Hello Robert, I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert also....
I am not sure if there are hundreds of VOIP (Voice Using Internet Protocol) applications, but I know of about 40 of them, I have tried them all. I also recently completed a Masters Thesis on Internet Telephony. So even if not internationally recognized nor widely published I have a bit of background and a basis for what I am about to say.
First, Camelot has not existed for 20 years. They renamed themselves from Bolyard Oil and Gas around 5-6 years ago. For the first 2-3 years they were mainly involved in real estate and buying and selling shell companies for profit. The beginings of their involvement in VOIP does not go back further than 3 years. At that time DW bought rights to an inferior VOIP system, and has been playing catch up ever since. They have filed one patent that I know of. It is for their integrated system for a videophone. Something that they have failed, so far, to produce. The patent is still pending. I have been told that this system uses concepts and components from software and hardware that has been in use for sometime. Mnay of these are copywrited. Prior to any award of a patent, there will undoubtedly be a large fight. If it is awarded, it will be tested in the legal system. In any case this SINGLE patent that they have applied for concerning VOIP ,is far from a done deal! This data can all be easily verified. So that, the question arrises as to why you display such a penchant for misreporting information in a way that makes Camelot seem even somewhat competent or likely to succeed??
As to your claim that there are no adequate products out there now, this is simply not true. I will have to agree that there are no products that consistanty provide the level of service that the telephone system does, but there are many that allow an entirely satisfactory conversation to be carried out and allow video to be sent at from 8 to 15 frames per second (not TV but adequate to see who you are talking to including facial expressions thast track well with the conversation). There are at least 5 of these that I can think of immediately and several more that I could come up with given a few minutes research. It is interesting to note that two of these applications are being offered by Intel and Microsoft. They are being supplied to the public free of charge.
Even you would have to admit that for Camelot to crack the market, for them to be at all competitve with software giants that give an excellent product away, they have to come up with something overwhelmingly better. From the information that I have been able to gather this is simply not true of either Digiphone 2.0 or their Proficia product. Neither of which is available, eight months and three months respectively after they were promised.
Some solutions to the notification problem have been offered. There are Gateway products that allow either Phone to Phone over the internet.. actually rings the telephone at the remote end after dialling into the local gateway, or net to phone, where a VOIP application user on the net can call a person on their phone...using the net to carry the data. These gateways are set up to allow use of several different softwre packages. To my knowledge there are none configured to allow the use of Digiphone. This fact, in and of itself, should give you a hint at the regard that Camelot products are given on the net.
Proficia and Digiphone 2.0 have been demonstrated. Apparently there is nothing new, nothing at all to really set them apart from products offered by the established players, often for free. In fact, it would seem that Digiphone 2.0 is a basic application that offers what are probably extra cost "plugins" to accomplish tasks such as whiteboard, text communications, and possibly video, that are integrated into the competition's offerings. I have to view this as just one more in a long string of marketing blunders!
I guess my whole point is that, although you seem to want to put the most positive spin possible on anything to do with Camelot, it really seems as though they don't have much at all going for them when it comes to product offerings in the VOIP arena. Even if they did have a decent product that was actually availabel for sale, the consistantly displayed lack of judgement in marketing, the nasty internal problems, overall poor management, and solid track record of failure, do not allow for any realistic hope for any kind of postive future for Camelot! |
