Posts Tagged ‘Wireless Week’
August 26, 2008
How does Mark Jacobstein do it, you ask?
You’re not alone - those of us at iSkoot often ask ourselves the very same question, particularly as our indomitable CEO marches in and out of the office with suitcase in one hand and laptop in the other (for the 3rd time this week, no less).
But still, amidst the flurry that comes with spearheading a mobile start-up in the Valley, Mark’s penciled in time to pen some insight for “Wireless Week.”
In his most recent contribution, a piece entitled “Mobile Phones are Very Un-PC,” Mark dismantles the common misconception that mobile phones work like pocket-sized computers.
Examining the multi-task capacity of a PC versus your average mobile handset, Mark points out “Even those of us who use our PCs for little more than e-mail, IM, Web browsing and iPod docking take for granted that we can open multiple browser windows on top of two half-composed e-mails and three Word documents all while listening to iTunes and chatting on AIM. Try that on your phone.”
Mark also reminds that in terms of basic resources - from screen resolution to data transfer speed - it’s an apple and orange comparison:
“Screen size and resolution limits are brutal; after all, the Q in QVGA means we’re working with a quarter the real estate we had on PCs in the early 1990s. And even QWERTY phones, let alone the more typical 12-key devices make triple-tapping your way into your favorite Web service sheer agony. Factor in the current speed of data transfer, even through those shiny 3G pipes, and you can induce flashbacks to the dark days of dial-up. At least until your battery runs out.”
Beyond the obvious hardware constraints still are the fundamental differences in the way a user interacts with a service depending on whether he is using a PC or a mobile handset. Mark illustrates:
“[F]iltering content to bring a user their most essential information, while useful on a PC, is absolutely critical in mobile, with its limited real estate and even more limited “discover” capabilities….To give a nod to loopt [a mobile social network that uses location-based services to let users map where their friends are], seeing your friends’ locations when you’re all on your PCs is probably unnecessary, since PCs don’t move around much. Seeing the location of their handsets, on the other hand, is profoundly powerful.”
With the frenzy of mobile development happening in recent years, particularly hot on the trail of the latest iPhone release, Mark expects that we’ll see soon enough whether developers really get the PC-mobile distinction. An appreciation for these finer details is, as Mark puts it, “critical not just for success, but for survival.”
Posted in: Management Team, New Things, Releases, iSkoot Appearances | No Comments
Tags: Mark Jacobstein, Wireless Week
May 16, 2008
When you’re in the business of connecting people with their friends and family all over the world, you’re bound to get the “warm fuzzies” from time to time. The stories from our users are awesome - college students Skypeing home to Japan while strolling around campus in California? It’s a beautiful thing!
But with a mobile VoIP solution that connects users like never before AND jives with the carrier business model, the love doesn’t end there. When interviewed by Monica Alleven of Wireless Week recently, our CEO Mark Jacobstein pointed to our collaborations with Skype and 3 as great examples of how when mobile VoIP is done right, it doesn’t rock the business model boat. In the case of our carrier-friendly, circuit-switch-based iSkoot for Skype solution, our approach is–as Mark puts it–all about “harmonizing.”
In her piece “Calling our Neighbors…In China?” Monica gives a quick breakdown of the carrier appeal of iSkoot’s mobile VoIP solutions:
“The value proposition goes something like this. People aren’t likely to call their friends or family in other countries using their mobile phones because they don’t want high toll charges. Instead, they’re going to wait until both parties are in front of their PCs and use something like Skype. But if you add iSkoot to the equation, the mobile operator can offer cheap international calling and capture minutes that otherwise wouldn’t get used.”
And that’s just the beginning. Pointing to our deployment with 3, Mark reminds that calls via the Skype/iSkoot application don’t involve any termination fees either, which are “traditionally the big concern for mobile operators after network buildout and payroll.”
In 3’s case, they decided to take this feather-in-cap and run with it, offering 3 Skypephone users those Skype-to-Skype calls for FREE. Thanks to iSkoot’s carrier-friendly architecture, that’s a pretty appealing customer acquisition tool right there.
And from the look of global 3 Skypephone sales to date, we’d say a lot of new people are feeling the love. 
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, Management Team, The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: 3 Skypephone, iSkoot for Skype, Mark Jacobstein, Wireless Week
April 23, 2008
The industry implications of the 3 Skypephone’s “Best Mobile Handset” Silver Medal win back at the Mobile World Congress certainly sparked interest over at Wireless Week, and in her article “Around the World with VoIP” journalist Monica Alleven looked to iSkoot to get the insider perspective on the ostensible push for VoIP-enabled handsets.
In an interview, our CEO Mark Jacobstein affirmed that “getting the nod from the GSMA awards was a big thrill, and iSkoot is getting inquiries from operators around the world, including North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. It’s fair to say there’s a high degree of interest both for solutions with brands like Skype and for white-label solutions.”
Monica surmises that operators are going to inevitably beef up their data networks to meet consumer demand for mobile broadband. So couldn’t they–in theory–offer their own flavor of mobile VoIP?
Mark explains that “much like voice mail or any number of other services that carriers provide using third-party specialists, the same can happen with VoIP. iSkoot can power [carriers'] VoIP solutions with any number of VoIP communities or provide a white-label solution. And with IP, iSkoot can boost voice minutes without requiring carriers to pay termination fees, historically a big expense.”
Mark went on to espouse the carrier-friendly aspects of the iSkoot solution, one of many features that makes our VoIP-enabling technology unique.
“A big differentiator for iSkoot is it uses the voice channel, not the data channel. That’s far more operator-friendly than a lot of other solutions. Plus, [in the case of the 3 Skypephone] iSkoot is deep in the stack, so it’s not just an application. It’s tied into the call log and address book and uses a gateway that sits inside the carrier’s network operations center, allowing the connection between mobile devices and the IP cloud.”
Monica’s conclusion: “A lot remains to be seen in terms of how U.S. operators incorporate VoIP into their offerings. In the meantime, to say the VoIP players have their heads in the clouds could mean a very good thing.”
We like to think so.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: 3 Skypephone, awards, Mark Jacobstein, trends, voice vs. data, Wireless Week
April 7, 2008
Our carrier-deployed mobile Skype products aren’t just making waves, they’re blazing trails! Just ask Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.
In a Wireless Week interview last week, Jacobs affirmed that the wireless telecommunications industry is fundamentally shifting into new, media-saturated territory. It’s no secret that mobile users today are demanding more broadband (or “broadband-like”) capabilities from their handsets, and Jacobs suspects that operators are going to have to rethink the way they manage their networks as a consequence.
When asked about products he identifies as potentially leading indicators of fundamental change in the industry, Jacobs pointed to mobile VoIP–and particularly to the wireless Skype solutions being offered by 3 (alongside technologies like Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, Google’s Android platform, and the infamous iPhone from Apple).
As to just how disruptive these new and innovative offerings will prove to be, Qualcomm’s chief exec says the industry will have to wait and see. But as Jacobs points out, “There are certainly desires by some of the new entrants to make some fundamental changes in the industry.’
Yep, that sounds like us.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: 3, Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm, trends, Wireless Week
