Oops, I forgot about that post. Sorry.
Mr. Markman, a 19-year AT&T veteran, counters that Wildfire is too focused on the enterprise. He believes that carriers will jump at the chance to outsource.
I don't know if the communications industry suffers from NIH (not invented here) or not. I do know that outsourcing is increasingly becoming big business from both my experience in dealing with F1000 and from market data. I'm inclined to agree with Markman: "carriers will jump at the chance to outsource". The ability to offer feature differentiation for each carrier I think will be key.
General Magic plans to sell to retailers, corporate voice mail resellers, cellular carriers, and wire-line operators, in that order.
I also think focusing on retailers first is the right strategy because they will be able to signup small business. Large businesses will take longer to rollout a service like this. Small businesses however have a high percentage of mobile employees (I can't remember the numbers right now) and lack of funds to afford enough receptionists and secretaries, etc., not to mention computers. They also are highly penetrated with mobile phones (again, I can't remember the numbers - IDC, DQ, etc. have done studies on small business). Small businesses can really benefit from a service like this. I hope GMGC does some heavy promotions targeting small business. Primarily the service industries.
The industry finds itself in the same position I'm in as I look at the beach from my hotel room: We're so close, but we're not there yet. And until we get our column typed and put some pants on (metaphorically speaking, of course) we're going to remain further away than we'd like to be.
Don't I know it. The 'vision' has been around for a long time. The implementation has been painfully slow. But with each new innovation, like the one from GMGC, I can see the vision getting closer.
"Information appliances need to be supplemental to our lifestyle, not interfering."
A mantra every engineer in the computer industry should live by. :) I believe speech and intelligent agents are the key. That means GMGC is well positioned for the future. |
