Folks, I am looking to do deeper technology stories, and cover more “technology” focused start-ups. Any thoughts on categories, topics, company names etc, please leave your comments.
Well, here I am and directly answered with this message:
Hello Om,
I wouldn't like to see stories on biotech, nanotech or greentech here. I come for the electronics, because that is what most interests me as a reader. Also I worked in former days in a magazine which tried to do the splits between electronics and bio. It did not work well because both parts came too short.
What GigaOM is definitely lacking is a more international focus. You are very concentrated on the US and often missing bleeding edge technologies from other parts of the world. I see it especially in the VoIP area, where GigaOM sometimes presents new technologies that make me say "but that's no big deal". I could do most of this already at home, using my Fritz!Box from the German company AVM. So GigaOM should maybe cover more European companies.
I see for instance these stories from Germany I would have liked to read on GigaOM:
1.) Siemens (from Munich) will present on CeBIT their new product HiPath MobileConnect, that let's mobile phones do a seamless handover between Wifi telephony and GSM networks - and back, always choosing the cheapest way to connect, without interrupting the call.
2.) Cellity (from Hamburg) tunnels mobile calls with exquisite voice quality trough fixed lines, bringing down the prices up to 90 per cent.
3.) AVM's new Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7270 (from Berlin ) is the dream device for VoIP: DECT phone for fixed line phone calls and VoIP, WLAN router, answering machine, USB host, DSL modem and music streamer in just one device. It also works with the new V-DSL for downloads speeds until 100 MBit and includes the new 802.11n standard for super fast Wifi. Any other American product seems more than oldfashioned against this! Also you have to keep in mind that people in Germany get these devices for free from their DSL providers. That's the reason why there are already millions of VoIP users in Germany.
4.) "Most of the Nokia phones will have Wifi soon. For instance in the N-Series Wifi is no exception but a general feature", said Ari Virtanen, Vice President Convergence Products, Multimedia of Nokia two weeks ago in an interview with me. How will this affect the mobile network providers like Vodafone if their clients can now avoid their expensive networks with devices they get for 1 Euro? (Because also the Wifi phones are subsidized in Germany.)
5.) How come that much of the technology of the new OpenMOKO dream device, an all open Linux phone, comes from a Linux / VoIP community project in Germany (Berlin)? What did they have to suffer until they found their device maker from Taiwan and GigaOM covered it two days ago?
These are stories that are very interesting to me. And there is much more to cover, that maybe slips trough your fingers because it is not always announced in English press releases that arrive on your desk. If you want I could be helpful as a correspondent. Just click on my website for more information!
Best regards,
Markus Göbel
Yes Moshe, this text is really great and interesting. The world is bigger than the US and so there are different regional needs in mobile and VoIP communication.
ReplyDeleteAmericans e. g. often stress the point that they try to avoid the costs for incoming mobile calls by using the new technologies. That's a problem we don't have in other parts of the world. In Germany we only pay for making a call, not for receiving one.
The expats from poor countries, which Ken's texts describes, often have to pay sky high costs to call their country. So they are most interested in cheap international fixed line calls.
That's where they see the potential for VoIP. But the problems of these people don't seem to be very attractive for the industry and the media that sourround it.
Bringing down the costs for calls is often only described as a stupid strategy that brings your company out of business on the long run.
But hey!
For the users it's the killer application of VoIP.