We've been saying, well I've been saying for months here that QoS, services and applications are what matters in VoIP. So, I'm not surprised to be hearing those words come out of people's mouths at SuperComm and in the traditional press.
So, while two of the true giants, Cisco and IBM echo those sentiments, the innovation does not occur with them. It occurs at events like VON, from companies that dare to be different, which fight uphill for media coverage against the giants, and worse, for sales of their new technology against the older technology of the giants.
No one gets fired for buying Cisco or IBM. They are safe purchases. But those who dare to go to the next level of thinking, and dare to experiment are the ones who change the way business is done. I will give creedence to both IBM and Cisco. As much as they are in the same operational mindset as Microsoft, letting others blaze the trails, then charge in like a battleship, they do end up leading the way with the corporate world. They understand timing, but in this wave of a telecom revolution, the timing is moving faster than Moore's Law due to how small a world the Net has made things.
Presence as a concept has been around for years. But it's only now, with enough broadband conectivity, and mobile access, has it really started to take hold. Add in VoIP, then GPS, then WiFi and location based presencen will be a very valuable tool, not so much for the idea of making calls, but more for information being relayed in Voice and text, moving over IP.
The referenced Goldman Sachs survey also needs to be read with a grain of salt, despite being referenced by InternetNews.com. There bent is public companies, not the startups and private firms. The innovation rests with them. So the numbers, that may be apropos for today, with respect to them, are only partially on target when looking at the whole scheme of things.