According to Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi the Apple iPhone has captured 31.8% of the mobile industry profit for the first half of the year and is responsible for 83.5% of Apple’s profits. Introduced just over two years ago no one can downplay the success of this device, which has changed the mobile phone market forever and forced incumbents like Samsung, LG, Nokia and RIM to take notice.

From the consumer’s perspective probably the two biggest strengths of the iPhone are its web browsing capabilities and the Apple App store, which at last count has over 65,000 applications and generates over $1 billion annually. The App store has made developers like Steve Demeter, author of Trism, extremely wealthy by giving them the freedom to focus on their application while leave the marketing, distribution and e-commerce to Apple. However, the glow around Apple seems to be fading with a recent series of lawsuits, boycotts and now an FCC investigation over Apple’s rejection on July 27, 2009 of the Google Voice application and the removal of all Google Voice-enabled applications from the App Store. What, if anything, the FCC suspects is not immediately evident, but one possibility could be whether or not AT&T asked Apple to remove the Google Voice application to prevent competition with its long distance and SMS services.

Government involvement is never welcomed by private enterprises, however, sometimes government intervention is the last resort if anti-competitive practices and collusion are present, not implying in any way that they are here. A ray of light through all of this has been that these anti-Apple sentiments are not falling on deaf ears — Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller has personally responded to several developers in the last week about their concerns and issues with Apple’s App Store approval process, responding in summary with “they are listening to the feedback and are taking it all in as they continue to evolve the App Store.”

IVR Technologies, has developed an iPhone application entitled iCallme:

that offers a fully integrated callback dialer for Talking SIP to the iPhone/iTouch platform that we have submitted to Apple for approval. While we are restricted by legal agreement on commenting on our personal experience, suffice it to say any changes to the App Store approval process that adds clarity, fairness, transparency and objectivity to the process and is devoid of carrier influence will certainly be welcome.  

One of the strengths of the Apple iPhone is the openness of the platform that allows creative and innovative developers to leverage the device’s ubiquity and connectivity to make an amazing device even more amazing. Hopefully, as Apple continues to blaze the trail into unchartered territory, this FCC investigation will result in a more level playing field for all developers across all mobile platforms.

Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral which was acquired by Google in July of 2007) is about to become available to the masses within a matter of weeks changing the landscape of telecommunications forever.  The service itself is packed full of useful features that streamline message management, improve call routing and enhance personal privacy control.  The service is quite compelling, and it even offers free calling to anywhere in the USA. 

As Google sets the bar higher for next-generation telecommunication service providers to compete for subscribers, they are driving more competition by bringing to market very compelling features and functionality.  Google Voice competes not only on price, but it also hits a home run with the feature set it offers.  This is a perfect example of how next-generation service providers must compete in this new market reality. 

Today, subscribers want to be able to manage their telecommunications services at their fingertips via the web or mobile device rather than by cryptic DTMF key sequences, and they want to have the freedom and flexibility to self-manage their services from home, the office or on the go.  In order for the next-generation telecommunication service provider to compete they must upgrade their networks to support innovative enhanced services, advanced messaging capabilities, flexible call routing capabilities and mobile device integrations through platforms like Talking SIP.  Talking SIP allows next-generation service providers to offer differentiated, empowering and high margin services to help drive revenue, increase margin and reduce churn in order to compete with hosted services like Google Voice.

Google Voice is a great example of how the phone services of the past are changing forever as we start to see voice applications/services that streamline telecommunications and leverage the connectivity and ubiquity of the Internet.

On May 21^st, industry visionary Jeff Pulver hosted the first HD Communications Summit in New York providing an opportunity to explore the issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP while bringing vendors, businesses and consumers together in a concerted effort to reboot the telecommunications industry. 

Leading vendors in the HD space like Polycom, Global IP Solutions, snom and Audiocodes were in attendance leading panel discussions on HD codecs, quality and its potential impact in the broadband, digital phone, mobile and enterprise arenas.   At one of Jeff’s recent social networking breakfasts he assured me that he never left the telecom space, but there was a void whether real or perceived, that’s certainly been filled today.  There is no mistaking that Jeff’s back in full force and form doing what he does best, which is sharing his vision and bringing the industry together as it crystallizes an emerging technology.

The range of the human voice extends from 80 hertz to 14,000 hertz, whereas traditional, or narrowband telephone calls, limit audio frequencies to the range of 300 to 3400 hertz.  HD voice or wideband audio eliminates the majority of bandwidth limitations and transmits in the range of 30 hertz to 7,000 hertz or higher resulting in a much richer and fuller conversation.

Click on the following player to experience the audio quality and clarity difference between a traditional narrowband voice call and one in HD wideband audio:

HD wideband voice results in a richer, fuller and more natural conversation that helps to bridge the gap that a lack of physical presence introduces.

In the coming months IVR Technologies, Inc. will be introducing HD voice capabilities to its flagship product Talking SIP, the fully integrated application, media and billing  solution, with HD integration to all of Talking SIP’s enhanced voice services and ultimately its new web-managed multi-party conferencing engine.

During the HD Communications Summit  Jeff announced the formation of a new HD VoIP marketing association, HD Connect and his plans to go to Wall Street to help educate the Buy Side and Sell Side about the possibilities of HD Voice. Jeff also shared his plans to reach out to the FCC later this year in support of a High Definition Voice/HDV initiative and announced the next HD Communications Summit will be taking place September 15-16^th with plans underway for both a European and an Asia Pac event for later this year.

Welcome back Jeff, we missed you!

Television and radio are being revolutionized by high-definition broadcasts and voice is not far behind. When we see a high definition TV program we cannot help but become immersed in the program, captivated by its crisp picture, its amazing detail and its captivating sound. With HD Radio it is a similar experience where there is no more second guessing a song’s lyrics as the words and notes come out with a clarity and fidelity that has never before been possible.

The new HD experience that we are experiencing with our televisions and radios is now headed to our daily voice conversations. As more and more telecommunications traverse broadband connections, the Internet and VoIP are able to do what they do best, which is improve the experience, empower the end user and make everything more efficient.

HD voice highlights the added value of communicating over an IP network as it detaches itself from the legacy and stagnated PSTN network of the past. With the advent of wideband codecs, users on IP networks are able to receive CD quality sound that greatly improves the communications experience with breathtaking clarity and fullness. Freed from the shackles of the PSTN network, HD voice lets users speak with family, colleagues and prospects with a richness and definition that is almost as good as being there, which bridges the distance and increases our level of connection.

While it will take some time for this technology to become widely adopted rest assured the revolution of wideband codecs is underway and is being led by industry leaders like IVR Technologies.

The telecommunications industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as it migrates from circuit to IP-based switching. This profound change is resulting in more efficient network architectures, which result in lower administration and operating overheads. This change is leading to the democratization of telecommunication services as well as the commoditization of how they are provisioned and it offers greater functionality, control and breadth of services.

Next-generation services attract new subscribers and retain existing ones as they are designed around empowerment to increase customer loyalty while offering a broader range of integrated services that carry with them higher margins. By combining new or enhanced services with feature-rich interactive voice response and flexible real-time billing facilities, the service provider can now have the infrastructure necessary to build highly competitive, customer tailored valued-added services that allow for more creative and targeted marketing.

With the substantial market growth that industry research firms have forecasted, success will come to those providers who understand and appreciate the necessity of being able to offer value added services that can drive higher profitability into their network through architectural efficiencies, lower administrative overhead and in-demand and adaptable services.

Technology and consumer wants have moved the smart phone of not so many years ago to the typical mobile phone of today. Functions such as web access, streaming video, music downloads and local search are increasingly being demanded by the mobile user and incorporated by the mobile phone provider. With phone manufacturers introducing feature-rich smart phones, and with the advanced capabilities of phones such as the Apple iPhone becoming more popular, questions arise over just how changing consumer handset needs and interests will impact the prepaid wireless space.

In this session industry visionaries will provide insights into these and other questions that are arising from the rapidly evolving capabilities of mobile phones, and how they will impact opportunities in the prepaid wireless space going forward.