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Mind Share
June 2002


Marc Robins

The State Of The Magazine, The Industry, And Some Notes From VON

BY MARC ROBINS


As a member of a premier industry publishing team, I am always proud when the publications I represent gain new stature and prominence in the marketplaces they cover. In the case of Internet Telephony, I am proud to report that the publication that helped define the nascent IP telephony marketplace and that has faithfully covered all of the twists and turns, trends, and meteoric growth of this revolutionary industry over the course of five information-packed years is now the official media sponsor of the two foremost IP Telephony conferences and trade shows in the industry: Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO (produced by TMC, the parent company of this magazine) and the Voice on the Net, or VON shows (founded by fellow industry guru Jeff Pulver and now owned by Key3Media).

While I always viewed Internet Telephony magazine as the one and only true voice of the industry, 100 percent dedicated to covering the broad array of technologies, products, and services that make up the packet telephony marketplace, this serves to further solidify its position as the industrys leading publication. This major accomplishment is in no small part due to the expert guidance of editorial director Greg Galitzine (who by the way is the original founding editor of the magazine). Gregs tireless dedication to the accurate and timely portrayal of the defining trends and issues that help form the industry has contributed greatly to its success over the years.

Notes From VON
At the last VON event this past May in Seattle, both Greg and I together with Publisher Rich Tehrani were literally swamped with meetings with vendors announcing new features, products, and services. (Notes of our individual meetings are posted online at www.tmcnet.com/it/0602/0602von.htm). It was heartening to witness firsthand the clear signs of a recovery in this still young industry, as vendor after vendor reported increases in interest and all-important orders.

Some of the key trends that weve noticed emerging over the last several months were also echoed and supported by the many meetings and discussions we had with industry participants at the show. Heres a summary of our findings:

The Great Service Provider Trickle-Down
The last few years of intense energy and money spent on developing carrier class solutions has not gone for naught, as we are starting to see many of the solutions and applications being newly tailored for the enterprise marketplace. What this means to the enterprise buyer is that there is a growing profusion of robust and reliable solutions coming to market that in my mind sets an entirely new standard of quality for the segment. This boost in quality and truly useful features is sure to induce more buyers to join the party.

SIP Is Three-Dimensional
Yes, SIP has indeed evolved from slideware to a host of real, nuts and bolts products and services. And rather than being relegated to a fad, we believe SIP is poised to gain long-term relevance due to its role as an enabling technology for Presence-oriented solutions. We see presence and instant messaging as a key driver for moving IP telephony solutions into the enterprise, and SIP has a seat in front.

All Is Not Lost In Service Provider Land
Meetings with Sprint and AT&T and other players highlight the fact that providers have rebooted, rather than aborted, their migrations to a packet-based infrastructure. While network-wide deployments are still just a trickle, there is a definite resurgence of activity in the space. And while it is doubtful that there will be enough business to go around to each and every softswitch vendor, there will be increasing business in this area as telcos ramp-up their legacy switch replacement activity.

IP Phones Galore
Another clear sign of increased activity in the enterprise space is the incredible growth in the number of IP phone sets available for sale (see the great IP Phone roundup by our associate editor Mike Von Wahlde in this issue). Covering the gamut of supported standards, IP Phones are gaining steam in the market due to the growing popularity of IP-enabled PBXs, plug-and-play deployment, and increasingly lower pricing. While a fully featured speaker phone with gorgeous color display will still set you back several hundred dollars, you can find a basic SIP Phone these days for around $70.

Watch out for Wireless
A new trend nipping at the heels of the status quo involves the use of Wi-Fi, or 802.11a/b wireless LAN technology, to provide the infrastructure for the making and taking and managing of voice calls within enterprise locations. A number of vendors are running very fast in this space, and we expect to see a profusion of vendors offering VoIP softphones for handheld computers, handsets for the single function user, and tight integration with a number of IP PBX solutions on the market. Some of the big players in this space are Symbol, Avaya, and Mitel.

Marc Robins is Vice President of Publications at TMC and Associate Group Publisher for INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. Please contact Marc with comments at mrobins@tmcnet.com.

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