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After Microsoft acquired VoIP technology company Teleo last August, there was lots of speculation about Microsoft’s VoIP plans. Olga Kharif at BusinessWeek provides a detailed update on the current state of play in Voice over Microsoft Protocol? Some excerpts:
Microsoft has yet to make public its plans for Teleo, but BusinessWeek Online has learned that the software maker plans to weave Teleo’s bells and whistles into a number of applications, such as Hotmail and instant messaging. Microsoft also hopes to integrate VoIP into its new paid-search platform, which is being rolled out worldwide, as well as a planned classified-ad service.
The VoIP efforts are aimed at gaining traction in online advertising, where growth has been stunted by the outfit’s anemic Web-search share.
Ouch, but it’s true. Not to mention the slow roll out of adCenter.
Other parts of MSN are under pressure, too. Visits to MSN’s Instant Messenger site, where users can download Microsoft’s IM software, have dropped since the summer, according to Web consultancy Hitwise.
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VoIP entrepreneur Jeff Pulver says Microsoft is losing IM users to Skype. Traffic woes were a major reason for MSN’s September management restructuring, says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with consultancy Directions on Microsoft.
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As Microsoft tries to fight back, VoIP will be one of its major technology weapons this year. The software giant will roll out the various VoIP capabilities between February and August, sources tell BusinessWeek Online. Brooke Richardson, Microsoft’s group product manager at MSN, confirms that the company is considering adding VoIP functionality to many of its applications and services. “Voice is becoming not a nice-to-have, but a must-have” feature, she explains.Here’s how it’s expected to work. Microsoft will add PC-to-phone calling capabilities to its IM and e-mail services. That means Hotmail or IM users, for instance, will be able to place calls directly from their e-mail or IM address books. Microsoft plans to introduce Windows Live Messenger, or LM, offering such features this year.
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Finally, VoIP technology will come in handy as part of Windows Live Expo, an upcoming classifieds service from Microsoft that’s expected to jump-start an era of social-networked search.
Much more by following the link. I don’t believe VoIP is sufficient for a turnaround, but Microsoft will surely need it to get into the game.
Last night’s CES keynote by Bill Gates and helpers is drawing a variety of reactions from mostly favorable (Joe Wilcox at Jupiter Research) to mostly unfavorable like that of Peter Kafka at Forbes:
A note to the poor guy who kept pestering me for my press pass to see Bill Gates speak Wednesday evening: Sorry. I have no idea why you were desperate to see the Man of the Year’s presentation, but if it makes you feel better, you didn’t miss much.
This isn’t a dig at the Microsoft co-founder, or his company. It’s just that Gates didn’t have a lot of news to deliver at the Consumer Electronics Show keynote address, and what he did say took an awfully long time–more than 90 minutes, by my very rough count. The much shorter synopsis: Microsoft wants to do more than run your PC; it wants to be in your living room, your phone and everywhere else you can think of, just as fast as it can.
Frankly, I’m in the latter camp. Here’s a quick rundown of what I felt to be the “high” spots:
Digital Lifestyle Demo: I’m always a sucker for futuristic demos – the gadgets are great and they always show the poverty of imagination of the marketeers. This was no exception. Poor Bill Gates got to demonstrate a vision of the digital lifestyle of four years in the future where lots of interesting technology is apparently to be used for wildly inappropriate purposes.
Windows Vista: Very little was new here. I personally was giving demos of many of the same Vista (then Longhorn) features two years ago. Also, you can say “Confident,” “Clear,” and “Connected” too many times.
Media Player: The unintentionally humorous appearances by MTV Networks’ Music Group President Van Toffler and “wardrobe malfunction” guy, Justin Timberlake didn’t detract from the fact that the URGE music service may be a winner. It requires only Windows Media Player, not a Media Center PC, and it’s available as both a subscription and individual item purchase model. All devices compatible with Windows Media will work with URGE. The risks are that the pricing will be wrong and that MTV will choke it with non-musical flummery.
Media Center Deals: New content deals for Media Center PC’s are useful but the recent growth in Media Center shipments was due to low end boxes shipped without TV tuners so it’s unclear what real effect TV oriented content will have. And sorry, but introducing a 2nd generation of Portable Media Centers won’t fix a flawed model.
Windows Mobile: The Palm Treo 700w looks like a winner and that will make Microsoft look good as well. Microsoft based smart phones are looking up.
VoIP: The partner phones are typical of the genre and Microsoft is a bit late to the party. They were with mobile phones too, of course.
Xbox 360: Were Gates and Ballmer really boxing or was it rigged? It’s still early days for Xbox 360, but it’s looking good, and despite some press astonishment, the availability of a HD DVD attachment this year was as certain as death and taxes.
The Bill Gates (et al.) keynote is still going on as I write this, but the press releases are out. The overview in Microsoft Showcases Windows Innovations to Help Customers Navigate Through the Digital “World of More” is frankly rather clearer than the rushed presentation (narrative version here). Skipping to the new news:
DIRECTV. Microsoft and DIRECTV Inc. will announce a multiyear agreement that will enable the flow of DIRECTV digital content between Windows-based PCs, DIRECTV’s digital set-top boxes, PlaysForSure™ devices and the Xbox 360 system. Consumers will also be able to use a Media Center PC to enjoy high-definition DIRECTV content.
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Sky Networks. Microsoft and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the leading pay-TV provider in the U.K. and Ireland, today announced an agreement to create a Media Center PC version of Sky’s forthcoming broadband content service, Sky by broadband. The core service will allow millions of Sky TV customers to access video content via the PC, with hundreds of movies to download and hundreds of sports clips to stream.
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URGE music service. MTV Networks’ forthcoming digital music service, URGE, will be deeply integrated into Windows Media Player 11 and offer more than 2 million songs from the major labels and thousands of independents, as well as exclusive MTV Networks programming and original content. URGE will also be available through Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
URGE has it’s own press release, but the bottom line is that it offers a subscription service as well as individual item purchases.
For Media Center PC’s there are a variety of content deals with Comedy Central’s MotherLoad, mtvU, Showtime Interactive, Turner Broadcasting System Inc.’s GameTap, and VH1 VSPOT. There are also some new Windows Live services for Media Center:
Live.com TV gadgets. Live.com provides the ideal location for services that make it easier to find and manage TV-related experiences across multiple devices. Customers can easily see TV programs scheduled for recording along with best bets. These services provide a window into one’s Media Center PC from almost anywhere in the world.
Live.com TV recommendations. Live.com enables customers to easily rate shows they’ve watched on their TV via their Media Center PC. As users rate more shows, they get better, more personalized TV recommendations, which they can share with their community.
Finally, there were the gadgets:
Toshiba America Inc., Tatung Co. and LG Electronics have signed up to venture into the difficult territory of Portable Media Centers albeit with new media services like Starz.
Philips and Uniden announced combo phones for both regular phone networks and VoIP through Windows Live Messenger. Gates also demonstrated the Palm Treo 700w running Windows Mobile.
Update: Peter Moore came on at the end with a rapid fire list of Xbox 360 facts and figures, but the big one is that they expect to ship up to 5.5 million units by June and have added a 3rd manufacturer to increase supply.
I guess they just couldn’t wait for Bill Gates’ keynote at CES:
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV will expand its support for VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) technology in new partnerships with eBay’s Skype division and Microsoft, and unveil new televisions designed to ease the strain of watching an exciting movie on a sexy $4,000 television, executives said during a press conference Wednesday at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will provide more details about the new VOIP partnership between Philips and Microsoft later this evening in a keynote address kicking off CES, said Rudy Provoost, chief executive officer of Philips Consumer Electronics, a division of the parent company. He did not provide many details but said the companies will announce a VOIP product that would incorporate Microsoft’s MSN portal and its MSN Messenger instant-messaging software.
