Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

Skype Launches Exclusive New Edition For Mac Users

Via the Skype web site:  Skype Launches Exclusive New Edition For Mac Users.  From this release it looks as if the Mac development of Skype is heading in a very different direction from the Windows version, as there is no mention of support for Skype video or contact grouping.  Rather, Skype is adding in a couple of Mac-only features such as re-sizeable chat drawers and drag & drop functions.

This is disappointing news to the Mac folks (like myself) who have been hearing rumors of a 2.0 version of Skype for Mac for months now, a release that would again establish feature parity between Mac & Windows versions of Skype.

I guess it's time to start playing with the beta of Sightspeed 5.0, which delivers identical support for Mac and Windows, and a Skype-like set of features.

UPDATE:  I stand corrected, Skype has released a preview version of Skype 1.5 with video for the Mac.  I'm looking forward to giving it a test even though it appears that this is a pre-beta release.

Alan Sulkin - Is Siemens Enterprise Networks On Its Own?

VoIP Guru Alan Sulkin is a new contributor to VoIP Loop.  In his  first post Alan provides a thorough analysis of the prospects for the future of Siemens' enterprise communications business.

Alan goes through a list of potential buyers for Siemens and offers his analysis of the opportunities and drawbacks presented by each company.  I agree with his assessment, especially his view that Avaya makes the most natural buyer for Siemens, but it still wouldn't surprise me to see someone like HP step in.  It would broaden HP's scope in the enterprise networking market, and perhaps more importantly, the services and integration market, and it would allow HP to continue to exploit its relationship with Microsoft to become an another provider of integrated Microsoft communications solutions, using the Siemens products to provide back-end telephony services as part of an integrated enterprise communications solution.

Kudos to Verizon

While Verizon deserves scorn for its overly restrictive wireless policies and stunts such as crippling the new RAZR's ability to transfer tunes, I must offer praise for their VoiceWing VoIP service.

I recently decided to take the plunge and purchase a residential VoIP service.  My first choice was AT&T CallVantage based on their top score in a recent CNET test, but when I tried to sign up on their web site I received a notice stating that they didn't support E-911 services in my area and thus couldn't provide me with service. 

I then tried signing up for VoiceWing (same price as Vonage, more stable business).  Verizon's web site took my order but with a disclaimer that if they couldn't verify if 911 support was available.  The disclaimer stated that if it wasn't available, they would refund all charges and cancel the order.  Three days later a box arrived containing a LinkSys ATA that was about the size of a deck of cards. After less than five minutes of setup time the service was active and has worked flawlessly, though their web site is slow as molasses and all the help pages seem to repeatedly time out.  The only other real complaint was that they didn't provide any instructions on how to access voicemail (which is why I was trying to access the help pages).  However a five minute call to one of the most pleasant tech support people I've ever met got me all the info I needed to get my voicemail account set up.  Call quality has been very good, and I'm loving the fact that I can send voicemail to e-mail and simultaneously ring my cell phone.

So I've jumped into the world of residential VoIP after using an IP Centrex service at my office for the last five years.  Let's hope the experience continues to be pleasant.

Microsoft & Nortel Unite

As has been widely reported today, Microsoft & Nortel announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership to deliver unified communications services and solutions.  The biggest components of today's announcement were that Nortel will deliver service and support for Microsoft's unified communications solutions, and that Nortel & Microsoft will team to jointly develop future offerings.  Nortel had previously announced support for integration of its CS1000 line into Microsoft's Live Communications Server line, which they reaffirmed today.

I thought the announcement was missing a key component - federation between Nortel's Multimedia Communications Server (MCS) platform and LCS 2005/OCS 2007.  I'd expect we'll see this at a future point in time but for now it seems that Nortel still intends to position MCS as a competing product, outside the scope of this agreement

I also think that this announcement shows that the IP communications/telephony vendors are continuing to pick sides in what is looming as a growing battle between Cisco and Microsoft for the enterprise communications application space.  Nortel appears to be realizing that embracing Microsoft is a preferable strategy rather than trying to compete with both Microsoft and Cisco. 

Finally, Nortel steps into a vacuum created by the uncertainty of the future of Siemens' enterprise communications business (currently up for sale).  Siemens has enjoyed a close relationship with Microsoft and integration of Siemens products including the HiPath 8000 & OpenScape was an integral part of Microsoft's recent announcements of Office Communications Server 2007.  Nortel appears to be stepping up to potentially assume Siemens role as Microsoft's key communications partner, an arrangement which is obviously mutually beneficial to both organizations but creates new questions for companies such as Avaya & Alcatel (as well as whatever becomes of the Siemens enterprise communications group).

One thing is for certain, the last couple of weeks have been extremely eventful for the enterprise communications space.  We're in the early stages of a major transition as we move from "IP Telephony" to unified communications.  Stick around, it's going to be a fun ride.

Inside Digital Media Interview

I recently did an interview with "Inside Digital Media" on the topic of unified communications and the impact of Microsoft's recent announcements.  The interview is available via a webex stream (along with an accompanying slide deck).

Here's the link - clicking on it will launch the installer for the webex client (if you don't already have it on your system) and play the interview.  It works for both Mac & Windows.

Is "Always On" A Good Thing?

During my talk on the real-time economy(pdf) at CTC last month in Boston I touched a bit on the challenges that individuals have establishing lines of demarcation between home and office as wireless and mobile technologies enable us to be continuously connected to our office applications.  I raised the question of whether or not organizations have an obligation to help enforce work/life balance, and if there are some social ramifications to always being connected (i.e. ignoring your kids while you read e-mail on your blackberry).

Mark Cuban has some of his own thoughts in a blog post today.