Posted 8:30 a.m. by Jim Courtney

Jon Arnold, a telecommunications analyst and consultant, is a Boston native who has been attracted to the vibrance of Toronto. However, he and I find a kindred spirit in following the Boston Bruins, for whom my neighbour's son is having an excellent rookie season. Jon has also a maintained his membership in the Red Sox Nation.

Last week, however, Jon felt betrayed by one of the most popular (now former) Red Sox team members. In fact, this betrayal was further enhanced when a picture showed up of a clean-shaven, short haired Johnny Damon. My comment at the time was that even clean-shavenness has its price and Johnny D. won't be showing up in any of those "priceless" Master Card ads.

Today, Frank Deford, in an article that originated in his weekly commentary on National Public Radio (audio) and republished in today's National Post (walled garden, access only to subscribers) entitled "Root for the Uniform" offers some therapy for betrayed RSN members as his departure "has thrown many fans' psyches into a veritable cocked hat". His advice: ".. Get over it." ".. Just instruct your children to root for the uniform, and never mind the coming and going of the incidental flesh and blood that fills it up."

Jon, if you are looking for a new baseball "Nation" to follow, you could have a look at all the changes being made in the Blue Jays this winter. Maybe the next pennant race will be in our own back yard.

And my neighbour's son scored two goals as the Bruins lost to the Panthers last night. In fact, since his first goal was "Brad Boyes from Brad Stuart and Brad Isbister", could one call this scoring play one by the "Bruins' Brad boys"?

Posted 10:14 p.m. by Jim Courtney

The tease of Skype: For those looking for nuggets on Skype (both the company and its products), download and install this latest beta of the Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer . The instructions will tease you; the actual toolbar will get your wheels spinning for who's included! Enjoy!

The genius of Skype: Oh, and by the way, go to a web page with phone numbers (such as Canada 411) and, if you have a SkypeOut account, run your cursor over the phone number. Then go to this page (bypass the request to install the Japanese character set) and look at the number that results from running your cursor over the phone number. (Hint: what is the country code added to any of the phone numbers?)

Posted 12:39 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Alec Saunders wrote a post today on the publisher/partner relationship between a platform developer (such as Microsoft or Skype) and the third party partner ecosystem that is available to expand the use of the platform through the collective intelligence that can be leveraged beyond the basic platform's marketing and developer resources. His perspective comes from thirteen years of product and partner relationship management at Microsoft; my perspective comes from six years with a software publisher that had a love/hate (or maybe "hate/love"?) relationship with Microsoft. For a success story he specifically refers to a Microsoft partner relationship that I always viewed as a model for how to deal with this situation, namely, Symantec's. Skype is now wrestling with similar issues.

Having personally been on the "other side" of this picture in the early 1990's when working at Quarterdeck who had a multi-tasking environment (DESQview) that Bill Gates considered a serious threat to Windows in the late 80's and early 90's, Quarterdeck's approach contrasts starkly with how Symantec handled the situation as new MS-DOS versions were introduced that entrenched on utility publishers' market space. Quarterdeck had a memory management utility that won several awards as the top selling utility in the pre-Windows 95 world (two are sitting in my office here). Quarterdeck also licensed Mosaic code from Spyglass (in fact, prior to Microsoft obtaining their license). But Quarterdeck management had such an emotional neurosis about Microsoft such that they failed to see the business opportunities. Some lessons learned:

1. Quarterdeck's memory manager (QEMM) was always "two versions" ahead of the MS-DOS memory manager with many features that provided more benefits to the user, especially those who were doing installations in the emerging office/home network space of the day. (Networking PC's was still a bit of a black art in those days.) Had they taken a business-like approach in their Microsoft relationship they also could have built a much stronger business (and maybe even avoided the 1994 restructuring in which I participated). Meanwhile Symantec built a model business relationship that has allowed them to be a market leader even to this day.

2. Quarterdeck was so hung up on fighting software piracy (we figured there were ten copies of QEMM out there for every legal copy -- and those were pre-Internet days when BBS's had their own form of peer-to-peer sharing), that they missed and did not understand the Internet model of frequent beta releases and building awareness in the user community through an electronic "word of mouth" approach. As a result Netscape won the initial battle of the browser war (Microsoft had not quite had its "come-to-the-Internet" revelation at that point) because Mark Andreeson and company understood the Internet "culture". Today I would maintain that Quarterdeck's memory manager market success in those days can be attributed to the number of "pirated" copies out there being "evaluated" by tech geeks and the resulting recommendations in their viral network. Today we can see a valid effective compromise in that one can generally trial software prior to making a purchase; in fact, this model allows one to use Jeff Sandquist's seven day rule in determining the software's or service's value.

3. The Stac patent suit and resulting $85 million award against Microsoft did create a precedent for showing that, if you build a good enough product (in their case disk compression), you did have a valuable asset that even Microsoft would have to pay for. Subsequently Microsoft became much more aggressive in buying technology -- Front Page is a great example where Microsoft did not have the time or resources to develop an HTML editor. They bought Vermeer, a small start-up company, that could only really succeed rapidly enough through Microsoft's marketing power and distribution channels.

As a result I would recommend for Skype and its partners:

1. Build a partner "trust" relationship that provides insight into Skype's development road map but allows developers to build true value-add. It has been know for quite a while that Skype would have a video product so this launch should not be a surprise to Festoon and DialCom. Microsoft did have evangelists who specialized in building trust relationships; Rick Segal was the Quarterdeck evangelist at one point; he had a personal relationship with several of the senior Quarterdeck restructuring management team of the day. His blog today reflects much of his experience with these types of programs. Unfortunately there was a legacy cultural block at Quarterdeck to building on this.

2. Build value-added premium services into your "third party" product. For instance, the Skype video only allows one-to-one video while Festoon provides multi-party video conferencing. (QEMM always got 50% more valuable memory freed up than any DOS memory management feature did; thus it could much more readily address the networking space missed by the MSDOS memory manager.) Of all the products reviewed on Skype Journal, my one criticism is that, with few exceptions such as Verosee, the developers do not give enough thought to providing a true value-added premium offering that solves a real user problem. (As an aside I am as sceptical as Alec on the acceptance and use of video in the IM and real time communications markets; until there is a "killer" problem to address, it's a nice-to-have but not required feature, based on my experience with the web conferencing market.)

3. Incorporate into your offering a business model that encourages evaluation but requires payment after seven to 15 days. This gives enough time to determine if there is value and if it will be used on a regular basis. Verosee has done a great job at that; the offerings are easy to access and easy to purchase after a 15 day evaluation.

Skype has many assets: over 50 million registered users, an API toolkit that has been well received and the level of "geek enthusiasm and energy" that we used to see in the Quarterdeck market ecosystem. However, as Stuart Henshall at Skype Journal has discussed, now they need Product Management and Third Party Partner programs that build trust while allowing all parties to generate business success. The immediate challenges for eBay is to introduce a management style and company culture that encourages innovation but also establishes trust while at the same time creating a revenue base that justifies a $2.6B plus bonuses purchase price. And, who knows, maybe Skype (eBay) will buy some of these auxiliary product or service companies to build out their offering.

One final aside: Quarterdeck's web browser had a few unique features that have gradually been incorporated into Internet Explorer. The final (and to me most valuable) "unique" feature will be incorporated into Internet Explorer 7 next year: tabbed browser windows -- a variation on this was in the Quarterdeck browser developed in 1995. (And a feature that has given Firefox a huge boost in acceptance.)

And two ironic closing notes: (i) I seem to recall that in 1995 Alec Saunders was the MS Internet Explorer product manager and (ii) Symantec bought the residual of Quarterdeck in 1998 to address a market-driven need for access to its last valid utility product, CleanSweep.

Update Dec. 6: This post has been republished at Skype Journal as part of a series with Andy Abramson's original post and Alec Saunder's post referenced above. It puts the entire picture in better context. Also Alec has written a commentary summarizing this post.

Posted 7:24 p.m. by Jim Courtney

During 2004 I did some assignments with Runaware, Inc., a Swedish-based company that provides a platform for evaluating live software from a remote server. Because the Runaware engine bypasses all the hassles of doing evaluations on your local PC, such as installation process, registry alteration, conflicts with installed software and memory limitations, you can go to a Runaware supported website, try the software for ten minutes or ten hours and make a more definitive decision on whether you want to further pursue a purchase.

The Runaware platform operates on a Citrix Metaframe Access platform thereby allowing up to 100 evaluations to occur simultaneously over the Internet. On starting a session, it addresses Windows and software login issues, launches a real session of the fully operational software and then cleans up all the "residual litter" such as trial documents prior to closing down the particular session. So you get to try a fully operational version without all the local PC clutter issues. The only limitation is on printing and saving files (usually you can't). (Document) files created during a session are deleted as the session is terminated.

A list of software publishers using the Runaware platform can be found on the Runaware website, along with links to the various publishers marketing webpages.

Last week Microsoft launched use of the Runaware platform to allow Test Drives of the complete Office 2003 Desktop, including Front Page 2003, OneNote and InfoPath. One additional feature is a Windows Mobile 5 emulator that I will use to make a decision on whether to upgrade my Dell Axim X50v. Finally I have a way to evaluate for myself all the OneNote benefits that Scoble raves about.

Disclosure: while I had a couple of consulting assignments in 2004 for Runaware, I am currently under no contractual arrangement with them at this time.

One item to note: to run the Runaware platform for Microsoft Office 2003 Desktop, you need to use MS Internet Explorer as an ActiveX is downloaded the first time you use it. With other publishers' setups, Runaware will first check to see if you have a Java runtime loaded; if not then it downloads the ActiveX.

Posted 9:47 a.m. by Jim Courtney

Last spring, via a reference from Skype Journal, I ended up meeting a developer of plug-ins for Outlook who is based in Sweden. Subsquently he was contracted by Skype to write a plug-in linking Skype with Outlook; I was asked if I would be a beta tester.

After completing several alpha versions, Peter was hired by Skype to complete this project; the final version was released a couple of weeks ago. And then the editors of Skype Journal asked me to write a review. This kept me from going "stir crazy" while convalescing from my surgery at home.

"... The result is a utility that is now a standard component of my Outlook operation; I can heartily recommend that you give it a try. For me it has passed the Jeff Sandquist seven day rule and become a part of my daily work life."

Posted 10:33 a.m. by Jim Courtney

I found it interesting to note the order in which I visited various blogs following a two week hiatus without Internet access following my surgery. I should mention that my interest is driven partially by my long term interest in startups and my heritage with Voice over IP where Quarterdeck had one of the pioneering VoIP software products in 1996. Here is what I found I was looking at to get myself updated (in order):

The Post Money Value: Rick Segal was our Microsoft evangelist when I was at Quarterdeck in Los Angeles ten years ago. His talks always combine elements of useful information with a wit and sense of humore that always makes sure you remember it. His posts are invaluable from not only the VC's perspective on what is important for considering an investment but also for his focus on ensuring there is true user value inherent in technology-based products and services. Why this one first? because I needed entertainment as much as information when recovering from surgery.

SaundersLog: Alec Saunders provides one of the more complete yet concise perspectives on Voice over IP and where it is headed. His background as a former Microsoft Product Manager serves this market well in viewing VoIP as a platform for application development, not simply a legacy phone system replacement. His Voice 2.0 Manifesto on Iotum's Simply Relevant blog is becoming recognized as an industry classic; Alec is CEO of Iotum. You do have to filter out the VoIP/technology entries from his well-articulated postings on Canadian politics and his enjoyment of both fine wines and the Ottawa Senators.

Skype Journal: Phil, Bill and Stuart do an excellent job of independently reviewing issues related to Skype. As a frequent user of not only Skype but also SkypeOut, I find it useful to keep up to date on the latest in their offerings. In addition due to a contact I made with the developer of a third party product for Skype last spring, I ended up being a beta test for Skype for Outlook when he was contracted to build this utility (and then later became a Skype employee).

Fractals of Change: Tom always provides interesting commentary from the perspective of someone who has been through both large corporations and the startup exercise in the rapidly changing communications world. And hopefully I will soon get the time to read his blook. (AT&T Internet was one of the "partners" for whom I was responsible when I was in business development at Quarterdeck.)

More to come... (I'll get to Scoble eventually..)

Posted 9:44 a.m. by Jim Courtney

There is a reason for the long gap in postings. I have spent the past month recovering from surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm ("AAA"), discovered only by chance when having an ultrasound and CT scan for another condition which fortunately turned out to be negative. I do thank the cardiovascular surgery team and the post-operative care team at St. Michael's Hospital for getting me through this in a case that turned out to be "textbook classic". From a patient education and "patient advocate" perspective it certainly helped that my son is a resident in Internal Medicine who had attended six of these surgeries during his undergraduate training a couple of years ago and is also a researcher in intravascular imaging.

More importantly the question is: what is your risk? and how can it be detected? The key risk factors appear to be:

age over 50 (this condition strikes 5% of males over 60 and 1% of females)

a family history of AAA (genetically related siblings and offspring)

There may be some other factors as indicated here.

Most of the cases I have come across were initially detected due to an imaging study to assist a diagnosis for some other condition; there are usually no external signs of its existence. I consider myself lucky that it was detected; once detected the treatment is usually "textbook surgery" with complete recovery and return to normal life.

If you meet both of the above conditions my surgeon recommends that you request an ultrasound for AAA every five years. If you want to add to his database contact me at via one of the tags on the sidebar; obviously all information will be treated with the appropriate level of confidentiality. (I am going through a HIPAA exercise for a client at the present time.)

Posted 8:00 p.m. by Jim Courtney

In the fall of 1973 I lived in (West) Germany during the course of the 1973 mid-east war. This war impacted fuel supplies in western Europe to the extent that I witnessed long line-ups for gas (including many who would fill up to a dozen containers) and experienced, during my last three weekends there, carless Sundays (only those in designated public services, such as hospital employees, could drive a vehicle on Sunday).

Yesterday I once again witnessed exceedingly long lineups at every gas station I passed in the Streetsville area of Mississauga. Somehow word got out that a few stations were charging over $1.50 per litre in the morning so when they saw gas at $1.04 per litre they had to fill up.

So this morning I went to my local corner Sunoco gas station to get gas for my lawn mower and to fill up my car which was only down 20 or so liters from a fill-up (@ $0.95/litre) last Sunday. I arrived to find they had just run out of "regular" gas which also meant none of those "intermediate" octane grades were available as they are a mixture of regular and high octane grades. Only their highest octane grade was in supply and I started to pack up to visit the PetroCan station kitty-corner which was advertising $1.04/litre. As I got into my car, an attendant came out and said "Don't leave; we've just repriced the premium grade at regular grade prices" -- amounting to a $0.16/litre hit to their revenues.

Simon Cooper, a senior Marriott hotel executive who participated many years ago, as I did, in the U. of Toronto Executive MBA program, used to say his biggest fear as a hotelier was that his lowest paid employees were the ones who interfaced to the public. So he made sure his desk clerks, waiters and others who provided service to their customers were empowered to make decisions that kept customers loyal. This policy occasionally got me a few (unsolicited) free meals and room stays when he was at Delta Hotels.

It was refreshing to see that, in this era when politicians make hay deceiving the public into thinking they can put a "freeze" on gas prices, there are gas company (and possibly their franchise) employees who are empowered to make on-the-spot decisions based on the competitive factor in providing true customer service. These guys do get it!

Posted 3:58 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Blogger for Word

I am doing this post from Blogger for Word as a test to see how it works.

I am also attempting to post a photograph (from my Flickr collection, of course):



Comments (written from Blogger): At this point images and documents are not supported and transmitted to Blogger. I did get the photo and link to it by inserting it into the HTML "confirmation" page that can optionally appear when you click on "Publish". But there appears to be no easy way to switch between HTML and native "Word" format.

More experience: When booting your PC it is necessary to open MS Word prior to opening Outlook in order that the Blogger for Word plug-in Toolbar is accessible in Word. This is a known issue ("feature"?).

Posted 2:28 p.m. by Jim Courtney

I recently submitted a posting to the Association of Internet Marketing and Sales Discussion List about an excellent blog posting that Rick Segal wrote on blogs and their role in the ongoing business environment. (This AIMS ADL thread has been a discussion of whether there is a marketing role for blogs in a business enterprise.) When posted they left out the hyperlink to the article but put in a link to this blog. So to repeat the ADL posting (with hyperlink):

{Quote}Reading some of the discussion leaves me a little weary. Rick Segal, a reasonably well known Toronto-based VC (who also was my previous employer’s Microsoft “missionary” a decade ago), has just put up a great post that gets to the real point about blogs and credibility. His point: whether it’s marketing, just putting up viewpoints or getting into a debate over an issue, blogs require three things:

“Being fair, showing passion, and feeling my pain are three simple things to set you apart from (unfortunately) the normal SOS stuff that goes on despite all the new new things happening around us.”

Give it a read... {End Quote}

Posted 3:12 p.m. by Jim Courtney

When commenting on the next financing transaction for Skype as a company to be sold, it is quite helpful if the facts in the story are straight. Today, Robert X. Cringely, in his weekly PBS-sponsored column, attempted to talk about Skype almost being sold. However, as I read the column, there arose statements that, in the end, lessened the probability that I could have any degree of confidence in his metasearch for a buyer.

1. The first statement that caused me concern in the original posting was the assertion that Skype is a company "based in Switzerland". This has subsequently been corrected to its country of registration: Luxembourg; however, Skype has its business operations headquarters in London and does development in Talinn, Estonia. There is also a loose twofold connection with Sweden: Niklas Zenstromm, the founders is Swedish, and one of their recently-hired developers works out of his home in Sweden. So there was not even the potential to have confused Switzerland with Sweden.

2. He talks about Skype being "broadly flogged by an investment bank." But the current financier of record is a well-known and highly reputable Sand Hill Road Venture Capital firm, Draper Fisher, Jurvetson. And since DFJ has a significant interest in Skype, why would they turn the "flogging" over to an investment bank. Eventually DFJ would be interested in an investment bank as a potential player (buyer) in a subsequent financing round for Skype. The page referenced above implies that Tim Draper also has a personal investment but last week Tim was in Estonia with Niklas (doing a video presentation to the AlwaysOn conference) and, according to the DFJ website, also visited the Ukraine. Not totally consistent with being "near" a sale of Skype (unless he simply said "no" from Estonia).

3. Then there is the statement, when discussing the potential for an IPO, "there aren't that many Swiss companies going public on the NASDAQ these days". With a California-based VC partner, the country of registration is irrelevant to the market for a sale of the company. (NewsCorp has its origins in Australia, n'est-ce pas?).

4. 20 million regular users??: Check out Skype Statistics. Number of users online ranges between 1 and 3 million with the largest number between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT (Europe winding down the business day while North America gears up...). There are about 45 million registered subscribers but where does he get 20 million "regular" users? What is a "regular" user? I might put in between 5 minutes and one hour per day; does that make me a "regular" user? Does a "regular" user have to subscribe to one of SkypeIn, SkypeOut and VoiceMail? or to all three? Eh? (145 million downloads is irrelevant: I download every time there is a new version out but I am sure many millions are way "out-of-date" on the version installed.

Finally there is a metasearch carried out in this article to determine who would buy Skype. This is very premature. A couple of months ago, Niklas quickly squelched rumors that Skype was in negotiations with Yahoo; never heard any more about that one.

A clue to understanding Skype and its business model is given by the recent launch of a Developer program and the simultaneous availability of an API toolkit to allow third party developers to incorporate into other products and services. Yesterday appeared an excellent discussion of this program, its positioning and how third party companies could make money via this program on Skype Journal.

Fundamental to understanding the business model is not to look at pure "conversation" revenue for revenues but rather to look at getting into both internal and third party applications that drive SkypeOut and SkypeIn minutes to Skype. The third party developer program, when adopted by integration into other products and services will drive this revenue. At the same time, new Skype Add-Ons, such as the recently launched Skype Toolbar for Outlook, will also drive SkypeOut minutes. On my recent trip to California I exclusively used the Skype for Outlook Toolbar to launch Skype Out sessions with contacts in the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Taiwan. All Skype revenue; no revenue to the traditional telcos (or even the hotels that provided the high speed Internet service).

Thus, the potential buyer should be one who is interested in Skype as an applications platform, generating service revenues shared by Skype and its developer partners. At the same time, to maximize the potential revenue, the buyer would be independent of any of the current teclos, whether landline or wireless. One wants the largest possible customer base -- only achieved by having some degree of neutrality relative to the actual connection provider. Probably if Cringely had really done his homework -- following Skype Journal as well as other blogs on the VoIP space and understanding the role of the Skype development platform -- he could have had a credible article.

(Disclosure: I was a beta tester of Skype Toolbar for Outlook.)

Posted 12:46 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Yesterday, for the eighth year in succession (and the seventh as a shareholder), I attended RIM's annual general meeting in Waterloo, Ontario. This year the venue had moved next door from the Clay and Glass Museum to the Mike Lazaradis Theatre in the new Perimeter Institute building (funded through Mike's foundation).

If one were to believe the press, RIM is under siege from Microsoft, Visto, Treo, Good Technology and many others. However, three facts brought out in the meeting reinforce RIM's position as a sustainable enterprise platform business, not simply a wireless email infrastructure business:

1. The key number in the presentation: 49,000. This is the number of Blackberry Enterprise Servers ("BES") installed as of the quarter ending May, 2005. Until the competition builds a similar level of enterprise embedding, Blackberry will be the predominant platform for the high margin, lucrative enterprise wireless communications space. This number is even more significant when placed in the perspective of 175,000 to 200,000 Microsoft Exchange server installations. (Note: BES supports MS Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise servers.)

2. Mobile Data Suite, a new web services-based platform for developing wireless enterprise applications: not so much for its capabilities as for its expansion on RIM's platform philosophy. RIM has built a network of ISV's who are developing enterprise applications built around the deployment of Blackberry devices. This only provides further embedding into the enterprise space.

3. The Gartner Study: in one of those quadrant diagrams (Ability to Execute vs Degree of "Visionariness") only RIM appears in the High "Ability to Execute"/High "Visionary" quadrant. Microsoft, Good Technology, Nokia and others fail on at least one axis or the other.

Blackberry has become the predominant PDA platform with a 21% market share; it has over 3 million users -- goals that the competition can only envy. It is the only true "push" wireless e-mail service - the major source of its licensing business. But until the perceived competition can meet these enterprise platform standards, RIM will lead the wireless e-mail communications space for a long time to come.

Follow-up Note: In discussions after the meeting with Jim Balsille, Mike Lazaradis and other executives, they had no knowledge of the Kitchener/London Blackberries story.

Posted 7:12 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Since the last programming language I used (in 1975) was FORTRAN V and I have evolved into a technology business executive, I now take the approach to a product of an end user looking for key features and benefits that can enhance either my or a user's productivity (with a high degree of transparency to the underlying technology). On the other hand, I know enough about development technology to be dangerous.

Over the past couple of years I have been involved with a couple of clients who, in turn, have been involved with services related to Microsoft SharePoint. Yet, nobody has explained to me clearly what benefit SharePoint brings to either an individual or enterprise. Is it a collaboration product? Is it an enterprise portal? How can I, as an enterprise team member, contribute to it?

Well, maybe this article explains why the confusion (or lack of a real raison d'être as an enterprise application). No wonder Microsoft had to buy Groove -- while not a tool I would use, I can at least figure out an enterprise application for it. It seems the author of this article and I have come from different directions to the same conclusion:

"Despite its lack of support and direction from Microsoft, SharePoint Portal Server still remains a viable product for an Intranet portal, document library, and company forum. To make all of those pieces work takes a tremendous amount of effort and education that unfortunately is not readily available to the end user community."

Posted 4:53 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Tom Evslin has put together a great post on the need to sell innovation through transparency. His key point is that,in adopting new products and services, business customers want to maintain familiarity without any concern for the underlying technology. In his example his VoIP-based wholesale Internet telephony did not gain traction until they changed their marketing (sales approach) to look like a traditional wholesale carrier with an emphasis on reducing costs for international calls. At this point they only had to sell secondary issues such as the quality and robustness of a VoIP-based service to ensure no degradation in service levels. Bottom line: don't ask your business customers to change the way they do business.

I see this challenge in selling collaboration services. The easiest approach is to sell something business professionals use already (such as audio conferencing) but allows them to experience the convenience of new collaboration tools, such as web conferencing and instant messaging, as a corollary. The customer's business advantage arises in that they have more control over their business communications ("become your own teleconferencing operator") and the associated costs while increasing employee productivity.

This poses a challenge that has been seen in blog posts about recent VoIP and communications related conferences. The initial sell is the reduced costs for legacy long distance and telephone services, such as voice mail. But VoIP's true potential lies in all the associated applications that can be brought into play by building on a VoIP platform. The business opportunity lies in determining how to infuse these services transparently into current business practices.

Posted 7:57 p.m. by Jim Courtney

I hate to be somewhat pedantic but when you lose the thread of thought in a post due to spelling and grammatical errors, it kills the author's articulation of the point(s) s/he is trying to make. And when you post links that give your weblog visitors the infamous 404 message (or an equivalent in Firefox), you are losing site visitors and repeat audience.

Here are some basic check procedures that I attempt to follow when making posts:

• Re-read it before posting just to make sure the content makes sense; in fact most weblog authoring tools will provide a "Preview" option -- have a look at how it is going to look to others.
• Run the weblog editor's spell checker -- at least it catches basic spelling errors although it will not catch misspelled words that may be correct in a different context.
• TEST YOUR LINKS: I have come across two sites in the past two days referencing the authors' own weblog from another location where the link gave me the infamous 404 error (or the Firefox equivalent). By devious means I have figured out what the link should have been and notified the author.
• Put your contact information on the weblog; I would prefer to send a private message to the author such that s/he can discretely go back and correct the errors without embarrassment. Comments should be for debating the author's points, not pointing out spelling and grammar errors.

Bloggers love the fact that they can express their opinions free from the interference of an editor or other "corporate protocols". But that does not relieve them of the need to articulate their points in a manner readily understood and comprehended by their readers. Let's not give professional MSM editors obvious reasons to "put down" the weblogging wave.

BTW, occasional typos are tolerable but a spate of errors within a posting is where I get frustrated. I know the poster wants to make a point but the cumulative errors get in the way of articulating the overall post's argument. In fact, one often hears the remark that occasional typos show the human side of the blogger. Just make sure you are communicating your point at issue in a way that will still be easily comprehended.

[Tis mesage have been run thru the Bloger spel cheker. ;-)]

[MSM = MainStream Media]

Posted 11:42 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Yesterday Seth mentioned that he had been cited in the New York Times: "Godin reinforces what good marketers know". He went on to list 30 key points when strategizing marketing. While all are very valid, in particular I liked these:

• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.

Viral marketing; identifying customers whose needs you really satisfy and careful planning with feedback -- they all have their rewards for those with the discipline and patience to use these guidelines.

Posted 10:25 p.m. by Jim Courtney

An interesting post at PocketPC Thoughts:

• PocketPC sales: increased units by 43% with market share growth up 6% to 46%.
• Palm OS units off by 39%
• RIM Blackberry now holds second place in market units and market share.

And I still recomend a Dell Axim X50v complemented by a RIM Blackberry 7100 as the ideal mobile platform complements. Blackberry for phone & email; Axim for iPod, Skype Phone, PIM, RSS Reader, AvantGo Newsreader, etc.

Posted 10:45 a.m. by Jim Courtney

Towards the end of August 2004 my three-year-old HP Jornada 768 lost its display screen -- one day there was nothing but a big blob. Once I had determined that HP wanted close to the price of a new PocketPC for a replacement display screen I started a search for a replacement PocketPC. I had noticed three trends in newly introduced PocketPC's: VGA screens, WiFi and Bluetooth compatibility and dual memory card slots - Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital (SD). Of course they all had processors that were 2x to 3x faster than the Jornada.

My initial review of the market found that HP was about to come out with a new iPAQ hx4700 meeting these specs (the Jornada line had been killed when HP acquired Compaq) at around US$800 - when adding in a few essential accessories and a 3 year warranty this appeared a bit excessive.

About a month later Dell announced its new Axim X50 line with three models; the high end X50v, which met all my wishes, came in under $500 -- similar specs to the iPAQ but with fewer software packages included. Late in October I ordered one with a six to eight week delivery; it finally arrived in early December.

Quickly I brought it up to the level of a PDA with the standard Outlook Contacts and Calendar synchronization; installed the AvantGo news reader which I had used heavily on my Jornada and installed the Adobe Reader for PocketPC to handle some of the files I liked to carry around (for instance I "PDF" all my travel confirmations for ready access at the airport and hotel).

But then I started exploring what additional applications would be appropriate for this device. It came with Windows Media Player 10; a VGA screen and all that storage memory (I initially acquired a 512MB CF card); it would also seem appropriate to be great for storing photos. Was there some way to make mini-PowerPoint presentations? Skype had released a PocketPC version of their VoIP Internet Phone client. What else might be out there?

I found a key reference resource; the independent Aximsite containing not only user contributions and product reviews but also tutorials on all the key features such as WiFi and Bluetooth operation.

Of course the Axim has the standard Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Internet Explorer. But with a few application software packages I have taken this device beyond a PDA and newsreader to turn it into:

• an iPod-like music player (Windows Media Player and X50Mix equalizer)
• a ClassicFM radio receiver via the web browser and WMP
• a Photo and PowerPoint Album (Resco Photo Viewer)
• an Internet Phone (Skype for PocketPC)
• an RSS Reader (PocketRSS)
• (future) a DVD Player (after [legally] converting a DVD to an appropriate viewing format via, say, Pocket-DVD Studio)
• a MSN Messenger presence client (when near a WiFi connection)

Installing and learning these programs came with the usual surprises - both positive and negative. The PocketPC is not exactly Windows XP when it comes to user interfaces and does not have the most obvious common set of menus, action buttons and other functionality normally associated with desktop/laptop Windows software. I also noticed a need to often do a soft reset of the Axim to clean up what appeared to be "congestive memory failure" problems if several programs were running, particularly if I turned on WiFi or Bluetooth.

• AvantGo, installed in Built-In Storage ROM, seemed to take an inordinately long time to both launch and execute updates (~5 min); updates would take only a minute or two on my Jornada (I had actually reduced the number of subscriptions as a couple were no longer available)
• Running Adobe Reader was such a difficult experience that it was not reinstalled due to its 7MB size when the A02 upgrade was performed (see below)
• Touching a hyperlink - or even menu command - might have to be repeated several times to actually trigger the appropriate activation
• Setting up and maintaining a WiFi conneciton involved frequent and repeated visits to the Connections and Network Cards utilities with no obvious means of maintaining these settings as one moved from network to network.
• On the other hand Resco Photo Viewer not only created customized photo albums but also handled my PowerPoint presentations with ease; all I need is a VGA interface cable (available from Dell) and I could run PowerPoints via one of those display projectors without the need lug around a laptop.
• I found a way to run my favorite ClassicFM radio station through the WMP.
• Skype recently came out with a new version of their PocketPC client that made Internet phone calls a true reality although the voice quality was not at the level experienced when using Skype from my Dell Inspiron laptop.
• Attempts to save "Main Memory" RAM by loading certain programs into the "Built-In Storage" ROM resulted in these programs taking an inordinately long time to load. Many on Aximsite attributed this to relative "speeds" of the different types of memory. (Programs normally load in the 64MB RAM memory but this can get used up fairly quickly when program such as AvantGo load news articles.)

Two key maintenance milestones:

• in late January Dell brought out a ROM upgrade which marginally improved performance and fixed a couple of annoying bugs.
• in late February, the serial connector (the one that connects the Axim to the cradle for synchronization and installing programs) quit working -- within two business days Dell had a replacement unit to me.

Even with these changes I finally came to the conclusion that the Axim had memory management (or congestive memory failure) problems causing lockups reminiscent of Windows 95/98's tendency to lock up under any severe usage stress. I had decided that soft resets were going to be part of my life using the Axim but I was still impressed due to the variety of applications and services it provided.

In the meantime I came across market surveys that showed this unit to have become the top selling PocketPC on the market. Reviews, such as this one by Palm devotee Tanker Bob and only accelerated this market acceptance.

As the final straw at last week's Voice over the Net Canada conference, with probably a dozen WiFi networks radiating, I found that I could not get logged onto the public WiFi yet could connect in areas, such as at home and in WiFi-enabled coffee shops, where there were only one or two WiFi networks detected. More symptoms of congestive memory failure?

Last Thursday Dell announced a new A03 ROM upgrade. After upgrading on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I was surprised to find that all my performance issues evaporated:

• Both AvantGo and Adobe Reader, installed in the Built-In ROM memory, launch and operate with the same speed as program operating in RAM
• AvantGo updates are completed in under a minute;
• Hyperlinks and menu commands respond immediately on touching with the stylus
• the WiFi and Bluetooth connections can be turned on at will with no visits required to the relevant setup utilities simply to get a connection (Bluetooth still requires the pre-requisite pairing to connect to other devices and computers.)

even my standard ActiveSync activities require significantly less nurturing -- place it in the cradle and a synchronization starts, Pocket Weather updates, Skype shows me who is available for a phone call and I can get back to using it to facilitate my normal business activities without having to "force" the configuration under use. No hiccups! No more congestive memory failure.

(Note that this upgrade also is supposed to optimize battery usage through better utilization of the variable speed capability of the underlying Intel ARM processor. But I have not had occasion to check this out so early after doing the upgrade.)

With this upgrade, my Dell Axim X50v has finally become a true productivity tool, keeping in my shirt pocket all the information critical to my activities on-the-go. And the RIM Blackberry 7100 becomes the ideal companion for providing traditional telephone and robust email services. A final acknowledgement: congratulations and thanks to the Dell Axim product management and engineering team for acknowleding they had a problem and successfully addressing it. This is a model for how product support should work.

(Note to Axim X50 owners: I used the Sprite Backup "ROM Upgrade" process to avoid the need to reinstall programs after the upgrade. Following the instructions closely, including making the auxiliary Device Upgrade file, meant I had completed the upgrade in under 20 minutes.)

Posted 8:51 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Some posts will serve to provide bookmark to articles that I want for ready reference.

VC's, as part of their assessment formula, want to readily identify "unique intellectual property" in assessing a business opportunity. In more general terms they are looking for an "unfair competitive advantage".

Sometimes they fail to realize that "individual people" or "unique teams" can be that unfair competitive advantage if they have hustle, passion and resiliency. Kills the assumption that anyone can just "copy the business". This applies especially to a truly successful blog and any business model that may be associated with it, whether simply relying on AdWords to cover costs or demonstrating the passion behind a complete business operation. I keep in my RSS Reader blogs that I know I want to visit on a frequent basis because the author provides interesting, informative and provocative content -- from hish/her unique perspective.

Thanks to Alec Saunders for pointing this one out.