / thought leader I have long admired is  Gerry Purdy, Ph.D. - VP & Chief Analyst, Mobile & Wireless at Frost & Sullivan.

I  remember pitching one client to who who had the first cellular modem; another who became a leader in PCMCIA modem cards; and another who recently introduced an innovative pen and touch technology for tablet computers that is now the basis of the Dell Latitude XT.

So what does Gerry Purdy think of the Apple/Starbucks/AT&T  Realationship?

Here’s his take:

"The partnership of Apple, Starbucks and AT&T to deliver valuable content to Starbucks customers is both innovative and important.  It’s more of a brand play for each company although Starbucks has promised to provide unique music and video programming to customers that could add real value to the partnership.  People still have to be iTunes members and customers of AT&T Wi-Fi but this likely will be a model to be duplicated with other companies in the future.  Kudos to all three players."

Thanks Gerry!

Source: voipcentral.org

In its latest report, the research firm Frost and Sullivan claims that the growth in VoIP services among the residential and business users would put a deep impact on the marketing of World Session Border Controllers (SBC).

A SBC is defined as a VoIP session-aware device, which controls real-time interactive communications (voice, video and multimedia sessions) throughout the IP network borders.

It creates peering between IP networks ensuring customer traffic to pass through different segments of a network in order to connect to its final destination.

Frost & Sullivan says,

Carriers are increasingly turning to SBCs as they require a dedicated device to protect critical equipment, such as softswitches and media gateways, from denial of service (DoS) and other attacks. The next-generation infrastructure market is also largely driven by carriers’ focus on reducing costs to provide high profit-margin services using IP equipment.

The total revenue generated from the SBC Market was $123 million last year. The SBC market will show upward trend from now onwards to become a $163 million business in 2013, after hitting at $220 million in 2009.

Source: voipcentral.org

The increasing use of Unified Communications and Advanced Conferencing services would push forward the Hosted IP Telephony Market in future, Frost & Sullivan said.

In its latest report, the research firm claims that the North American Hosted IP Telephony and VoIP Access Service Market is on its way to become a $14 billion worth business in 2012, up from $372.6 million from 2005.

Businesses enterprises are deploying the hosted services at its fast to overcome the technical problems associated with premise-based solutions.

A Frost & Sullivan release states,

Companies that adopt hosted IP telephony typically save 20 to 40 percent on what they would have paid for a premise-based private branch exchange (PBX). When companies have positive experiences with hosted telephony and access services they spur adoption through word of mouth.

Source: voipcentral.org

After winning 2006 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Award, Verizon Business is now getting yet another award for its VoIP services. This time, the leading industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan has selected Verizon Business for the 2006 North American Enterprise VoIP Services Customer Value Enhancement Award.

In its recent report, the research firm has named Verizon Business as the leading Web conferencing reseller services provider who continues to deliver compelling IP-based solutions for the enterprise market.

Frost & Sullivan commented,

Verizon continues to show its commitment to the market through product innovation, improved sales and customer processes, and its global IP network.

Read

Source: voipcentral.org

A new study form Frost $ Sullivan divulges that the worldwide VoIP Semiconductor market earned revenues of $256.2 million last year and predicts the amount to reach $857.8 million in 2009.

The raise in VoIP semiconductor revenue is due sky-high growth in all end-user segments including carrier infrastructure, enterprise and consumer or residential markets.

On the other hand, the throat-cut competition in the VoIP market has made the carriers and service providers to bring down capital expenditure and operational expenditure and generate new revenue sources. These are pushing the next-generation carrier infrastructure VoIP market.

The report concludes as equipment, handset producers insert more features in products like residential gateways, and VoIP phones, integration may be a challenge for a semiconductor vendor.

More

Image: [TMCnet]

Source: voipcentral.org

Aspect Software was selected by Frost & Sullivans recent analysis of the World Outbound Dialing Markets for the 2005 Growth Strategy Leadership Award.

It was considered particularly for

a) Its robust product mix
b) Customer focus
c) Strategic merger of Concerto Software with Aspect Software

Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Michael DeSalles says; “Since the world outbound dialing market is a mature one, Aspect Software has focused on offering an all-encompassing product portfolio that can meet the needs of new Greenfield contact center start-ups as well as long-time, large companies with existing contact center operations that are growing. It does this through fully integrated outbound/blended and unified solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing telephony infrastructure.”

Aspect Software has also announced that several of its products will soon offer new VoIP capabilities.
The outbound dialing products offering new capabilities are:

a) Aspect EnsemblePro,
b) Aspect Unison Predictive Dialer, and
c) Aspect Conversations Predictive Dialer

These will enable end users to reduce costs while leveraging their existing infrastructure investments. Apart from increasing agent satisfaction, it is also likely to improve external customer satisfaction.

Via: Yahoo Finance Press Release

Source: voipcentral.org

Cell Wireless Corp is going to launch a new mobile Wi-Fi Cell VoIP phone that will allow users to make long distance calls from anywhere that has public Internet hot spots such as hotels, cafeterias, airports etc.

The new mobile Wi-Fi Cell VoIP phone will use Cell Wireless’ VoIP software and telephony technology when users connect to any public Internet hot spots such as at airports, hotels and coffee shops.

Whats more, with the proper wireless Internet connection, the phone can be used as a home or office VoIP phone without using a headset and according to the company multiple users of the phone can connect with each other for long-distance conference calling completely free of cost.

John Bohringer, CEO ofCell Wireless’, said

Our existing 153,000 members will benefit greatly from this new phone and it will dramatically increase new memberships and profit. As cities such as New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia cover their cities with wireless Internet access, there will be a boom in mobile Wi-Fi Cell VoIP phone usage.

The best thing about VoIP is that according to the research group Frost & Sullivan, by 2007, VoIP traffic is projected to account for about 75 percent of the world’s voice traffic. And to top it up, the Forester Research Group says that, almost all regular and cellular calls will go through the Internet by the year 2020.

I certainly can hope to live not only that long but use the technology as it emerges and transforms how communication is done! It’s not so far away, just a few more years. Isn’t it exciting?

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