A BIG BIG Day at Amazon Today: New Kindles and the New Fire tablet

Amazon today showed off three new versions of its e-ink digital book reader Kindle.

The company unveiled the Kindle Touch for $99. It also showed off a 3G version, which will sell for $149. A cheaper and smaller non-touch control Kindle will sell for $79.

The lower price points represent an aggressive push by Amazon to further its lead in the e-reader market as other entrants such as Barnes & Noble's Nook pose a growing threat.

The Kindle Touch is thinner, smaller and lighter. It features no physical controls, allowing the user to use their left hand to navigate through a digital book.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos touted the new price points, saying Amazon is "making premium products at non-premium prices."

Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday unveiled the Kindle Fire tablet, the latest--and possibly biggest--challenger to Apple Inc.'s dominant iPad.

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Amazon/Bloomberg News

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet

The Fire tablet has a 7-inch screen and can access Amazon's app store, streaming movies and TV shows. The device will cost $199 and will be available Nov. 15, with pre-orders starting Wednesday.

By comparison, the lowest price for a new iPad is $499. The Kindle doesn't offer a cellular connection, working only with wi-fi. It also doesn't have a camera or microphone.

"We asked ourselves, 'Is there some way we can bring all of these things together [web, movies, apps, books and games] into a remarkable product offering customers would love?'" Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said at the company's launch event in New York City. "Yes, the answer is Amazon Kindle Fire."

Bezos noted that all the content on the Fire will be backed up remotely on Amazon's servers at no cost to the consumer.

"This is unbelievable value," Bezos said. "I really want to stress this point: These are premium products at nonpremium prices."

8 Tips for a Successful Conference Call

Conference Calls are the norm in business today so it’s very important to ensure that they are successful. I was on a 40 person conference call once and it was a big joke. I am sure no one was paying any attention because at the end the call there was no call to action on a RFP response for a $10M deal. Guess what? The outcome was a disaster but then that’s how it works in the world of Telco.

1) Set the time well in advance of the call. We’re all busy, our schedule’s are full. Set the time of your conference call far enough in advance to allow your audience to fit it in to their existing schedule.

2) Help them remember with your reminders. Help your audience remember by reminding them several times prior to the time of the call. We recommend reminders one-week, one-day and one-hour before the time of the call.

3) Use Clear and Thorough Instructions. With each reminder, use clear and thorough instructions to join the call. That includes the conference dial-in number, the conference codes, what to do with each, when to do it, and what they will experience at each step.
Oh, and the time of the call, in multiple time-zones is important, too!

4) Know the features on your conference call and how to use them. There are many easy-to-use features that serve to enhance your reputation by creating a productive conference call for your attendees. Make sure you know how to use them prior to the call. Mute parties if needed and ensure the idiots who go on Hold understand when they do so we get to hear music.

5) Set an Agenda. The best way to make the best use of everyone’s time on the conference call is to send a prepared agenda prior to the start of the conference call. That helps everyone prepare in advance their expectations and possible participation.

6) Start on time. Nothing communicates disrespect like repeatedly failing to start a meeting on time. Nothing loses enthusiasm and participation like the failure to start a meeting on time. Set the right tone, right from the beginning with starting on time.

7) End on time. You had a great conference call. The presentation was flawless. The participation was enthusiastic. Now end the call on time. That helps insure the subsequent word-of-mouth for your call and YOU is positive.

8) Call to Action. Is there one? if so make sure that responsibilities and tasks are assigned with a plan for follow up.

Bonus Tip: Make sure that callers are not on cellphones or using Skype as lousy connections start to make the call difficult if parties cannot be heard, background noise, or poor quality IP connections.

A Day in the Life of an Employee using the ShoreTel Communicator Unified Communications Productivity Tool

Employees that work for employers that have purpose built IP Telephony platforms are a lucky bunch indeed. These employers have realized the immense benefits available to them by using desktop applications, softphones, collaboration tools and IP centric network connectivity. The employee is now able to enhance their productivity in an anyplace, anytime, anywhere environment. The following example shows how a mobile Communicator application, IP Softphone, Instant Messaging and collaboration tools allows employees to work smarter.

Working smarter allows me to get my work done in an efficient and productive manner.
My ShoreTel communicator client and Mobile Communicator application really helps me stay connected anytime, anywhere and any how especially working across 3 times zones with North American colleagues.

The brilliantly simple approach that ShoreTel has taken with its solution is that the Communicator client is included for every user and requires no additional servers, hard drives, licenses or complex fat client software to be loaded up on laptops.

Add the brilliantly simple ShoreTel Mobility application on my iPhone (Blackberry, Nokia and Android supported as well). For me it’s a simple download from the iTunes Store and some sever settings added in the options tab.

What makes ShoreTel unique is that the communicator tool allows the ability to provide Extension Assignment that can provide the functionality on any telephone. It can be your home telephone, a mobile telephone, a hotel telephone or even a pay phone in Rome.

ShoreTel Communicator for Mobile allows you to temporarily assign your ShoreTel extension to your mobile phone and use your mobile phone hardware as your ShoreTel phone. It allows you to use the mobile phone to dial calls from your ShoreTel extension, answer incoming calls to your ShoreTel extension, and manage your ShoreTel extension mailbox.

ShoreTel Communicator for Mobile installs on your mobile phone and appears as an application on the display of the mobile. The application provides subsets of many of the features found on ShoreTel Communicator installed on your computer including Quick Dialer, call history, call handling and voicemail access. In addition the application provides features that facilitate connecting your mobile phone to your ShoreTel extension.

ShoreTel also has the Roam Anywhere dialer that uses Wi-Fi to make and receive ShoreTel extension calls. This is a huge saver of minutes and allows users to not incur expensive roaming and long distance charges.

• 5:30 a.m. Wake up, shower, shave and out the door. I have a client meeting in Chicago and need to catch the Go Train. As I wait for the train I use my Mobile Communicator to assign my office extension to ring on my iPhone. If anyone calls my Austin, TX DID number it will ring in on my iPhone. Checking my corporate emails, I need to provide a status update to a teammate in California. I use communicator to dial his number and the tool then calls me back with a call into his voicemail. I just saved myself some long distance charges using the tool that connects the long distance as a local call. Some people call this “Twinning”.

It is also brilliant that I have now enterprise vice enabled my iPad 2 tablet for making and receiving corporate calls using the Mobile Communicator.

• 7:15 a.m. A short walk to the Fly Porter Shuttle bus stop. My iPhone keeps me in touch while on the way to the airport.
• 7:45 a.m. I use the Porter Wi-Fi to open attachments on my iPhone saving me data bandwidth usage charges.
• 10:00 a.m. I take a short train ride from Midway Airport and am at the Michigan avenue customer location.
• 11:00 a.m. Laptop plugged into guest cubicle and a quick check of emails and voice mails for any urgent items. I enable the Extension Assignment and now have all my office calls routed to my softphone. Back to my guest cubicle for a conference call with the marketing team while waiting for the customer meeting to start.
• 11:15 a.m. Dan, my Manager in Kansas City sees I am connected with available presence information and through Instant Messaging asks me to join a meeting with a Partner for later this week.
• I continue my work as if I was in the Austin office, making and receiving telephone calls with clients
• 4:00 p.m. I leave Chicago for my flight to Toronto. I have used the Extension Assignment feature to now have all my office calls routed back to my office telephone and the Outlook integration changes my call handling mode to go directly to voice mail as it sees my calendar entry as unavailable.
• 7:00 p.m. On my drive home from the airport, my iPhone senses the Bluetooth in the car and uses Location specific information to automatically route all calls to my cellphone. Win, our Mobility Product Manager calls me and since he called my extension number, the ShoreTel system knows to send the call to my iPhone.
• 8:30 p.m. After dinner and helping the kids with homework in the kitchen, I use my iPhone to check emails and make a few calls using my home Wi-Fi network. I use my iPad to prepare a draft PowerPoint presentation. Dan calls me and the call comes in using the Wi-Fi mode on my iPhone. He is 3 hours behind so I set up a calendar entry for 10pm to do a quick review using our whiteboard application.
• 10:00 p.m. I am now in my home office and on the corporate LAN and Dan and I review the draft. Seeing that Brenda in the Sunnyvale office is on-line using the contacts field of Communicator, we ask her to participate and add some content. We can see that Cassandra in the Tucson office is on-line and Instant Message her that we have an opportunity for her with a multi-site customer that she needs a heads up on.
• 11:00 p.m. Done! Time to get some rest.

Whether simplifying day-to-day communications, streamlining the work of contact center agents and supervisors, or making it easier for mobile workers to stay in the loop, ShoreTel Communicator puts intuitive communication and collaboration tools at end users' fingertips.

ShoreTel Communicator delivers unified communications (UC) in an intuitive interface and is available in diverse environments such as Web browsers, Windows, Mac OS, Citrix, iPhones, BlackBerry, and Nokia mobile phones. With minimal training, users across job roles can master a full suite of versatile tools for managing real-time communications on their computer or mobile phone, moving seamlessly between voice, video, or IM as needed.

ShoreTel Communicator provides integrated advanced call management and quality desktop video in a highly customizable interface that is easy to set up. In addition to tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, it offers instant messaging (IM) functionality that gives users the power to contact people in remote locations, have sidebar conversations during calls, or to bring several people into a chat session.

Pre-built integration of enterprise and CRM applications (such as Salesforce), calendaring, and workflow, raises the bar on customer interaction by putting data where it's most needed. ShoreTel Communicator can also integrate with third-party information and applications via a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs).

Google Buys Motorola Mobility – Armed and Ready to move forward in mobile communications in a big way.

Google Buys Motorola Mobility – Armed and Ready to move forward in mobile communications in a big way.

I have ten thoughts on the strategic importance of this very key acquisition and the brilliance of Larry Page taking an aggressive position forward.

1. Google missed out on the 6000 strong Nortel patents and acquires over 17000 Motorola patents. They actually bid “pi” or $3.14159 Billion. The so-called “Rockstar Bidco group” of Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, Ericsson AB and EMC. Google is finding itself having to protect the company with all these patent infringements.
2. Google wants to be in the game and as access to the internet has expanded to mobile devices the past decade, so too has the demand for even faster wireless data connections. The future is LTE and 4G. Mobile search and mobile payment tools are the fastest growing market segments. Remember when Steve Jobs went ballistic when he saw the first Google android prototype?
3. The “Google Phone” will become a reality and with their clever Android software platform the missing link was control of the hardware platform. The Motorola acquisition makes this happen.
4. The Android cool factor disappears as it becomes mainstream. Now that Google is a legitimate manufacturer the software developers may not have that open source playground anymore. Android will become proprietary.
5. Google now has a set top platform to expand its Google TV or even Googleflix offering. Search now embeds itself even further into the consumer’s home. Remember Motorola was a leader in wireless Ethernet routers and adsl modems back in the day.
6. Samsung and HTC are going to be worried as Google moves from partner to competitor status.
7. I think Nokia will get purchased by Microsoft and I think Microsoft may buy RIM. Rim patents are worth at least $10 Billion based on the recent Nortel and Motorola patent evaluations.
8. Google is taking a long term view to having the resources and platforms to protect itself from Microsoft and Apple.
9. Google is investing into hottest technologies are Cellphone payments, location technology, automobile-Internet, QR codes and 4G/LTE.
10. Patents, patents and more patents but in the end the hardware is key, if not Google could have bought InterDigital that has over 8000 patents for a lot less.

Motorola: The Leader in Innovation and a Mobile Pioneer

Motorola has a long history in being on the leading edge of communications technology. Its brand is well known in the 2 way radio and cellular handset business.
Motorola is solely focused focusing on mobile technologies and has authored volumes of books and holds many patents.

Read through the timeline and through the static and noise in the wireless spectrum it will become very clear on how strong a signal Motorola really is.

1928 - Motorola is founded in Chicago, Illinois by Joseph and Paul Galvin in September of that year as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Its first product was a battery eliminator that allowed battery operated radios to run on household electricity.

1930 - The name "Motorola" is created as the brand for the first commercially successful car radio. It is the combination of the word "motor" for car, and "ola," which the Galvin’s believed on the idea of mobile sound. The brand essentially means "sound in motion." Motorola releases a car radio.

1936 – The Motorola Police Cruiser radio receiver is launched.

1943 -1946 Motorola becomes the defacto messaging platform for the allies in World War II with the Handie-Talkie SCR536 Radio.

1946 - The beginnings of the cell phone. Motorola's equipment is used to make the first in-car telephone calls over Illinois Bell's radiotelephone service in Chicago in January.

1955 - Motorola's stylized "M" makes its first appearance.
1956 - The company debuts its first “Handie-Talkie Radio Pager”, calling it a "new standard in personal communication.” It immediately becomes a popular replacement for overhead paging in hospitals and factories.

1969 - A Motorola radio transponder relayed the first words from the moon to Earth in July 1969. The transponder aboard the Apollo 11 lunar module transmitted telemetry, tracking, voice communications and television signals between Earth and the moon.

1973 - The modern cell phone starts development with the debut of the DynaTAC. The famous brick cellular telephone.

Motorola DynaTAC1983 - Ten years after the company shows its first prototype cellular phone system, the FCC approves a commercial version of DynaTAC in September. The phone would not be available at retail until the following year. Arguably the first cell phone accessory also makes its debut: the "VSP" (Vehicular Speaker Phone) allows for hands free operation.

1986 - Motorola’s Bravo pager is released, which would go on to become the world's best selling pager. The Six Sigma standard for measuring quality improvement processes, was invented by Motorola researchers.

1989 - The MicroTAC makes its debut.

1991 - The company plays a crucial role in the development of GSM, introducing a system and phones in Germany. The technology now is a global standard used in nine out of 10 phones in operation worldwide today.

1994 - iDEN technology debuts, combining the aspects of paging, two-way communication, and phone calls into a single mobile device.

Motorola StarTAC 200px1996 - The StarTAC is released. Arguably no other phone gains the cult following this device does: it is used by a hardcore group of aficionados for more than a decade. Over 60 million were sold, making it one of the earliest blockbuster devices.

1999 - Motorola debuts its first tri-band GSM phone -- the Timeport -- allowing users for the first time to use the same phone when traveling worldwide.

2000 - The company teams up with Cisco to deliver the first GPRS network to BT in the United Kingdom. The first GPRS phone is released, the Timeport P7389i.

2002 - Motorola introduced the world's first wireless cable modem gateway which combined a high-speed cable modem router with an Ethernet switch and wireless home gateway.

2003 - The company makes its first foray into the smartphone market with the A760, which used the Linux operating system with Java technology.

Motorola RAZR2004 - The RAZR debuts, arguably setting off a trend to go thinner and smaller -- and like the StarTAC, gains a cult following that uses the phones long after the company stops selling them. It held the honor of the bestselling cellular phone in history until it is eclipsed by the iPhone in 2008.

2009 - Motorola takes a chance on Google's new Android smartphone operating system and several of its devices become some of the bestselling models on the platform.
Motorola Mobility

2011 - On January 4, the company announces it will spin off its Mobile Devices division into a separate company called Motorola Mobility. Motorola Solutions would handle all of the company's non-cellular related activities.

August 15, 2011 - Motorola Mobility is acquired by Google in a $12.5 billion transaction. Google calls the move "defensive," aimed at staving off an increasing tide of lawsuits aimed at the Android operating system.

Boingo Wireless sees demand increasing!

Boingo Wireless has been a market leader in providing Wi-Fi access in the USA for many years. Boingo has over 210,000 subscribers taking advantage of hotspots in cafes, airports and restaurants. They also have over a million subscribers logging on for pay per hour service every day. Boingo expects to see an increase in hotspots by as much a 40 present the next few years due to the demand for wireless internet access by its consumers. Naturally the smartphone, netbook and tablet users are demanding more Wi-Fi hotspots due to the surge in device sales.

Boingo is also a key OEM supplier for Verizon and Skype.

Business travelers and tourists should not forget that there is free access at most Chain hotels in the lobby so there is an alternate point for "access" and on a hot summer day - air conditioned to boot!

For the upper New York state traveler, the I90 has Wi-Fi at its traveler rest/gas stops making the toll costs more bearable on your journey to Albany or New York.

Boingo should come to Canada and bring their services to the marketplace. I would call this a pretty easy managed Wi-Fi service for retailers to offer in-store wireless access for its customers. Retailers also have the ability of having others build a solution for them and packaging it as a managed bundle.

Carrefour Planet is the new Hypermarket store

Carrefour Planet is the new Hypermarket store

The French have a new store format called the Hypermarket. They have made the aisles wider, softened the lighting and set up 9 zones of shopping experience. The market zone offers fresh food in a marketplace atmosphere with a focus on the customer experience with sampling and cooking lessons.

The organic zone offers organic brands and their own private bio brand. The frozen food zone offers well you get it – frozen foods.

The beauty zone offers beauty brands and products and a virtual make up consultation and haircut area.

The fashion zone offers clothing with a free alteration service.

The baby zone has all the baby needs and diapers by the bag full. The busy mom will get extra service with a separate check-out area.

The home zone includes storage and home products.

The media zone offers mobile phones, electronics and entertainment media.

Finally the seasonal zone offers an ever changing promo area for products arranged around the 7 different seasons and buying themes.

Again IP technology is a key spend in the in-store technology with digital signage, kiosks and demo centers. No wonder the recent hires to run the large Canadian retailers are coming from Europe.

Carrefour Planet brings innovative design thinking in changing the way consumers interact with their retail customer experience.