I know I'm late on this one, but people keep asking me about Tello. I had limited ability to blog while at TMC last week, and by now, the story has been well covered.
If you want an insightful synopsis about Tello, and where it fits in the scheme of things, Andy Abramson - as usual - has it pegged - http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2006/01/tello_explained.html
I'll just add my two cents here. Jeff Pulver has the best timing of anyone I know in this market, and I'll say this much - announcing the Tello launch during the week of TMC sure diverted a lot of attention away from the show (perhaps his main rival), at least when the news cames out. That was pretty evident to anyone who was there. The spirit of competition is a 24/7 thing, no doubt about it!
I'm also of the view that Tello is poised raise the ante as all the big players start making big moves to marry voice with the web. VoIP Inc. getting cozy with Google is an example of what's coming now, and I'm sure we'll see more moves like this soon.
Skype has been making its own share of announcements, and I suspect they might see more doors closing now than those that are opening. As the IM platforms add their own voice apps, Skype's appeal may falter, esp if they do not adopt a more open platform. Right now, this prevents them from "federating" with other, SIP-based platforms, and perhaps more importantly, it limits their ability to penetrate the enterprise market, which is where good money can be made. Tello is all about the enterprise, and my take is they have the right vision at the right time to make all these cool applications work seamlessly with each other.
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2 comments:
Posted by: Aswath
I am of the opinion that there is no technical reason that prevents Skype from federating with others. If they want to they can deploy appropriate nodes for this purpose. It will be along the lines they interconnect with PSTN.
Posted by: George Ling
>>Jeff Pulver has the best timing of anyone I know in this market, and I'll say this much - announcing the Tello launch during the week of TMC sure diverted a lot of attention away from the show
I don't know about Pulver's Tello announcement distracted from TMC's Internet Telephony Expo. From all accounts it was a well attended show. I think the correlation is irrelevant actually.
For instance, suppose during the TMC show, Google announced it was offering free GoogleOut service or some other major VoIP news and it wouldn't distract from this VoIP show or any VoIP tradeshow for that matter - whether it's Internet Telephony Expo or VON. If anything, Google's announcment or any major VoIP news might draw more attention to the fact that there is a VoIP show going on.
Yes, there was a lot of news coverage was made on Tello the same week as the show, but a lot of it was ho-hum or downright negative. If Pulver made some gangbuster announcement during TMC's Internet Telephony Expo then you might have a case for Pulver making a "brilliant" move to stop TMC's momentum and show "buzz".
Still, I have to admit it does seem a bit coincidental that Pulver would coincide his new venture during his main rival's show. My guess is that it's a sign of respect by Pulver for the TMC VoIP show - perhaps even fear. I personally have attended several VONs abd I have attended the last 4 TMC Internet Telephony Expos and this show seems to be gaining ground on VON. VON still has more booths, but I'd venture to say that TMC's recent Ft. Lauderdale show had more attendance than the last VON I attended.
Both are great shows. Nothing like a little rivalry!
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