Check out this video of GIPS CMO, Joyce Kim presenting on mobile video at eComm in April.

It’s kind of scary seeing my mug on John’s post from the 27^th about GIPS mobile offerings.  However, as has been widely published in sources like Engadget, Gizmodo and the New York Times, there has been a crack in Apple’s normally impenetrable veil of secrecy around new product developments with the exposure of a prototype of Apple’s next generation iPhone.  The fact that the device has a front facing camera is the best response to the piece covered in John’s post.

A frequent criticism of Apple is that they don’t do anything that revolutionary.  It is that claim that makes Apple’s success all the more spectacular and game-changing.  Portable .mp3 players existed long before the iPod, but Apple’s entry changed not only the company, but the entire industry.  Similarly, the iPhone and the iPad were neither the first smart phone nor the first tablet PC on the market, but their introduction and resulting success have changed their markets significantly.  With the iPhone, hundreds of thousands of applications have proliferated, creating a whole new market for applications developers (historically a weakness for Apple).  Adding voice and video to some of these applications will enrich the experience for the end user.  To be sure, mobile video conferencing is again not a new category, as AT&T introduced video share about three years ago.  However, the service was not very usable and the device support was not where it needed to be.  However, with the introduction of frame-by-frame access to the camera which is included in iPhone OS 4 and the front facing camera which appears to be part of the 4G design, Apple will be poised once again to change the game with mobile video conferencing.

Now, no discussion of the leak would be complete without mention of the heavy handed response of Apple and the local authorities against Gizmodo and the individual who found the lost device.  However, coverage of that topic should be left to the professionals…or at least the fake professions at The Daily Show: 

Over the weekend, GIPS was featured on NBC’s San Francisco affiliate KRON 4 Evening News. The piece, which was part of Gabriel Slate’s regular technology segment, highlighted GIPS’ VideoEngine Mobile product, and discussed the future of real-time mobile video communication. Slate was right to focus on the lack of front facing cameras being a real barrier to adoption. It will be interesting to see how the public responds once the new iPhone and Android platforms start to eliminate this barrier, and as tablets become more popular and blur the lines between mobile and desktop computing. At the very least, the fact that mainstream media outlets are covering the trend can only be seen as a promising indication of market potential.

If you have trouble playing the video, you can view it on the KRON 4 website here.

Day 2 of eComm promises to be quite engaging, with a focus on voice and mobile. Perhaps one of the most interesting turn of events has been  how people have dealt with the travel problems that the Icelandic volcano has presented. Quite a few presentations have been cancelled because the speakers were not able to make it to the show. However, a couple have gone forward by presenting remotely via Skype. Martin Geddes is currently discussing cloud communications from his living room in London. The calls have been dropped a couple times, but overall the presentations have been very effective, and provided a good argument for video conferencing in lieu of in person meetings, as well as the value video can bring to a call. Martin’s video dropped out about 5 minutes into his presentation, and it became much less engaging and more difficult to follow the talk with only the audio. But I find it interesting that it took an act of god to get a conference about emerging communication technology to embrace video conferencing as a presentation vehicle.

More after the morning break.

Afternoon Update

The main theme of the late morning/ early afternoon talks was telecom policy, culminating in a panel on the National Broadband Plan. There seemed to be a consensus that it was a good move for the plan to focus on allocating more spectrum (500 MHz worth), as the future of the Internet will be mobile. However, there was quite a bit of disagreement, and spirited discussion, on how to ensure equal access to content, and how that might be regulated. Panelists seemed to be split on if there are adequate tools to measure service, with Richard Bennet from ITIF indicating that websites like Speedtest.net were adequate, while Susan Estrada from FirstMile maintained that there is a lack of standards for service measurement, and that it is difficult to ascertain where in the series of networks which comprise the Internet possible bottlenecks and disruptions of service may occur.

 Perhaps the most contentious issue (no surprise) was net neutrality. There were a lot of great points made, some of which I had never considered. Tracy Rosenberg from Media Alliance was a strong advocate for structural separation and protection for independent voices. Susan countered that the topic of net neutrality is premature and confuses the discussion, which should really focus on internet access, and not content. Richard agreed, pointing out that a third of Americans do not have access to the Internet, and furthermore many Americans do not want to pay for a high speed connection. My first reaction was to also agree with Susan and Richard. It made sense that we should try to get everyone Internet before we worry about regulating it. However, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why the issues had to be tackled sequentially. If we wait too long to figure out net neutrality, won’t it be harder to enact some sort of reform once we establish an acceptable level of broadband penetration? And aren’t the issues somewhat related anyway? Paul Brigner from Verizon asserted, to no one’s surprise, that Verizon has no interest in blocking service to its subscribers. But, as the panel began to discuss right before they were cut off, access in rural areas is one of the biggest issues in the Broadband Plan. So while Verizon may claim they have no interest in limiting service, they may not have an incentive to provide service to some consumers if the cost of doing so is too high. At that point  there needs to be either regulation to mandate coverage, or a way to subsidize network expansion. Basically, there need to be rules for how service gets provided, and who is responsible for management, which evokes net neutrality in my mind.

There was also a good open discussion around many issues, including the video conferencing ecosystem. From the attendees, it seems like there are still some concerns about quality. But the main issue remains interoperability. I claimed that consumer networks will probably continue to be separate, but enterprises will have to be able to connect. H.264 SVC should hopefully accelerate that. 

 My favorite talk was again something that was a little off the beaten path. Marc Smith evoked my inner social science nerd by introducing us to NodeXL’s analytic abilities for social networks. Really cool stuff.

Time for some coffee.

Late Afternoon Update

The afternoon sessions seem like they are leading up to tomorrow’s sessions pretty nicely. Tomorrow is all about augmented reality, and we have been getting a taste of what is possible with that. For instance, Jason Kolb from Cisco discussed how Google Wave and XMPP can enable social communication apps that help people interact with other folks in their immediate environment, in a very elegant, user-friendly way.

Now, before yesterday, I had no idea what augmented reality was. But over the last 24 hours I have been able to get a bit of a handle on it. Similar to virtual reality, augmented reality uses information from outside one’s current physical environment to enhance their experience. When I first heard this, I thought of people running around with clunky helmets in a lame sci-fi version of the future. But the more I learn about it, the more I can see a practical purpose for AR apps.                                                                                     

One of the most promising areas is mobile communications. If you are already using GPS or navigation services on your phone, wouldn’t you also like to hold the phone up to get even more information in real time about your surroundings, such as when landmarks were founded, or sales at stores in the neighborhood? AR apps give you that by overlaying additional information on top of a more traditional cell phone or camera view.

I am sure I am just scratching the surface, but John G. should be able to dive a little deeper tomorrow.

Hey folks. Many of us from the GIPS team are at the lovely San Francisco Airport Marriot this week for the Emerging Communication Conference (eComm). eComm is a great show not only because it brings together so many people from the communications industry, but also because the format allows speakers to present a variety of topics, and encourages dialog among participants. We are in a break between speakers, so I thought I would take this chance to give a brief overview from the morning.

I missed the first couple speakers because I arrived a little late due to Google Maps giving me an incorrect address for the hotel. I usually trust Google with my life, but this is the second time in 3 days that the company has messed up in a pretty major way for me (the previous being not being able to read an email after I replied to it on my phone. Shouldn’t Gmail run like butter on Android?). Anywho, the two talks I managed to see were pretty interesting. Carlos Kirjner from the FCC gave an overview of the National Broadband Plan. For me the takeaway was that, though broadband access is crucial for increased connectivity, it is meaningless without proper resource allocation and regulation which ensures competition and consumer choice. After that, JP Rangaswami from BT/ Ribbit spoke about the rise of the open network, and the need for cross platform and network openness in the face of vertical integration and control. He made two very interesting points. One is that sometimes technological followers are just as, if not more, important than followers, but obviously could not exist without the innovative companies first breaking into the market. He illustrated this point by claiming that Android couldn’t exist without iPhone, but that the open model Android espouses could prove to be more revolutionary in the long run. The second point he made was that, though people think of content as king, a lot of content is highly commoditized. For instance, the price of music indicates that people aren’t necessarily paying for content, but rather the convenience of being able to purchase and access music from anywhere.

The strange Pink Floyd/ reggae mashup that has been playing during intermission is dimming, which means we are about to start again. It’s been a fun morning. Expect another update shortly.

Early Afternoon Update

Ok, back at it.

Jonathan Rosenberg from Skype spoke about publishing and ecommerce. Though this seems like a surprising topic for them to discuss, his point was very relevant. He believed that the kind of rich interaction that real-time communication enables can drive more involvement with publishing and commerce. He displayed a slide which showed a correlation between call quality and call duration. Skype asked participants to rate the quality of their calls, and found that calls using HD voice lasted 50% longer than those using G.729. The same principle should apply throughout the Internet. If people can interact in a meaningful way, they should be more likely to stay longer on social networking sites and would be more likely to buy more content from an online publisher. 

Cullen Jennings from Cisco followed by introducing ViPR, which utilizes the PSTN, SIP and distributed hash tables to validated phone numbers in order to connect islands of similar technology. So, instead of relying on the PSTN for a phone call, users in different companies can now call each other over IP networks and get the benefits of HD voice and video.

Dawn Nafus from Intel then brought an anthropologist’s point of view to claim that the paradigm of emerging vs. emerged countries is no longer relevant, and that there are plenty of countries who are ready for new technology, but are not being targeted as consumers by technology producers.

Michael Zirngibl from Ringio announced the launch of Ringio’s rich calling service, which integrates CRM functionality with telephony. The idea is that by including social information with a call, the service will improve customer service and sales performance. I can definitely see this going a long way.

Counterpath also launched their Nomadic PBX which connects users through their mobile numbers to provide UC and FMC functionality across platforms.

Great morning, but I am hungry, so it is off to lunch.

Early Afternoon Update

With a full belly, here are some of the afternoon highlights:

Since I am a map geek, Assaf Binderman’s talk has to be my favorite so far. He showed how data can be used to make cities more efficient and deliver better service. For instance, he showed a map of Florence during rush hour, with an overlay of cell phone activity and bus routes. From the map, it became clear that there were hotbeds of pedestrian activity that were not adequately serviced by the bus system. His group at MIT has also worked on the super cool Copenhagen Wheel project, which not only provides regenerative braking power to a bike, but also collects and emits data based on a the activity of a city’s users. So users have a clean, fast mode of transportation, as well as receive maps and directions, and cities can get information about traffic patterns and pollution.

After the keynote from Ge Wang, which included many musical demos of apps from Smule, our very own Joyce Kim gave a kick ass presentation on the future of mobile video calling, and the differences between the Android and iPhone platforms. In short, H.264 SVC is going to open up a lot of possibilities, but it is still unclear how much demand there is for real time video on small devices, though tablets may change that. The iPhone has some advantages for developers (predictable hardware) but users may prefer the openness and variety that comes with Android. I think you can probably expect a more technical follow up post from one of our engineers on that topic.

Overall, it has been a very entertaining and informative day. Now off to the reception for a cocktail.

This week Microsoft presented two new phones, Kin One and Kin Two, which have an emphasis on social-networking apps such as facebook and twitter.  The Kin One phone, manufactured by Sharp, definitely looks different from other phones out there, with a wider, shorter form factor. I would never consider buying one, but it appears to be targeted at a younger demographic. The phone will be released in the US in the next month, and will probably hit the European market this fall.  

When I heard the news, the first thing I wanted to know was what mobile OS the phones would support. To my surprise, they would support neither Windows Mobile 6.5 nor the upcoming Windows Phone 7, but rather a special version of Windows Mobile. The fact that they will be running a special and secret OS version also implies that there will not be any available apps to download or purchase. It almost seems like the launch is just a joke and a smells a bit of desperation from Microsoft. The new Android phones already support what Microsoft is trying to address, plus much more. Other than the inclusion of the Zune media player and the Zune Marketplace, there appears to be nothing noteworthy about these phones. The only conclusion I can draw is that the price tags will be compelling enough for a younger generation to choose them over Android/iPhone.

There has been quite a bit of action on the mobile communications front over the last few days. It seems as if we are inching closer to a richer mobile VoIP experience, even if mobile phones’ most basic function may be getting left behind. Here is a brief roundup:    

-          Vonage announced the availability of an application for Android phones. The application will run over both WiFi and 3G, and will tie into a user’s existing Vonage service.

-          Rumor has it the next iPhone will be called iPhone HD, presumably to reflect a new 960 x 640 screen (though HD  voice would be nice). There also appears to be concern that sticking to convention, and naming it iPhone 4G would just promote a 4G service that AT&T does not currently have.

-           Finally, Tsahi Levent-Levi makes some great points over at the Radvision blog about the dumbing down of smartphones. Who hasn’t missed a call because they accidentally turned the ringer volume down, or swiped the screen the wrong direction and hung up on someone? Why has making and receiving phone calls taken a backseat to supposedly more advanced functionality?

Last week, Google continued its shopping spree by acquiring San Francisco startup Episodic, a company which provides a platform for real-time video streaming and management. While Google has not yet announced what they plan to do with the acquisition, it is fairly safe to assume the technology will somehow get incorporated into the YouTube platform.

As a company which supplies real-time communications technology, we at GIPS hear quite a bit about real-time streaming technology. To be honest, the term “real-time streaming” seemed to be an oxymoron at first. How can something be considered “real-time” if it is being buffered and sent out with some significant amount of delay? However, the more I have thought about it, the more I think I understand the term. In my somewhat professional opinion, content could be streamed “real-time” if it is more or less being sent as it is captured. The difference between streaming and real-time communication is that streaming is strictly a one way street. There is no interaction between video senders and recipients; simply a video broadcast being sent out as it happens.

While I am not sure of the revenue potential for such technology (never let that stand in Google’s way), I can think of a few interesting applications, citizen journalism being one of them. Take yesterday’s 10^th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race in San Francisco, perhaps my favorite day of the year. What if you didn’t want to brave the rain as a spectator, but still wanted to watch adults go down San Francisco’s curviest street on children’s toys? You could watch videos like the one below (notice Andrew in red at the start, and me in white at the 1:55 mark) in more or less real time.

Now, many people would be fine just watching an archived version of these kinds of events, but maybe there are enough folks who want to view it as it happens so they can feel like they are really there. To me it seems like two social trends- the on-demand/ DVR mentality, and the reality TV/ 15 minutes of fame world- are colliding head on. My guess is Google will simply add another feature to YouTube to make it easier to load and watch mobile videos, but that it will hardly revolutionize the site.

Updating yesterday’s post, it looks like Apple will be releasing a new iPhone this summer, and rumor is it will have a front facing camera. Could this be the start of a real movement toward mobile video conferencing?

Last week, Sprint announced that it will release the HTC Evo this summer, making it the first phone to run on Sprint’s 4G network. The Evo will run on the Android OS and the same 1GHz Snapdragon used by the Nexus One. Sprint currently offers 4G service in 27 US cities, covering approximately 30 million users, with a plan to quadruple its coverage by the end of the year.  

Perhaps the most significant feature offered by the Evo is that it has cameras on both sides of the phone. As I see it, the biggest technical hurdle to mobile video conferencing isn’t operator acceptance or network quality (though those are certainly issues) but it is the lack of front facing cameras on the vast majority of smartphones. It is pretty difficult to have a video call if the mobile user is pointing the camera away from himself or herself, or is looking into the camera, but cannot see the screen. GIPS’ VideoEngine Mobile product has been available for over a year, and the first thing we say when asked if someone can use it to develop an application on a given mobile platform is, “yes, but does the phone have a front facing camera?” The enabling technology for mobile video has been there for a while, but phones are just now catching up.

The other important piece of this news is that Sprint’s network should facilitate mobile video conferencing adoption. While video calling is possible over 3G, it should be a lot better over 4G. I mean, 4 is better than 3, right? Well, probably, but it will depend how widespread the coverage is, how easily video calls will be handed off between cells, and if Sprint has the capacity to manage a significant number of users accessing the network at once. Sprint claims 4G download speeds are 10 times faster than those of 3G, but if users are demanding more bandwidth intensive services, will Sprint run into the same problems AT&T experiences from iPhone users overloading the network? Since the Sprint won’t be offering a 4G device for a few more months, there is no way of knowing yet. However, this is something to keep in mind as Sprint steps up its efforts to promote its 4G service.