CounterPath, publishers of the Bria carrier grade softphone, has recently taken measures both to build their enterprise user base and to enhance the user experience when using Bria. Not only is Bria supported on Windows and Mac PC’s but also on the iPhone, iPad and Android. In other words, Bria provides a business desktop phone replacement with PC and  mobile softphones that you can take with you when out of the office. And it’s targeted as a solution for enterprises upgrading to fully IP-based communications platforms. But these enterprises still rely, in many cases, on the carriers to recommend and install products and services.

Building the enterprise user base: Two weeks ago Counterpath announced an agreement with GENBAND, a major carrier supplier of IP infrastructure and application solutions, to provide unified communications solutions for GENBAND’s Communications Application Server on mobile and tablet devices. Andy Abramson, at VoIP Watch, has given an outline of what this means to Counterpath’s participation in the “new” telecom technology market in his post CounterPath Gets Distribution.

Today, the companies changing the game in getting new telecom technology to the market include Broadsoft, MetaSwitch and GENBAND. They each control the lion’s share of what gets to the telcos so eventually in a transparent way the technology gets to consumers, and to the business markets too. Understanding the channel is key to success of any telecom products or services company, for one reason. It’s called Go To Market (GTM) but really could mean Get to (the) Market, and without channel partners there are just too many carriers, mobile operators and service providers out there today to effectively get to and sell to all of them directly.

Having acquired a bundle of Nortel carrier voice and applications assets with an $870 million revenue stream in early 2010, CounterPath has the potential to see its Bria clients on over 120 million ports and 10 million SIP connections. From the Nortel press release:

Nortel’s CVAS business is the recognized leader in the Carrier VoIP space, having shipped more than 121 million Carrier VoIP and Multimedia ports, including over 10 million SIP lines to leading carriers globally. Nortel has  consistently been ranked as the #1 Global Carrier VoIP and Softswitch leader since 2002. Nortel’s CVAS business has customer deployments in all continents with leading carriers and provides VoIP solutions to 80 percent of IDC’s worldwide listing of top 20 carriers (by revenue).

The bottom line is that Counterpath is providing a window into how the tier 1 to tier 3 telcos are absorbing and implementing IP-based communications technology in a mobile platform world.

On the actual product front Counterpath had two recent announcements that contribute to ensuring that Bria remains feature competitive when it comes to the end user experience:

• Incorporation of Skype’s royalty-free SILK codec into Bria mobile products, allowing Bria mobile product users to take full advantage of SILK’s crystal clear voice quality for calls between Bria endpoints within an enterprise communications platform. According to CounterPath’s blog post linked above:

The SILK codec is free and also performs very well compared to other similar codecs that are royalty bearing. I should point out that because Bria supports SILK does not mean Bria can interoperate with the Skype service directly. Of course Bria users can call Skype users via the PSTN.

• Incorporation of social networking into the Bria client allowing Bria users to follow their Facebook and Twitter feeds. Counterpath calls it “social blurring” of the unified communications interface. From an example provided by CounterPath’s Todd Carrothers, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Products:

Basically Facebook (on the left) and Twitter (on the right) are setup as additional “accounts’ on Bria, connecting via an XMPP feed as a peer to SIP accounts supporting voice, instant messaging and video. Bria becomes one more user interface option for accessing the user’s Facebook news feed and Twitter stream.

Bottom line: CounterPath is making extensive progress as a vendor to the enterprise market through their partnerships with, and support of, market leading carrier vendors in the IP-communications solutions space. And they represent a market leading proxy for following the enterprise market adoption of IP-based communication solutions.

(Note there is a hotfilx upgrade for this version; more information here.)

Yesterday afternoon, for the first time, I was able to make a Skype-to-Skype call from my car using Skype for iPhone over a 3G/HSPA+ wireless service and the Bluetooth connection to my car audio system. I held a (legal) hands-free conversation with a contact in the U.K.; in fact at one point, while waiting to make a turn, I was able to use the rear-facing video camera for a few seconds where he saw, referring to the video quality, a “very fit” lady running down the sidewalk and across the intersection.

Yesterday Skype released new versions of Skype for iOS devices, namely Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad. The main features promoted by Skype include anti-shake technology and the Bluetooth connectivity mentioned above. However, I also found a couple of additional changes:

• restoration of the ability to access the dial pad during a Skype-to-Skype call; this is necessary to work with PBX’s that can be called via a Skype for business SkypeID using Skype Connect.
• a new call management bar on Skype for iPhone that is more consistent with the call management bar on Skype for iPad and Skype for Mac.

While most of these are self-explanatory, the anti-shake technology probably is best explained through this video; basically it compensates for small movements of your hand while showing a video via the rear camera on the device.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLKE58eA-S8

As mentioned above I made a Skype-to-Skype call from my car to a U.K.-based contact where:

• the Bluetooth connection using my car’s audio system for the speaker/mic worked quite well
• there was crystal clear audio due to the use of Skype’s SILK codec technology
• the other party confirmed that the anti-shake technology appeared to be working for the ~30 seconds when I could use the rear webcam while managing hands-free driving (that’s the law in Ontario)
• one could access the dial pad

Three screen shots to show how the new call management bar works:

• Clicking on the blue “+” icon, second from the right, provides access to the dialpad and chat session
• Selecting the dial pad brings up the dial pad shown
• Clicking on the video camera icon allows selection of the front- or rear-facing camera on the device.
• Clicking on the center icon, initial image above, allows selection of the device’s internal speaker/mic or an external earpiece/mic connected via the 3.5mm audio jack

Four other points to note:

• The new version delivers advertising if you don’t have Skype credit or a Skype Calling Plan subscription; this expands a policy launched with the release of Skype for Mac 5.4 two weeks ago.
• A security issue on Skype for iPhone has been addressed; probably the one reported last week.
• This upgrade supports iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, 2nd and 3rd Generation iPod Touch, and both iPad and iPad 2, running iOS 4.
• During an earlier call to the same Contact between his iPhone and my Skype for Windows, the video transmitted from my PC started out at VGA resolution but dropped down to 160 x 120 resolution, probably to match more closely the 192 x 144 resolution that the iPhone delivers for video calling.

Bottom line: Skype for iPhone 3.5 addresses some user feedback issues, especially when it comes to the Bluetooth connectivity as well as a couple of housekeeping issues that had arisen with previous versions. The new Call Management bar also provides more consistency although it would also be useful if one could see call connection quality information, such as has appeared in previous versions.

It’s not quite at the point where I could say “Call James B. on Skype” whereas, using my BlackBerry, I can say “Call James B. mobile” in a totally hands free way. I had to park the car to launch the call via the
Skype client; for most of the call the front-facing camera showed the retracted windshield shades. It would also certainly be useful to have a mounting bracket above the dashboard to hold the iPhone such that the rear camera can show where you are going during a video call; otherwise one needs a passenger to hold the phone safely.

Note: A few hours after the release was announced Skype came out with a notification that there were a couple of issues with respect to loading Skype contacts – which I’ve noticed – and showing Skype credit. While Skype has provided a work around involving uninstalling and reinstalling the application, we should be expecting a hotfix release in the next couple of days to address these issues. Update – 28/9 evening – the hotfix update that resolves the contact sync issue is now available.

After a beta period of several months last fall, Skype launched Group Video Calling on Skype for Windows at CES 2011 as one element of its Skype Premium service. Group Video Calling on the Mac became available with the release of Skype for Mac 5.0. Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to host a weekly group video call for an Internet Marketing mentoring group in which I participate.

This was a group that had been using a hosted push-to-talk conferencing where only the speaker’s video would appear – using Adobe’s Flash Video. It provided a tedious (and not terribly robust) way to share voice and video but ….

• being push-to-talk, only one person could talk at any given time; any ad hoc conversation had to be via the text chat window.
• there were pregnant pauses while the video started for each participant who wanted to talk; it was not what one would call “totally interactive” or spontaneous ad hoc conversation.
• the chat window was only available during a session; if you lost the connection and reconnected, you only picked up new chat messages and lost any previous content, such as URL’s and email addresses.
• voice quality was acceptable but definitely compromised by the audio technology employed
• the service itself often could not stay connected for the duration of a conferencing session.

Once we were about to cancel one of our weekly sessions due to hosting issues when we realized there were fewer than ten participants on the scheduled call. Instinctively I fired up Skype Group Video Chat; immediately we had:

• seven or eight participants on a call, each with live video (provided s/he had a webcam)
• a fully interactive meeting experience where one could start talking “spontaneously”
  • due to the nature of the group and a “business meeting” discipline, no moderator was needed
• participants were on both Windows and Mac platforms
• a persistent and archived chat session is available
• while some participants used headsets, others used microphones and their PC speakers – but there were no echo issues from any party – echo cancellation played a key role in the audio quality experience
• voice quality is “as if we were all sitting around a table in the same room”
  • due to Skype’s superwideband SILK audio technology

But don’t take my word for it when it comes to the audio performance. During an interview with the mentoring group’s leader, Brad Gosse, about how he uses Skype to build and support his business, I asked him about his impression of Skype Group Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYOhIYERp2Y

Any participant with Skype for Mac 5.3 could actually share his/her desktop to a Skype Group Video call; hopefully this feature will soon be supported in an upcoming release of Skype 5.x for Windows.

One other “robustness” feature I noticed during a recent call. For whatever reason, one of the participant’s Windows PC crashed during the call; Skype for Windows gave me, as the host, “transparent” notice of an Internet Connection issue, the participant’s video disappeared from the call screen, yet the called carried on without interruption. However, once he rebooted his PC and opened Skype he was presented with an opportunity to rejoin the call, did so and reappeared in the call with no disruption of the call itself. (As shown in the image, participants who have left a call are prioritized in the Add to Call screen.)

Bottom line: you probably have to participate in a Skype Group Video call to fully appreciate the participant audio and video experience. Suffice it to say all the participants’ feedback from these calls relates to the value of the discussion content – the video and audio technology has become totally transparent to the real purpose of the session.

A couple of related posts:

Andy Abramson talks about Video Calling In The Living Room where he intends to use Group Video calls for his weekly staff meetings:

Virtual face to face meetings that will replace the faceless conference call. With video calling in the living room, or the conference room available for so little money, you have to wonder why people are waiting?

Michael Graves points out why he continues to use headsets at his home office to avoid introducing “room tone” into his audio: Can You Hear Me Now? Headset vs Speakerphone In The Home Office

Note that Skype continues to include unlimited calls to North American destinations with a Skype Premium subscription.

Related articles

• Facebook Video Chat – Powered by Skype: First Impressions (voiceontheweb.biz)

Just over a year after Skype’s first announcement of SkypeKit as a closed beta program for third party developers, Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s Vice President, Emerging Opportunities, announced the opening up of the SkypeKit developer program to a public beta at eComm 2011 this afternoon.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to discuss the program with Chris Andrews, Sr. Business Development Manager at Skype. The primary function of SkypeKit is to provide access to a “headless” version of Skype from which developers can provide their Skype functionality through their own product’s user interface. Otherwise SkypeKit provides access to the same functionality as standard desktop clients; however, it does not support screen sharing or multi-party video (Group Video).

To join the SkypeKit developer program developers create a developer account and pay a one-time fee of $10 to download the SDK and participate in the developer community forum. With its ability to support embedded Skype in hardware, hardware partners will also need to obtain Skype certification at the standard costs for that program. Software application developers have no additional cost. At this point there is no revenue sharing expected by Skype; that’s the one issue that will have to be addressed at some point if Skype is to demonstrate ROI to Microsoft.

Chris confirmed access to the video stream is available via Skype’s proprietary RTP interface which has been designed to address the various screen formats developers will encounter with either their own hardware or, in the case of a software application, the various PC and other intelligent device displays. Documentation is available at the Skype Developer site.

While SkypeKit provides support for both hardware and software, most of the development to date has centred around hardware devices. At CES Skype announced that SkypeKit was being used for a baby monitor based on the Panda chip and is being tested for incorporation into GM’s OnStar service. One new player he mentioned is Tely Labs, a startup with no website, who are developing a “living room experience” for their own branded TV accessory; we’ll have to wait to see what this means beyond the various Skype for TV/BluRay offerings.

An initial software platform incorporating SkyepKit is Imvox, a social voice communications platform for gamers. From their website:

The biggest benefit of Imvox’s participation in the SkypeKit developer program is it allows us to offer the gaming community crystal clear voice quality, which is used by hundreds of millions of people across the world every day. The Skype partnership also enables Imvox to work cross-platform, so Windows and Mac users enjoy the same high-quality audio. It’s about time a solution works for everybody in the gaming market.

I had an opportunity to experience Skype’s SILK codec in a gaming platform a year ago November with the launch of the Blabbelon “click-to-talk” voice service for gamers. It’s a different market space from the traditional consumer and business voice conferencing.

Long time Skype partner InnerPass has been awaiting the launch of SkypeKit’s open beta to incorporate Skype into their newly launched Group Mix team collaboration service – an evolution of their previous InnerPass Meeting and Sharing service that was offered as a Skype Extra.

The SkypeKit Developer Site provides documentation and samples to assist with the development process covering topics such as TV, audio and video and various development tools. However, Chris did mention that, while all the tools are there to support software development, they still need some work to make a software developer totally comfortable with using SkypeKit.

Bottom line: With Skype’s pending acquisition by Microsoft it will be interesting to see what uptake there is from developers and how this developer program works in conjunction with other Microsoft developer programs. Certainly Microsoft brings the financial heft and experience required to establish and attract a large developer community for SkypeKit as it evolves.

According to Stacey Higginbotham’s GigaOm discussion with Jonathan Christensen there are 2,000 developers who have been part of the closed program but there are over 10,000 developers who have applied and can now participate. As with the iPad and smartphone market spaces the evolution of the real time communications space will really depend on how readily users will adopt the resulting applications. Until other services can offer a combination of high quality voice, the ability to call a wide range of devices and platforms, HD video and over 170 million active users, Skype certainly starts out with an initial performance lead over pending competitors.

Skype Journal: Skype for iPad; SkypeKit launching at eComm next week?

Related articles

• Whither Skype Extras Today? Withered? (voiceontheweb.biz)
• The future of Skype Extras (blogs.skype.com)
• Skype for TV – Not on Windows (voiceontheweb.biz)
• With SkypeKit, Skype wants to be everywhere (gigaom.com)

Yesterday came the first firm indications of the imminent arrival of Skype for iPad. It’s been hotly sought out in Google searches and Skype users have long regarded Skype for iPhone as somewhat pathetic when running on an iPad, especially in 2x mode.  With the iPad’s much larger display and, with iPad 2, its video features a dedicated Skype for iPad offers interesting possibilities, especially for turning an iPad into a unique video phone. The first indication of its appearance was this video on MacRumors where someone had captured a temporary YouTube placement by Skype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5G_CkPfDOU

Then came the review on CNET; this post on TUAW provides comments from an interview with Rick Osterloh, Skype Head of Consumer Product Management. But I had my first interview about Skype for iPad with Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President and General Manager for Consumer at CES last January. The main takeaway from that interview: Skype has hired a user interface expert to design the UI for Skype for iPad. Skype wanted to get a fresh approach to the user experience.

Some comments re Skype for iPad:

• Initial response to the video have been positive about the user experience; however, we all need to try it out ourselves.
• With Skype Everywhere – on PC’s, iPhone, Android, TV sets and BluRay players – and the ability to call the PSTN worlwide – it’s not really competition for FaceTime but rather establishes the standards benchmark for cross platform video and voice calling.
• Having had an iPad for six months, it has become, as predicted at the time of the initial iPad announcement, my electronic briefcase. I rarely take a briefcase or even my Macbook when out of my home office, just the iPad. Applications such as Skype for iPad (and even Facetime) are an extension of the iPad’s functionality “beyond the briefcase” into user engagement. (Although I do seem to recall often carrying my mobile phone in my briefcase.)
• The tablet provides an ideal form factor and display size for a video call on a mobile device; easily carried about; no squinting to see the video (unless in direct sunlight). With its much larger battery, it will be interesting to see Skype for iPad’s impact on battery life. Once experienced by consumers Skype for iPad could help accelerate iPad 2’s sales growth.
• The cnet review, linked above, covered Skype for iPad’s performance over WiFi (excellent) and 3G (good enough). However, recently I dropped my iPad 3G subscription with Rogers when iOS4 became available on my iPhone. When I want to connect my iPad over a 3G connection, I simply turn on the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot and use the iPad’s WiFi via the Personal Hotspot as my only Internet connection. It will be interesting to test reception of a video call on my “original” iPad over this connection.
• While obviously the audio can be handled over the iPad’s 3.5mm audio jack, it should also work with USB headsets via the iPad’s Camera Connection kit as the USB adapter.
• One key assumption: given the support on Skype for iPhone, Skype for iPad should be expected to supports Skype’s SILK codec on Skype-to-Skype calls.

Finally, if I had an iPad 2 I could see making the iPad as my primary Skype device. It won’t be hindered by having multiple applications running as on a PC and it’s a very convenient overall form factor. And it’s easily portable with no cables attached. In fact it becomes closer to a large desktop phone (for the same reasons Bria for iPad can become a business desktop phone replacement). Let’s come to that decision once we’ve had actual experience with Skype for iPad.

Hopefully, as rumored, we’ll see Skype for iPad become available about the same time as Skype’s Jonathan Christensen speaks on Tuesday at eComm America 2011.

Final question: is there a hint there of having the same call bar as Skype 5.5 beta for Windows? That would be a contributor to consistency in the user interface.

Related articles

• Skype for iPad coming next week? (intomobile.com)
• Bria for iPad: Putting an IP Phone on the iPad (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Using Skype on iPad – Helping Navigate Canada’s Newest Air Travel Service (voiceontheweb.pmlo.org)
• Skype is coming to the iPad (gigaom.com)

Yesterday Phil Wolff at Skype Journal brought our attention to an “infographic” from the financial due diligence-minded Credit Score Blog for Focus.com. It attempts to provide a history of Skype both from the technology and financial performance perspectives. But, in addition to Phil’s Quibbles, I have found some others.

Click on the graphic to see a larger image.

Research and Design by Credit Score Blog for Focus.com

Accounts and Users – there’s a difference!

Skype now has registered somewhere beyond 700 million accounts, increasing by over 500,000 every day. But, as has been pointed out often over the past few years, this number in meaningless since over 75% of the accounts have not been used for quite some time for at least three months. Users die, they try out Skype and give it up, a business will register new business accounts for employees who resign or are otherwise terminated. The list of reasons for not using an account can go on forever. (Unlike direct mail lists that can lose 20% of their accuracy every six months, users who move geographically can continue to use their Skype accounts provided they have an Internet connection.)

Starting with the IPO filing last year, Skype finally started to give out a more realistic number – the number of users who actually made at least one call or participated in at least one chat session in the previous calendar quarter. Whereas there were about 125 million in the April – June quarter of 2010, this number has risen to over 170 million for the January to March quarter 2011. In other words this is the number of active users.

So while Skype had registered over 100 million accounts in 2006, they did not reach the level of 100 million users until late 2009 or early 2010. It’s those active users whom become interesting to Microsoft as they work with their Skype team to develop plans for Skype’s (and Microsoft’s) growth.

Skype’s history with Video Calling – Sorting Out High Quality Video and HD Video

Yes, Skype introduced video calling in early 2006; it first came of out beta with Skype for Windows 3.1 in early 2007 delivering 320 x 240 images @15frames-per-second . However, in November 2007, Skype showed it got serious about taking the lead in video calling with the introduction of High Quality Video which required a new line of Logitech webcams, new video codecs from On2 (since acquired by Google) and a new version of Skype for Windows (3.6) that could deliver VGA resolution (640 x 480) at 30 frames-per-second and over a 384 kbps upload speed Internet connection.

With its superior quality that delivered in-your-face real time video, Skype video took off to the point where today video calling represents about 40 per cent of all Skype calls.

In 2010, with the launch of Skype for Windows 4.2, Skype announced support for 720p HD video calling; at the time it only supported webcams from two vendors: the FREETALK Everyman HD and Facevsion N1 webcams. HD video was off to a rocky start; it required at least 1.2 Mbps upload speed on the Internet connection (above the upload speed of most broadband connections) and there were call reliability and stability issues. With a firmware upgrade in December (FREETALK, Facevsion) and the release of Skype 5.0 for Windows, HD video calling has become a much more reliable service. Recently Logitech released a line of webcams that support HD Video calling. Over the past few weeks I have received HD video calls from Logitech webcams where callers had only a 1 Mbps upload speed.

With respect to the Infographic:

• Skype released High Quality Video in late 2007; they did not release HD Video until 2010.
• A major milestone for Skype video calls was the introduction of video calling on iPhones at the end of 2010.
• Finally, in early 2011, Skype took Group Video Calling out of beta, increased its capacity to ten participants and offered it as one component of its revenue generating Skype Premium service.

Microsoft Anywhere Graphic – What Happened to Outlook and Office?

The infographic attempts to illustrate all the potential Microsoft products that could benefit from embedding Skype technology and services. But what happened to Office and, especially, Outlook? At the press conference there was, to say the least, a strong emphasis placed on how Skype could be integrated with Outlook for both consumer and business use.

For Windows users, Outlook has become the core resource for managing users’ contacts; many products’ address books and scheduling features rely on the user’s Outlook Contacts and Calendars as the primary source of contact and calendar information. Outlook is critical for synchronizing a mobile phone address book, keeping the user’s schedule current and integrating Outlook information into third party collaboration services as well as many other Microsoft and third party offerings.

Full disclosure: the author’s first association with Skype involved beta testing of the Skype Email Toolbar, an Outlook plugin that allows you to make Skype calls directly from Outlook. However, the Skype for Windows client now incorporates an optional feature for importing Outlook contacts into a user’s Skype contacts, so this plugin has become a secondary offering.

I’ll place my bets on Outlook being the first or second Microsoft product to find Skype embedded into it.

Skype and Its Competition

That competition bar misses a couple of key aspects of Skype:

• Internationalization: Google Voice really only works  if you live in the U.S.; after all these years it still has no offerings for the rest of us around the world. Personally I have set up a Google Voice account during a recent visit to the U.S. but it’s of no use to me when at home in Canada.
• Technology: Over time Skype has developed some very unique technology that delivers a unique conversation experience; for example,
  • the SILK codec provides crystal clear voice on Skype-to-Skype calls, even when calling from/to iPhones and Android phones.
  • Video: Skype is unique in providing 640 x 480 video calling @ 30 fps via a simple user interface. Since its introduction in late 2007, there has been no competitive service with such a large network of users that can deliver this quality of real time video calls. And now HD video capability is starting to penetrate the user base.
  • Network connection: Skype has introduced features that monitor and adjust to the conditions of a call’s network connection such as to minimize the chance of call failure.

Bottom Line: While the infographic is a good attempt at outlining both Skype’s financial background and user experiences, it is missing some key elements that have the potential to contribute significantly to Microsoft’s ability to benefit from a $8.5 billion acquisition.

The key risk lies in how effectively Microsoft’s various product teams can work with the Skype teams to develop world changing communications-enhanced offerings. It’s a challenge to Microsoft’s ability to support real innovation. This represents the best opportunity for demonstrating Alec Saunders Voice 2.0 Manifesto where talk is the baseline, the meter is “off” and communications-enhanced applications are the value creators.

Related articles

• Microsoft Acquires Skype – The “Amber Mac Test” (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – A Most Interesting Marriage (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – Steve Ballmer Does Skype Europe (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – An Investor’s Perspective (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype’s Rollercoaster History [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)

Aid workers and care givers who provide services in politically- and infrastructure-challenged countries where law and order is not necessarily a given, where war, violence and crime are rife, have always ranked very high on my admiration list as one of the most unselfish and high risk roles that one can perform in hopes of betterment of individuals’ lives. And often these workers are in hardship situations where they must spend not only weeks or months but even years with little or no contact with their families and friends.

So what is Skype doing to help?

Today Skype announced a partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) where Skype has not only worked to supply communications services to 120 “hardship locations” but also adapted their software technology to deal with the low bandwidth communications infrastructure available to these locations. Skype’s Antoine Bertout has discussed this partnership with UNHCR’s Mohammed Faisal:

In Skype experiments with refugee workers, Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff outlines some of the special technical features of this “bespoke” version of Skype:

Changes that limit bandwidth use:

• Video will not start automatically.
• Video will not start until Skype sees needed bandwidth.
• Skype’s SILK voice CODEC (8-40 kbps) will be used when possible.
• No Facebook support.

In the video you will hear Mohammed refer to “our network”; there is an element of a virtual private network (“VPN”) involved in some circumstances as well. Also the client supports Skype Chat, including Group Chat, and SkypeOut calls to the PSTN. Note also that the Blue Wall firewall incorporated into the associated infrastructure allows calls only “outside business hours” in order to minimize impact on critical business operations.

Video calling may be bandwidth challenged in some situations; it would be interesting to know what resolutions and frame rates are supported (even if lower that High Quality Video’s 640 x480 @ 30 fps, at least one should be able to see images at, say 320 x240 @ 15 fps, etc., given Skype Video’s bandwidth adaptation features). But just hearing a distant voice will suffice for most calls.

But why just for UNHCR?

Dan York questions why such technology would not also benefit a sector of the business market in Interesting Tech in Skype’s Low-Bandwidth Version for UNHCR – Wouldn’t Enterprises Want This?:

As I listened to the video, it definitely occurred to me that there are businesses and organizations out there who could also benefit from a low-bandwidth version of Skype. I think, for instance, of shipping companies with limited Internet connectivity to vehicles or ships. Or to companies with distributed offices with very small branch offices with very small Internet connections.

Skype’s Peter Parkes has responded to a comment (to the original Skype blog post) about other aid organizations with:

UNHCR is the first partner to benefit from this low-bandwidth version of Skype for Windows. A large dispersed organization such as UNHCR is an ideal testing environment to evaluate the performance of this software in a wide variety of challenging connectivity networks. At the moment we are focused on ensuring a successful roll-out of Skype to a planned 80 to 85 per cent of UNHCR “hardship” locations before the end of 2011.

As such, it is not currently available to other organizations or the general public to download. It is clear to us however, that others could benefit from the changes and the lessons learned during the evaluation of the software that Skype has developed for UNHCR. Unfortunately, however, we are unable able to talk about our future intentions and can only discuss our partnership with UNHCR at present.

You can support UNHCR’s activities also….

Skype and UNHCR have also put up a page where you can provide financial resources to UNHCR to assist with supplying textbooks and training manuals, funding teachers and purchasing solar-powered computers, amongst other requirements that go to support their programs.

Bottom line: Over the past few decades advances in communications technology have helped to overcome many political injustices, natural disasters and barriers to economic opportunity . While it’s been great that Skype offers many cost-free services to all of us,  when it comes to providing assistance to those helping peoples disengaged from life’s real opportunities, Skype’s services become “priceless”.

Related articles

• UN refugee agency staff trial new version of Skype (guardian.co.uk)
• Skype Creates Bespoke Software to Help Refugee Workers (mashable.com)
• Low-bandwidth Skype custom app created for UN Refugee aid workers [Video] (slashgear.com)

“Fring is not a communications platform, but only a toy or at best a testbed for shiny objects.”

Comment by Hudson Barton on Andy Abramson’s post: Fring Fumbles on Cross Platform Video Chat

In observing the evolution of Skype and third party access to it over the past few years I have often wondered how far Skype would go in allowing third party services to deploy Skype as one communications mode in a multi-service communications offering. Fring and Truphone are two examples. Usually these offerings figure out a way to put up a temporary Skype client on a “gateway” server and then build their own interface to the Skype client on that gateway.

There are issues of scalability, service quality (especially voice and video quality) and the overall user calling experience that could potentially compromise the user’s experience in taking advantage of the resulting Skype connection. It’s one thing to show that technically one can make the relevant voice and video connections but the challenges rise to a significantly higher level when taking into account the overall user experience.

Personally I look for services that allow me to easily find and select a contact, select the calling destination (Skype, Home, Mobile, Office, for example) and then click on either a soft button or the hardware green button and make the connection within a reasonable time (say, less than 30 seconds). I find the multi-service communications offerings to be a bit overbearing and almost too overwhelming for a non-technical business and consumer user.

Today there’s lots of coverage about Fring and its use of Skype (or now lack thereof); Dan York has provided an excellent summary of the various viewpoints in his post: Skype vs. Fring: Is Fring not telling the whole truth?. Very significant is the speed with which Skype’s Vice-President, Legal responded to get their side of the story out; their legal personnel usually have stayed out of the public discussion on any of Skype’s market-related issues.

But getting back to basics, there are three considerations:

Skype is Fundamentally Communications Software: we have heard this many times from Skype CEO Josh Silverman; he repeated and emphasized this during our CES conversation last January. As a result they own the intellectual property rights to their software. But they have been successful largely because they make much of their intellectual property available free – they can afford to do this since the capital overhead for Skype-to-Skype calling is so low. We as users provide the key piece by using Skype on our PC’s or other Skype-embedded hardware devices. On the other hand they need the intellectual property protection not only to defend potential revenues but just as importantly to defend their brand.

Best examples of this include:

• Skype video calling – here’s the 1964 AT&T World Fair concept now going out thirty-five years later with no charge for one-to-one video calling and being used on ~35% of Skype calls.
• Skype has also made their SILK codec available royalty-free provided the licensee meets performance criteria. As demonstrated with Skype for iPhone over 3G, SILK has the potential to revolutionize voice quality on mobile calling (and I’ll pay one or two dollars per month just to have the superior voice quality after many years of mobile phone calls with somewhat challenging audio quality ). Blabbelon provides an excellent example of incorporating SILK.
• Skype mobile on Verizon: here is a software development and licensing agreement that generates sustainable revenue streams for both parties while delivering a significant benefit, namely free calling to Skype contacts worldwide, to Verizon customers when calling from the U.S.
• With the success of Skype as a commercial TV production platform, Skype has developed special licensing terms for users of this application.

The bottom line is that all these, including making basic Skype-to-Skype calls using the standard Skype clients, involve some form of license agreement that is being adhered to.

Skype is Ultimately About The User Experience: Skype’s brand focuses well beyond the enabling technology to incorporate the entire user experience. It was ease of installation and use that allowed Skype to be adopted so readily such that over 600 million user accounts have been created with around 100 million active users. Skype’s VP for Mobile, Russ Shaw, re-emphasized this during our conversation at CES. We witness this in the recent launches of Skype mobile on Verizon and Skype for iPhone over 3G. While I can only rely on third party reporting about the former (not being in the U.S.) which has largely been positive, for the latter I simply installed the software, looked up a contact, clicked on the Call button and made this excellent quality call to the U.K. using Skype for iPhone over 3G. Woops, did I mention the quality of the call again? Overall both applications set a higher standard for the user experience.

Skype is Opening Up to Developers: Yes, there has been a rough ride for developers over the past four years. PamConsult, Netralia, InnerPass and OnState have persisted with their offerings and have demonstrated the potential for Skype and third party applications. But the recent launch of SkypeKit beta – in a phased program to ensure control over quality and service level issues as the program evolves – opens up significant opportunities for third party developers. Suffice it to say that I know we can expect not only significant software partner offerings but also some innovative hardware offerings based on SkypeKit. Once again, however, there are licensing guidelines to ensure the integrity of Skype’s brand.

But the bottom line is this: sure Skype reserves the right to generate revenues where they see a significant value-add market opportunity but even with their free offerings they want and need to preserve their brand image. It would appear from Skype’s legal executive’s comments that they have been trying to work out a way to interact with Fring without success; Fring has certainly been around for over three years in one form or another, including attending Skype-sponsored events. As Andy Abramson says:

As we all know there are three sides to every story, but given Fring took the shot first, an old rule of thumb in a legal battle is get the word out first. And Fring did. Now Skype, whose legal minds are based on the West Coast, as well as their platform team and video folks for the most part have gotten in and replied.

We now are starting to get a better handle on how Skype will establish the playing field for third party applications, hardware and services. The evolution of the Fring relationship (or lack thereof) will provide a concrete example of how far Skype will go in allowing third party affiliations.

Full disclosure: yes, I tried Fring several times in the past (when it had Skype access). Simply put, I never found a way to use it comfortably and abandoned it. I have used iSkoot successfully in the past; however, they no longer support current BlackBerry platforms. But all this flurry does generate the background for a future post on what I would look for in a mobile smartphone calling experience.

Re Truphone: I mentioned Truphone at the beginning of this post as another example of a third party service that offers Skype as one communication mode. I’ll have more to say on my Truphone experiences – both favorable and unfavorable in a separate post. At least I find it a reliable backup when I have no other choice for calling.

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This morning, at the CEA Line Show in New York, Skype is taking the first step in the evolution of its revamped developer platform with the beta release of SkypeKit, “empowering consumer electronic and desktop software innovators to embed Skype into their products”.

In summary:

• Most importantly, SkypeKit allows developers to embed all the functionality of Skype into their offering without the need for the end user to have the Skype client open. They call it a “Headless” Skype toolkit whereas the developer community had been using the term “Naked” Skype.
• Initially SkypeKit is available as an invitation-only beta.
• Today API’s are available for Linux; API’s for Windows and Mac OS/X will be available in three to four weeks.
• The current program is targeted to consumer electronics and other telephony device manufacturers as well as desktop software developers
• SkypeKit includes support for Skype’s royalty-free ultrawideband audio SILK codec.
• SkypeKit supports Skype functionality beyond simply voice, including Skype video and H.264 processors embedded within hardware (such as with the FREETALK Everyman webcam).
• Skype’s developers have put significant effort into both security and scalability to sustain two of Skype’s key features.
• Skype will be promoting SkypeKit developers offerings through a “plugged into Skype” logo as well as making them available via the Skype Store.
• SkypeKit provides a long requested complement to the legacy Skype Public API’s used in applications such as Pamela, VodBurner, OnState, InnerPass and others.

This morning I had the opportunity to discuss the SkypeKit beta launch with Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s General Manager and Head of Platform. It provided an opportunity to dig deeper into Skype’s goals and strategy for the SkypeKit platform.

Primary goals of SkypeKit are:

• To provide developers with a “naked” Skype such that a Skype client is not necessary for the deployment of Skype on a hardware platform or Skype-enhanced application
• To provide an SDK that supports ALL the functionality of the current Skype clients, including video and SILK.
• To promote the incorporation of SILK into end point devices, making possible high quality audio calling such as experienced with the recent release of Skype for iPhone 2.0.
• Make the adoption of Skype into a device or application as friendly and readily adaptable as possible while providing appropriate levels of security and scalability
• To provide developers with a robust, scalable and proven channel for readily marketing their devices and applications worldwide.

In our discussion Christensen pointed out that Skype had not only reviewed developer requests for a revitalized and enhanced SDK but also incorporated the need to support all Skype functionality as well as maintaining the level of security and scalability required to meet the demand levels of Skype’s user base.

Christensen emphasized that Skype will be aggressively pursuing hardware vendors to license and adopt SILK as a standard feature of their offerings and to effect interoperability for Skype. IP-phones such as those offered by Linksys, Aastra, Polycom, snom and Grandstream would certainly be good candidates; their adoption of SILK would contribute significantly to Skype’s efforts to make SILK a standard. But it also means we could see the incorporation of SILK into, for example, the Skype for TV offerings available for certain models of Panasonic, LG and Samsung TV sets.

On another topic, Christensen emphasized Skype’s intention to facilitate marketing of the resulting offerings through both Skype’s “plugged into Skype” designation and the option to have them carried on the Skype Store. While any vendor can develop and market an offering on their own, it only receives the “plugged into Skype” designation required to be offered on the Skype Store  by meeting two conditions:

• it was developed using SkypeKit
• it meets Skype Certification standards when it comes to establishing a baseline for audio and video quality

Finally he pointed out that Skype launched this new SDK platform effort with this approach because “having an SDK for devices and desktop applications are a natural place for us to start extending Skype capabilities today”. As for supporting web developers, Skype only said, “We know there is demand among web developers, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

To give a sense of developers intending to use SkypeKit, FREETALK (with their Webcam for Samsung TV), Panasonic, Litl with their Webbook and Grandstream are participating in the Skype booth at the CEA Line Show this week.

Bottom line: There’s quite a collection of legacy Skype hardware collected around my office over the past four years; most of it is no longer available due to  lack of ongoing support by previous Skype management, technology changes and vendor disappearance (who recalls US Robotics, for instance?). Frankly, if we look at Skype Certified hardware available on the Skype Store today, we only see offerings from FREETALK, Logitech, FaceVsion, RTX and some speakerphone vendors, such as Yamaha and ClearOne.

SkypeKit represents Skype’s first step in rebooting and revitalizing its hardware device support; it certainly fits in with Skype’s “Skype Everywhere” strategy. Last week at CommunicAsia, Skype CEO Josh Silverman was talking about his vision of “fixed-mobile convergence” for Skype where a user can transparently move from device to device and seamlessly continue a conversation without the need to even log on from one device to the next. But the final proof is in the execution:

• Has Skype made the business and ongoing support case for developers to employ SkypeKit and deploy offerings?
• Will SILK become an industry standard for audio quality? and will IP-phone vendors realize the value of SILK?

As for other Questions and Answers, check out that section at the end of Jonathan’s post today.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FREETALK line of Skype hardware, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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Blogger colleague Dan York, Director of Conversations at Voxeo, recently ordered and received a Camera Connection kit for his iPad. In most dramatic fashion Dan shows he can break through Apple’s packaging and demonstrates two ways to transfer photos from his Nikon D90.

But wait –that’s not all! Being the geek that he is, he has to try other USB devices in the USB dongle that comes as part of the Camera Connection kit. First choice: a FREETALK Everyman USB Headset. And – it works with the Skype Test Call.

Check out Dan’s video: Emerging Tech Talk #52 – Unboxing the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

and follow his version of “Adventures with Skype Test Calls on iPad” using the FREETALK® Everyman USB Headset. (Does anyone have a report confirming the use of the FREETALK® Wireless Stereo Headset? – imagine wireless rock, roll and rap from your iTunes library, freed from the tether of a wired headset.)

Two future expectations for iPad support from Skype:

• running Skype in Background with iOS 4’s multi-tasking making Skype a true “always on” service (will this become available with the launch of iOS4 next week?), and
• Skype for iPad – a version of Skype for iPhone that takes advantage of the larger iPad screen format (will this await the launch of iOS4 for iPad later this fall?).

I assume it runs with these headsets over both 3G wireless and WiFi delivering the crystal clear sound of Skype’s SILK codec. Andy called me from an iPad when we did the freeway-to-freeway calling two weeks ago reported in the post linked in this paragraph.

And corroborating Dan’s success using the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset is Steve Garfield over at “Off On A Tanget”: Skype Voice Calls Work on iPad with Freetalk Everyman Headset.

Both the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset and the FREETALK Wireless Stereo Headset are available at the Skype Store. Don’t forget this configuration also requires the iPad Camera Connection kit which Dan appears to have ordered from the Apple store on the Internet.

Extrapolating from a number released of 100,000 sold in the last five months of 2009, it would appear to be safe to assume that over 150,000 FREETALK Everyman Headsets have been sold since its launch last July; some other posts linking to blogger reviews:

• FREETALK® Everyman USB Headset: The Bloggers Speak Out
• FREETALK® Everyman uSB Headset: From Twitterville and More Bloggers
• FREETALK Everyman USB Headset for Skype: A Reprise (includes a video demonstration by jkontherun’s Kevin Tofel)

FREETALK Customer Support is available for any questions re your order and using these headsets.

Note: while Dan has demonstrated that the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset works with the iPad, it should also mean that any Skype-certified USB headset should also work for this configuration.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FREETALK line of Skype hardware, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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Since its release late Saturday, Skype for iPhone 2.0, with its support of calling over 3G carriers and superwideband audio using Skype’s SILK codec, has set the blogosphere awash with two genres of commentary: those who seem to think the end of free Skype calling is approaching as an Armageddon and those who recognize the launch of Skype for iPhone 2.0 as not only setting a new benchmark for mobile voice calling, especially for call quality, but also having a significant impact on the overall smartphone market.

Re the “small fee” (now set to start at the beginning of 2011), I simply say this is one more sign that Skype is a business with investors who are looking for a return. Nobody can argue about its value-add, both in terms of providing international mobile calling convenience but also by delivering a significantly enhanced user experience through establishing a new benchmark for mobile call quality. This outcome definitely justifies a “small fee”, provided it is not obsessive. Alec Saunders, author of the Voice 2.0 Manifesto, positions this issue appropriately in “Skype’s “small fee” is noise, guys”:

Sometimes you have to really shake your head at the quality of the commentary on the internet.  Fact: Skype has finally released a version of Skype for iPhone that supports calling over 3G networks.  Never mind the fly in the ointment that all the commentary is  stuck on – the fact that Skype wants to charge a “small fee” for you to use it on a 3G network.  Frankly, that’s noise.  People will pay for the ability to make a high quality Skype call on 3G, and not pay their carriers long distance termination charges in foreign markets.  So long as the fee is reasonable, nobody is going to object.

Alec goes on to make several points about what the launch of Skype for iPhone 2.0 really means; his post is well worth the read. (Full disclosure: as Canadians who participate in the Canada Pension Plan, Alec and I each have a $17.50 investment in Skype.)

As for the new benchmark for mobile phone call quality, there are several impacts. But first, if you have not heard it already, click here to hear Skype for iPhone 2.0’s “near CD-quality” call first hand between myself and Dean Elwood in the U.K.

Andy Abramson comments on how deeply Skype developers may have gone into the iPhone hardware to achieve this result in “Skype on 3G-Something Borrowed, Something New”; he concludes with:

How good? Well put it this way..why would anyone with an iPhone want to call over old AT&T after their first Skype over 3G call. Oh, and yes, it makes Skype on Verizon sound like, well, a plain old telephone call…..Ma Bell, you’re back sounding like you’re old self. The way the boys in the labs have always dreamed and said you could.

Over at Voyces.com, in “Skype for iPhone over 3G: An Industry Benchmark Game Changer for Skype”, I have commented on the broader impact of Skype for iPhone’s support of SiLK. Simply put, it has the potential to place Skype as a key mobile communications software infrastructure supplier across the entire mobile phone industry. Not simply because of the technology itself but rather as a result of demonstrating high quality voice calls accessible to Skype’s several million users through a single application for the iPhone resulting in several million end user experience – the “Skype network effect”.

With the support of SILK in a smartphone application that runs over both 3G and WiFi, calling costs become almost secondary to an exceptional end user experience with voice quality on mobile devices.

SILK has now become not only a benchmark but also a key communications infrastructure element. End users will pay for a quality experience, especially when it impacts business productivity. Both wireless carriers and smartphone vendors need to rush to ensure they have incorporated Skype’s SILK technology into their offerings. Otherwise the iPhone (iPad and iPod Touch) have one more key feature that sets them apart from the remainder of the smartphone users.

Dean Elwood sums up this “Skype network effect” best when he talks about the Skype “on-net” calling:

The proposition for Skype’s shareholders is the fact that you have to be on the Skype network in order to get the “near CD-quality”. Because you don’t get hi-def when you call a regular landline or mobile, only another Skype-enabled device. So if you want to make free calls to your friends, they all need to get on the Skype net.

and concludes with…….

It’s the mass-market adoption of Skype that makes it work. You need to be on their network, along with other contacts you call regularly, to make it work for you. So in the absence of interconnect, which Skype do not do, your a. n. other mobile VoIP carrier of the future has to start from the ground up.

Bottom line: Dean backs up his observations by telling me that he will be making most of his voice calls using Skype for iPhone when away from his office. It would be most interesting to see not only if this drives more users to using Skype as opposed to the carriers’ voice channels but also the fallout for the transition of communications from a very hardware-oriented infrastructure to a complete software infrastructure operating totally “in the cloud”.

Next: the questions that remain to be answered going forward.

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Over the past couple of days I have had the opportunity to complete calls using Skype for iPhone 2.0 over 3G to contacts in the U.K., the U.S. and Spain, not only while staying in one location but also at 100 km/hr crossing through several mobile phone cells along Canada’s busiest freeway that recently was equipped with a 3G/HSPA+ service by Rogers. Some of the outcomes:

Launching the application

First, we are still dealing with an iPhone that does not allow multi-tasking but Skype for iPhone only serves to build the anticipation of iPhone OS 4.0 and its multi-tasking feature. As a result you currently must be logged into the application to receive a call; not only that, each time you log in, it can take 30 – 45 seconds for your Contacts’ current “presence” status to appear. (And you need to ensure your own status is set to “Online”.)

“Near CD-quality voice”

Once the presence information is current, however, select a contact, make a call, get an answer and start the conversation. What follows is a recording of one of my first calls where Voxygen’s Dean Elwood set up a three party conference call via Skype for Windows on a PC. (Skype for iPhone itself cannot set up a multi=party conference call.) Pamela’s Call Recorder was used to make the recording. Listen for yourself.

Dean makes an important point during the call about how Skype’s SILK-based superwideband audio makes it much easier for him to understand all the various and several English accents he needs to deal with in the normal course of his business activity.

Note that, in order to maintain the audio integrity of the recording, no audio editors were used to filter out “ah’s” and “eh’s”, etc.

Moving Along the Freeway with Skype

First, for all those concerned safety advocates, I was not driving my car during these calls.

From Ontario’s 401 freeway (the main route between Toronto and Ottawa/Montreal) between Trenton and Cobourg, Ontario I made a 25 minute call to Andy Abramson who was on the I-5 in and around San Diego, California. At one point both sides had speakerphones going such that we had a four-party car-to-car conversation.

While providing the same crystal clear voice quality reported yesterday, the call also was sustained as we both passed through several cells of our respective networks (I could see the cell towers alongside the freeway). Let’s just say we were both traveling at or near the legal limit and there was no degradation of voice quality.

There was one point where we noticed a bit of fuzziness (along with an appropriate warning on the call quality indicator) but it recovered very quickly and the call connection was not lost. The other issue was not really a Skype issue but the volume had to be turned up a bit to overcome the automobile’s inherent background noise.

Battery Life

It’s still an issue. I found that leaving Skype for iPhone open continuously for over three to four hours would drain the battery. A significant challenge for iPhone OS 4.0 will continue to be battery life. It’s the one significant shortcoming I find with respect to overall iPhone performance.

Data Use

From initial observation, it would appear that about 2 minutes of a voice call will take up 1MB of data transfer. Simply a guideline but it can start to get a handle on what your data costs will be. I still would only recommend using Skype for iPhone over WiFi when roaming outside your home network.

Bluetooth

Andy Abramson reports that his attempts to use a Bluetooth adapter while making a Skype for iPhone call have failed. More investigation and feedback required.

Bottom line: Skype for iPhone 2.0 has brings new performance benchmarks to the mobile voice calling experience, especially when it comes to voice quality. However, lack of background processing and improved battery life management still make it questionable as to whether one would rely totally on Skype for iPhone for all one’s mobile calling.

But it’s impeccable for making outbound calls to all your Skype contacts where you as the user have total control of the calling activity. And, of course, the call cost is also right.

It’s an Always-On Life

But the most difficult aspect to become accustomed to, especially as I was driving along the freeway today, was to be aware that one could always be connected to Skype whether via a WiFi access point or a wireless carrier, provided the battery had not been drained. I could follow Skype chat conversations, see others’ presence information and mood messages and, if appropriate, make a (currently free) voice call. There’s a psychological shift in thinking that has to be made.

Note:: Ontario has recently introduced laws that prohibit texting while driving as well as making voice calls other than handsfree calls. And the stats showed that texting while driving can be as dangerous as impaired driving. Pull over to the side of the road or turn over the driving to another party if you absolutely have to engage in or continue “that conversation”.

What have been your experiences with Skype for iPhone 2.0? Put them in the Comments and join the discussion.

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At his eComm America 2010 keynote presentation Monday morning, Skype’s recently appointed Chief Technology Strategist Jonathan Rosenberg provided his perspective on where Skype can introduce real time communications into “social sharing” activities.

Positioning the current state of social networking as personal broadcasting where a Twitter or Facebook message “broadcasts” your information out to a selected set of Followers or Friends, he went on to outline how these “broadcasts” were missing two key elements: emotion and interaction. And these broadcasts have a “random” aspect in terms of who receives them:

• Followers and Friends could cover a random mix of interest groups: family, work colleagues, special interest groups
• It’s a bit of a gamble as to who sees your ‘broadcast” message; some may follow every Tweet while others may be selective in what they see and take a few days to see a Tweet; others, for whatever reason, may never see it.

Bottom line is that current social networking is missing the emotion and interactivity associated with “social”.

Jonathan sees three “i’s” that need to be added for social networking to become totally social:

• involvement
• investment
• interactivity

And sees real time communications, integrated into a web property, as the infrastructure required to bring these to the table.

Jonathan then proceeded to give an example of each of the three “i’s”:

Real time and involvement: The quality of the real time call experience matters, as supported by statistics that Skype has mined out from their call detail records. It turns out that Skype’s SILK superwideband codec not only provides a higher quality, more readily understood voice conversation but also has been demonstrated to result, on average, in ~45% longer conversations, based on real Skype call detail records data. Phil Wolfe over at Skype Journal has more to say about this.

Real time and investment: here the example involved multiple people planning a trip together by sharing a desktop browsing travel web sites while carrying on a voice or video conversation.

Real time and interactivity – the virtual couch potato. While Jonathan gave an example, my own experience occurred a few years ago during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy when I was on a Skype call with a person in Sweden. We were both watching the ceremonies on our local television networks while discussing them in Skype voice and chat conversations.

This also brings to mind the couple who used Skype a few years ago for a remote courtship a few years ago; not only did a marriage result after a year of courtship via Skype but also a family with a couple of young ones.

According to Jonathan the bottom line is about turning a “me” experience into a “we” experience by escalating an asynchronous conversation (an initiating email or chat message) into a synchronous experience that can involve voice, chat, video and desktop sharing. And it involves bringing emotional and interactive elements into social sharing activities.

So what are the implications for Skype:

• These experiences need to be easy to invoke. What does it take to make users realize they can easily have these experiences?
• According to Jonathan, creating these experiences would involve invoking a web-based infrastructure into the Skype software offerings. Sounds like something we can expect to see later this year.
• What role would multi-party video play in these experiences? Can we expect to see multi-party video later this year?

Bottom Line: Is this all a precursor to some new Skype experiences or features that will be launched over the next few months?

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Launch of the iAttaché (woops, iPad) has certainly generated lots of social media coverage: blogs, Twitter and Facebook are full of comments and reviews. 300,000 sold; over a million Apps downloaded, etc. Since it’s not available yet for Canadians (except those who made the trip to Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago and Seattle, for instance, last weekend) I cannot comment yet on the user experience; however, it appears that iAttaché is still a valid description of this appliance (sorry, folks, it’s not a computer and it’s not an iPod! – I’ll have more to say in a separate post).

Apple left out the “Phone” application for a reason: iPad is not a suitable form factor for consumers experienced with traditional handset-size (smart)phone devices. But I have received voice calls and engaged in chat discussions via acquaintances who have been using Skype for iPhone on the iPad. In addition Truphone was first out of the blocks to launch a VoIP client specifically for the iPad.

As for Skype running on the iPad:

• It runs the legacy Skype for iPhone application with an option to view it in “double resolution” mode applicable to running all iPhone apps on the iPad.
• Skype has released, via the App store, an interim upgrade that addresses a couple of “iPad teething problems”. (Downloaded it to my iPhone this morning.)
• Skype intends to release an iPad-specific version that makes better use of the additional real estate available on the iPad’s larger display; this would be especially useful for chat sessions.

Questions:

• Will the Skype for iPad release be accompanied by the forthcoming release of Skype for iPhone that incorporates the Skype SILK codec to take full advantage of the associated voice quality?
• Will AT&T’s network be sufficiently robust to run Skype for iPad reliably over 3G?
• Leaving Skype for iPhone open on my iPhone will drain the battery within three to four hours; how much will Skype for iPad impact the iPad’s acclaimed and confirmed much longer battery life? (In this regard, the lack of multi-tasking probably will act as a governor on battery consumption as soon as one goes to another iPad application).

As for Truphone for iPad, John Biggs has a video over at Crunch Gear and concludes:

The app worked quite well and if you’ve used it on the iPod Touch you’re familiar with the call quality – standard – and ease of use – standard. It’s great for making quick calls from abroad, however, and until Skype goes iPad we’re kind of stuck with it.

Obviously this doesn’t match a real calling application that I doubt will be included in the 3G version of the iPad. However, for calls in a pinch this is a great solution.

One final comment and an unabashed plug for the FreeTalk Everyman headset: using the iPad’s native speakers for voice conversations will make your session “public” to anyone within hearing distance. Should you wish more privacy or not to annoy those nearby you, use the FreeTalk Everyman for Skype’s 3.5 mm speaker jack plugged into the iPad. You’ll still need to use the iPad mic and there’s no need to reset any Audio settings since it’s simply the speaker output being used.

Bottom line: Skype and Truphone will allow users to determine the conditions and market size under which they wish to conduct voice and chat conversations using the iPad as an end point device. And it sure fits as one more device for Skype Everywhere.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FreeTalk Everyman headset, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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Three weeks ago Skype made available the “Gold” release of Skype 4.2 for Windows. In the interim I have had the opportunity to experience many of its new features, several of which I have found improve the call experience in somewhat subtle but very beneficial ways.

Call Quality Indicator

This is what I have found the most useful new feature; it simply provides quick access to determine the conditions under which a call is being made. Before a call you can check your audio/video setup; click on “Check Settings” to bring up the device bar; click on a device to check that each of the mic, speakers, webcam (only if the Contact has a webcam) and computer speed are appropriately configured for making a call.

During a call you can continue to track call quality in the Call Bar; the network quality indicator on the right will also become active:

Should network connection conditions change the network quality indicator will turn orange or red and the number of bars will reduce. If you get a red exclamation mark you have a serious issue with your setup that most likely needs to be addressed. (The call in this case was to Skype Test Call; thus the gray “video” icon as Skype Test Call does not have a webcam.)

Note also that, at the end of every call, there is an opportunity presented to report on call quality. Responding, especially with less than best quality calls, certainly helps Skype to get a statistical handle on their performance.

But there’s one other unannounced feature associated with the Call Quality Indicator; click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the volume control in the Call Bar and you’ll find a menu that can lead to assistance with call diagnostics.  Select “Call Technical Info” and a separate window will open up with a wide range of diagnostic information including the other party’s SkypeID, codec being used, jitter, packet loss information and, for some calls, the version of Skype being used by the other party. Some of this information has been readily available in previous 3.x versions of Skype; however, in earlier versions of Skype 4.x it always operated in a “flicker” mode which made it difficult to read. Only a portion of the information available is shown here; the “24000” sample rate means the call is taking full advantage of the 12KHz audio bandwidth supported by Skype’s SILK codec.

Skype Access

Skype Access was first introduced on Skype for Mac 2.8; now it’s available in Skype for Windows 4.2. When you enter a WiFi zone supported by Boingo (there are over 100,000 125,000¹ worldwide with the SSID’s shown at this link), a window will pop up indicating that Skype Access is available (simply by having the appropriate client on your laptop). While it’s not exactly the least expensive way to connect to the Internet (including Skype) via a WiFi access point, it does come in handy for those 15 to 30 free minutes during airport stopovers or in “urgent” situations where there is no other alternative.

(Full disclosure: the author has a Boingo account which is available at the same locations as Skype Access as it has proven to be a cost saver at hotels that have the alternative of an expensive daily fee or using Boingo. On the other hand even at these locations, the Skype Access window will pop open.)

From time-to-time Skype has a Skype Access promotion; one is occurring the weekend during which this post was published; the promotion offers free Skype Access from 00:01 GMT Saturday, March 20 to 23:59 GMT Sunday, March 21, 2010 (extended to 23:59 Monday, March 22 in the U.K. to assist travelers stranded by the British Airways labor disruption).

Ready for HD Video

Ready, yes, but we’re not there yet; the HD webcams equipped for this feature will not be available until later this spring. However, I have received some test calls demonstrating that Skype 4.2 for Windows does support HD Video calling using appropriately compliant Skype-certified HD video cameras from FreeTalk and faceVsion. To the right is captured a frame from a test call using a faceVsion camera; below is the call diagnostic information from a recent test call using a prototype FreeTalk webcam – 1280 x 720 is the key parameter indicating HD Video support. (Once again, these webcams will only be available later this spring on the Skype Store). That we are all going to love the experience of these HD Video calls is all I can say at the moment. Note the reference to the H.264 video codec that is embedded in the webcam; the associated video compression is done on the webcam itself to reduce the load on the host PC’s CPU during a call and the associated network bandwidth requirements.

Update: While the FreeTalk webcam call reported above was made Tuesday, March 16, Jason Harris reports on an HD Video call from Andy two days later using the same webcam in Coming Soon: High Quality Skype Video Calls With Everyman HD. (I did not want to embarrass Andy by showing the details of his facial stubble in the one frame that I captured during our call; recall that many actresses were wary of HD video when first introduced as it could show intimate details of facial blemishes. I’m sure the make-up industry has compensated by now.)

Call Transfer: Simply stated, Call Transfer, a popular feature of many Skype 3.x versions, has finally re-appeared in Skype 4.2 for Windows.

Brower Toolbars: Since the release of Skype for Windows 3.0 a Skype Toolbar icon for Firefox was available; concurrently there has also been available a Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Basically it uses a Phone Number Recognition algorithm to locate phone numbers within a web page and Skype-enable them (essentially a Click-to-Call using Skype or SkypeOut). With Skype for Windows 4.2 this feature has finally become stable within Firefox (full disclosure – the author has been an external beta tester for this toolbar). In a subsequent post I’ll discuss how it can also be used to Skype-enable Skype contact names within a web page. Suffice it to say it has become a very handy tool, especially with telephone directory services.

Additional features: The release notes for Skype 4.2 also list several less significant but helpful changes that assist with the user call experience. For instance:

• The video call button remains available even if there is no webcam detected
• Improvements in video quality in low bandwidth conditions
• Improved contact importers, including from GMail, Facebook, Hotmail and Outlook

But it’s still not “perfect”. The Release Notes and Release Notes Document include details of not only improvements and bug fixes but also a list of known issues that the Developer team continues to assess and track down. But there’s one 3.x feature for which I still would like to see support in 4.x – namely Skype Public Chats.

Bottom Line: With three weeks of usage, Skype 4.2 for Windows definitely brings an enhanced user experience, especially with respect to providing diagnostic information to help with call quality issues. Skype Access opens up one more option for road warriors to have Internet access for short sessions at airports or ‘’urgent” situations where no other option is available. And we still have to wait a few weeks for the webcams that will support HD Video support, setting new standards for video calling, but the final outcome will be well worth the wait.

Of course, now that I have a MacBook Pro as my primary laptop, I have joined those asking when the equivalent features (Call Quality Indicator and HD Video calling) will be available in Skype for Mac².

¹Shortly after publishing this post I received my monthly email advising me that Boingo is now supporting 125000 access points worldwide.
² I can continue to use Skype for Windows on my desktop PC or via Windows 7 running as a virtual PC on Parallels for Mac.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FreeTalk HD Video webcams, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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With the release of Skype 4.0 for Windows beta 3 a year ago February, Skype first introduced their superwideband SILK codec. A month later at eComm 2009, Jonathan Christensen announced SILK’s availability for third party partners with royalty free licensing of the SILK codec. Since then it has been incorporated into all subsequent releases of Skype for Windows 4.x, Skype for Mac 2.8 and Skype for Linux. Recently Skype announced that the SILK codec will be supported in the next release of Skype for iPhone.

What does the SILK bring? Basically the best quality “in-your-head” audio available for voice conversations. To recall Jonathan Christensen’s highlights at the time the SILK codec was first introduced, the focus was on:

improving the audio bandwidth out to 12,000 Hz (12KHz)

providing bandwidth management to deal in real time with degraded  network conditions

balancing the codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience

overall robustness to provide a more consistent user experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual caller’s voice signature.

From a user perspective, one will notice crisper conversations, easier interpretation of accents and an overall high quality “in-your-head” voice experience.

But there have been other consequences of SILK’s availability:

• The FREETALK Everyman Headset for Skype ensures that users get the full benefit of SILK by providing an audio chip that effectively replaces the PC’s native audio chip to bring consistently the full benefits of the audio quality available with SILK.
• Similarly the more recently introduced FREETALK Freedom Wireless Stereo Headset also supports SILK’s audio bandwidth.
• A push-to-talk offering, Blabbelon, which provides the ability for gamers to communicate in a multi-party voice algorithm used by gamers, has incorporated the SILK codec, setting a new standard for gaming voice sessions.

But here’s the bigger picture: in order to have a voice conversation that takes full advantage of SILK, the end points of the conversation must incorporate the SILK codec and the telecom infrastructure must support the transmission of SILK conversations.

• The three Skype clients make this possible for end-to-end Skype-to-Skype calls between PC’s (and iPhones with the next Skype for iPhone release);
• Invoking SILK in Blabbelon by default results in every call participant’s taking full advantage of SILK since it is incorporated into the SILK client.

Incorporation into Skype for iPhone will only take advantage of SILK should the other party also be on a Skype client. But:

• SILK is not currently supported in the recently released Skype for Symbian.
• Nor will it be used in the Skype clients being developed for use by Verizon customers due to the need to link the user’s smartphone to Verizon’s Skype gateway using the underlying 3G wireless voice channel.
• SILK cannot be invoked on SkypeOut calls to the PSTN.
• Nor is it supported yet on any other third party smartphone or other end point handset or phoneset hardware.

And therein lies the challenge: how does one propagate SILK such that it becomes available beyond the Skype and Blabbelon worlds? Skype has taken the first step by making the SILK codec available royalty-free and publishing the source code. However, for broadest adoption it needs to become a recognized international standard.

Recently Skype has been working with the IETF’s “CODEC Working Group” as one candidate to be considered in the working group’s effort to identify and standardize a superwideband audio codec that could be widely used across IP-based conversations. In a “Speaking of Standards” post earlier today, Skype releases source code for SILK super wideband audio codec – the details…, Voxeo’s Dan York has provided an excellent detailed background, including both the political and technical considerations leading up to the adoption of such a codec as an IETF standard for interoperability across service providers and end point software and hardware suppliers. He concludes with:

Still to be seen is if there are any additional licensing terms from Skype, but overall this is a great step forward for those of us who want to see better overall audio quality on the Internet. Obviously it’s in Skype’s interest to do this so that the CODEC WG might consider SILK as the codec to standardize on versus the others or creating a new one… but still… it’s great to see. What do you all think?

And it sure helps Skype’s case that Skype has recently hired executives who have IETF working group experience such as Director of Developer Relations, Jason Frischl and Chief Technology Strategist Dr. Julian Rosenberg.

Bottom Line: Ever since the launch of SILK, it’s very noticeable when one is not on a SILK call. SILK can bring significant business productivity advantages when there’s less of “can you repeat that?” or simply misunderstanding of the speaking party. It makes everyone in the family more readily understood during those grandparent Skype video calls. It’s all about improving the end user experience.

There are many efforts to incorporate “wideband (8 Khz)” HD Voice into the telecom infrastructure. GIPS has some excellent wideband codecs; Jeff Pulver is running HD Voice conferences. While HD Voice is definitely an improvement on today’s standard PSTN voice calls it is not up to the quality of SILK-supported calls.

However, spreading SILK’s quality of conversation requires not only the appropriate hardware or client software, as described above, but also support of SILK in the telecom back end infrastructure. Having a standard that every player making the conversation connection possible can work towards would be a major step forward in “clearing up the conversation” when on a voice call.

Update: Skype’s Jonathan Christensen provides an update summary about the SILK codec in his Skype blog post “Advances in audio”. He reiterates the focus he described a year ago:

• improving audio bandwidth going from 8 kHz to 12 kHz, meaning that a SILK conversation sounds like you are in the same room as the person you are speaking with
• providing real-time bandwidth scalability to deal with degraded network conditions
• balancing codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience
• delivering a robust solution that delivers a more consistent audio experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual’s voice signature

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Launch of the iPad last week and the Apple’s recent change in their developer terms of service involving the removal of restrictions for using VoIP technology over a carrier’s 3G network have had the Skype mobile team busy reviewing the opportunities.

In a Share Skype post, An update on Skype for iPhone and calling over 3G, Peter Parkes interviews Skype for Mobile team member David Ponsford making a few points:

• Skype’s high quality audio SILK technology will be embedded in the next version of Skype for iPhone (for both the latest model iPhone 3G S and iPod Touch)
• “Real soon now” (quoting David in the video) we’ll be able to make Skype for iPhone voice calls over a carrier’s 3G network using Skype for iPhone.
• The next version will also incorporate the call quality indicator, a very useful tool found currently in the Skype for Windows 4.2 beta release.
• Skype for iPad is under consideration; given Apple’s claim that all current third party iPhone apps should run on the iPad, this should not involve too much change other than adapting to the larger screen size.

Here’s the video:

Skype for iPhone has bailed me out for voice calling on my recent trips to the U.S. for CES 2010 and IT Expo. During both events several calls from outside parties to my BlackBerry resulted in very poor call quality when roaming over the AT&T network. As a result I had to ask the calling party to hang up and called them back using Skype for iPhone (fortunately I was in a WiFi access point’s range). And the call quality was more than acceptable in each case. Just reinforces my point last spring about WiFi becoming a stealth carrier.

What will be real interesting is how much data traffic is generated by calls over 3G:

• Will it be the application to cause me to take full advantage of the 6GB data plan (for Canadian access) on my iPhone where my usage currently runs under 100MB per month?
• What will be the impact on roaming data plans and the resultant charges?
• While there is no doubt that Rogers, Bell and Telus will be able to handle the additional data traffic load in Canada, will Skype for iPhone over 3G be the application that brings down AT&T’s network in the U.S? (Especially if they can’t deliver good quality voice calls on their voice channel – see above.)

One final question: Does “real soon now” mean prior to or during the upcoming Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics that start in nine days (Feb. 12)?

Thanks to Skype’s Chief Blogging Officer Peter Parkes and David Ponsford for the update.

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Seems like Techland reviewer Doug Aamoth finally found a replacement for his vintage keyboard headset (what museum did he borrow that intro headset from?). For an entertaining review of the FREETALK Everyman watch the video:

And in his review you’ll find an audio comparison of the audio quality between FREETALK Everyman and another popular headset. His conclusion:

Bottom line: If you’re a Skype user and you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a fancy headset, there’s not too much to think about with the Freetalk Everyman Headset priced at $23.

For other blogger and Twitter feedback check out:

• FREETALK® Everyman: The Bloggers Speak Out
• FREETALK® Everyman: From Twitterville and More Bloggers
• FREETALK Everyman Headset for Skype: A Reprise

And for a description of the FREETALK Everyman: FREETALK® Everyman for Skype: Not “Just Another Headset”!

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

Since its launch in late July, 2009 tens of thousands of FREETALK Everyman Headsets for Skype have been distributed around the world. Its unique combination of superwideband audio support, flat-fold design and stereo plug adapter to become an iPod, iPhone and/or Blackberry speaker headset have provided a  superb listening experience whether taking advantage of Skype’s SILK codec on a PC-based call or listening to your iPhone’s iPod player during a flight (as the author is doing as he drafts this post).

As a steady user of both the FREETALK Everyman or FREETALK Freedom Wireless Stereo headset, both set new standards for voice quality on Skype conversations as well as listening to music or podcasts whether at home, in the office or in a mobile environment.

Kevin Tofel at jkontherun, a blog about mobile devices and experiences, sums it up best in his video:

Dave Cryer at UK-based Geekanoids has also provided an excellent video demonstration of the package and many features on You Tube.

In other recent posts Jonathan Jensen at The Really Mobile Project says, in First Look: FREETALK Everyman headset for Skype,

Build quality and comfort are good, considering the price point of the headset. I was amazed how light it is and would happily wear it for a couple of hours at a time.

Jeb Briliant at aBrilliantBlog writes:

The Everyman Skype headset is fantastic.  It’s a basic stereo headset with a boom mic but it’s much more then that.  I’m no audiophile but I know this, it sounds great on every single call I’ve used it for.  It’s light, small and packs easily into a travel bag.  I’ve taken it on a few trips now and it’s treated me quite well.

Check out earlier feedback posted on Voice On The Web at:

• FREETALK® Everyman: The Bloggers Speak Out and
• FREETALK® Everyman: From Twitterville and More Bloggers

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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Partial disclosure (the full disclosure is at the end): Since receiving Version 1.0 of the FREETALK^® Wireless Stereo Headset about two years ago, it has become one of my few “must have” accessories. I’ll try to keep to the descriptive details and let other bloggers comment on their experiences with it.

In the fall of 2007, In Store Solutions introduced the 5191 FREETALK Wireless Stereo headset; its feature set has resulted in its becoming a best seller amongst Skype headsets and number 1 amongst wireless headsets for Skype. From my experience:

• Its fifteen meter wireless range allows its use around the house; in my particular case the limitation of range to “one room away” resulted from the steel studs in the walls – crossing two walls sometimes made a difference. However, I could readily answer the front door when Fedex came (they only come during calls, right?) or I needed to let the dog out the back door without interrupting a call. I’ve often used them to listen to my iTunes music or listen to podcasts as well while working around the house.
• The audio quality has continued to amaze:
  • Its AvneraAudio^TM chip has supported the various wideband codecs that Skype has provided over the past two years, including the recently released SILK^TM codec with its support of 12KHz audio for Skype calls. In fact, when Skype provided me with samples of audio with progressively larger audio bandwidths – 4KHz (narrow band), 8KHz (wideband) and 12KHz (superwideband supported by SILK) – I could only detect a difference between the 8KHz sample and 12KHz sample when using this headset.
  • But the speakers actually support a wider bandwidth; they support the full 20KHz required for high fidelity music listening.

However, there were issues with the wearing comfort over a long period of time and the robustness of the headband over time. As a result In Store Solutions recently released “Version 2.0” – the Model 5192 FREETALK Freedom Wireless Stereo Headset – with a much more robust headband and redesigned ear pieces including leather padding for improved wearing comfort.

For simplicity here’s a brief comparison of the FREETALK Wireless Headset and the FREETALK Everyman Headset:

Other features include:

• Up to 5.5 hours continuous use per charge (in “ready” mode)
• Continue conversations while the 2 meter charging cable is attached to headset
• includes a compact travel case to contain the headset, USB dongle and battery charging cable

As for the battery management, I have usually kept the charging cable plugged in when at my PC but can readily disconnect when I need to walk away. This is just “gut” feeling due to many years of experience with battery powered devices.

While operating in the same unlicensed rf band as WiFi, I have never encountered interference between WiFi and the headset. So how does this unique WiStereo^TM protocol work in terms of effect on the user experience?

• It’s intelligent enough to work outside any active WiFi channels
• Between 10 to 15 users in the same room have been able to use headsets concurrently.
• It is designed to support the full 20KHz audio bandwidth much more readily and effectively than any Bluetooth protocol
• There is a sideband channel for the control signals that manage Skype calling via the right ear piece.
• It adapts the active rf power levels, in real time, to the distance between the USB dongle and headset.
• If the user goes out of range and returns to within range, the wireless connection is automatically re-established

The Model 5192 FREETALK Freedom Wireless Stereo Headset is available on Skype Stores via the In Store Solutions Shop supporting 40 currencies and 67 countries under “Headsets”. All In Store Solutions products come with a 7-day (from delivery) “No Questions Asked” return policy.

And, which do I use? Everyman or Freedom Wireless? -  both: one on my laptop and the other on my desktop PC.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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