A few observations...

Most of the time I think people have spotted these trends, but then it seems they haven't. Who knows. Anyway, here's a top 10 list of things that could be meaningful in the wonderful world of communications:

- Identity is becoming a big issue, we all have several identities yet all the applications assume we have one!

- Office 2.0? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

- Device : Network is no longer 1:1 ; create table DeviceHasAccess;

- Digital products have negligible marginal cost, in order to charge money for them, you have to attach them to something that has a marginal cost - buy the T-shirt!

- What is a phone? The current devices are evolving into specialist areas that have phone capability. E.g. A camera with voice capability, a camcorder with voice capability - voice is the feature, not the camcorder! (see Identity also - where do I put my SIM card?)

- An internet company IS a media company, and vice versa.

- Cars are under-equipped with communications and IP technology. It's like the 80's in my car! Where are the companies producing Car Slingboxes, auto-sync over WiFi or 3G with my home system, a dedicated SIM/number/identity for my car!

- Video tagging is becoming essential; or "Re-intermediating the internet - bookmarks are not enough"

- Fame equals breadth of distribution & Fame precedes fortune

- Regulating the internet is like trying to teach a room full of 2 year-olds how to share a box of chocolates; messy & doomed to failure.

- Trust is worth more than a thousand clicks; Company = Community

One other thing I find interesting from a social perspective is the beginnings of mass migration of older people (not just over 65s) to lower cost environments. This must eventually have a profound economic impact that may not be picked up by current statistics. Think about this; it is estimated that 15 million Americans may go to live in Mexico, because of the climate and lower cost of living. Their savings and incomes(pensions) are likely to still be in the US, but they will spend most of the money in Mexico. Thailand is undergoing a similar influx of retirees.
This should mean that Developing Nation Healthcare stocks are worth investing in!
But perhaps more importantly, does this 'golden' migration have an unintentional wealth redistribution effect? There are plenty countries that can capitalise on this effect, but once again, stability and trust will play a big part in the success or failure.

Slow Growing for Skype....

From El Reg : "Voice over Internet Protocol phone service Skype increased users by 20 per cent to 113m. Revenues were $50m, an increase of 13 per cent from the second quarter of 2006."

Really pretty unimpresive stuff! Both Ebay and Paypal, the other 2 axis of evil elements in the Power of 3 thingy did better.

Is there just too much competition in the VoIP space now? And what has Skype brought to the space recently?

I still use Skype, and I still think it's the best quality VoIP service, but the rates aren't cheap (especially mobile, which sucks my balance more than any online gambling!)

I figure it's about time Meg employed a little torture in order to extract better performance, after all, there is an implied link between Skype and terrorist communication.

The only thing that cheered me up this week was Kurt Vonnegut complaining that he was going to sue his cigarette supplier because it said on the pack that they would kill him and at 83, it clearly wasn't delivering! "Now I'm forced to suffer leaders with names like Bush and Dick....". Classic!

Cars, Phones & Warehouses...

There's been a lot of discussion of Carphone Warehouse and the debacle (as it appears to someone who is now an expat) of their UK Free Broadband offering.
Dean Bubley has a good insight into what's wrong with the CPW business model. It's not possible to sell all brands and provide great support.
Dean hit on the right analogy, Car Dealerships. There are some that deal in multiple brands, but typically they focus on one. The Ford Dealer, the GM dealer etc. Where he got it wrong was including the Operator in the equation.
The network IS important, but it's marginal to the purchase decision.

If I'm buying a car I don't really care about the kind of petrol (gas) that it runs on. I might care if there was some additive that meant that my car can ONLY run on that brand of petrol AND the petrol supplier subsidized the cost of the car down to zero - but that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?

It looks to me like the model will be based on the handset manufacturers, i.e. a Nokia shop, a Motorola shop, an LG shop, rather than a network operator.
Of course, phones are becoming cheaper and we may move to the 'no decent support' model where you buy from supermarket discount chains. Likely they will co-exist, where some will pay a premium in return for better support and expert advice.

I fully expect that the model will switch to the extent that, as car dealerships offer 1 years free petrol, so handsets will come with 1 years free network access. In other words the network is packaged with the hardware as a sweetener. The Sony Mylo is starting this trend over in the US with T-Mobile.

So, did Phones4U just get an exclusive deal with Shell to sell cars?

WhoTube?

Could I resist commenting on Google buying the 20-month old IP video toddler? No, of course not.
$1.65 billion, probably not that bad a deal in the end, though it is somewhat galling that 'value' can be created so easily. That seems to be the underlying meme of the naysayers in this drama. 'How can YouTube possibly be worth $1.65 billion, after 20 months!'
Well, we live in interesting times, and if you had a TV or a radio station go from nowhere to being the leading station in the US, after 20 months in existence, say 20 years ago, what would the price have been?
Google's figures, and just about every single report/statistic, show that advertising revenue is moving online at a frightening pace. YouTube is just a media channel, but it has become synonymous with online video. That's worth a lot.
There's also the $900 million that Google paid to MySpace. These deals are becoming more expensive all the time, why not get the station while you can!

I was sceptical of the value of Ebays acquisition of Skype, yet no other company has managed to dent Skype's growth significantly. Branding, and first mover advantage seem to have more effect on the internet than I would have expected. I suspect this is due to the immaturity of the market. Once people have a solution, they don't look further, that will start to change over time, but not as quick as tech-savvy people (or I) would expect.

YouTube (and Skype) have a significant lifespan in them. Google have to be where the eyeballs are and over the lifespan, this probably saves money for Google.

The legal issues? Well, perhaps they'll have to shut it down, but not for some time yet.
In the meantime, Surf's up and Google just caught a wave...

Pavlovian Customer Service

I've been trying to organise some things on both sides of the world. Here in Thailand I am trying to get my broadband connection working again, or get a new provider. In the UK I'm trying to do some banking and cancel some subscriptions to services I don't use.

I'm starting to get a Pavlovian response to Call centres! Whenever the phrase "Our operators are very busy at the moment, but please be assured that your call is important to us, and we will answer your call as soon as possible" is played by the IVR, I start to foam at the mouth. I can't help it.
This is probably a reaction that is similar for millions of others who call up CSRs on a daily basis. And it is so, so wrong.
The metrics for call centre performance encourage CSRs to spend less time on the phone with the customer, to answer the call and then as quickly as possible move onto the next one.
Meanwhile, the customers are waiting, getting frustrated and when they finally do get to speak to an operator, they are treated brusquely.

The time has come for a change of business model:
- Save the customers time
- Minimise the chance that their problem will go unsolved
- Make it convenient for the customer, not the CSRs!

Currently Call centres work through a single channel. The ACD queue. That is what is measured. It is managed on a first in, first out model. What we need to do is introduce the following:
- multiple channels
- Scheduling (including presence and escalation)

If I phone a call centre, it's not that hard for them to estimate how long it is going to be before my call gets answered - they measure the average wait time and call time on a regular basis. They don't tell me because it might be wrong and I might become angry (hint: I'm already angry!)

The only things I need to know from a customer that calls up are:
- Who are they?
- What area is their problem in?
- When would be a convenient time to CALL THEM? (that fits into the schedule)

But we've given people the option to ask for a call back, and they still stay in the queue! Well, yes, there is a perception that CSRs never call back. The Call centre metrics need to be focussed around call backs and not calls answered.

Here's an example of the conversation (with an IVR) I'd like to have:
"Good Morning, you're through to the ACME Help scheduling service, please press the number of the option you require assistance with. Press 1 for ..."
"Thankyou, now tell us when you would like us to call you. Press 1 for ASAP, 2 for morning, 3 for afternoon, 4 for evening"
"Thankyou, our next slot for your chosen option is 18:30 tomorrow. Press 1 to accept, 2 for alternative time or # plus 4 digits to suggest a time"
"Thankyou, do you wish us to call you at this number? Press 1 to accept or # and the number you wish us to call"
"You have asked us to call you on at . If this is incorrect press 1. You may change your appointment by logging in to our website at ???? using the number as user and appointment time as the PIN. Alternatively you can send an SMS to 8888 containing the number for callback followed by a space and the 4 digit appointment time and we will attempt to call you ASAP"

If, during the course of this exchange, a CSR becomes available, then make the connection, otherwise, make sure that all callbacks are executed.
If the number is a mobile number, it might make sense to send an SMS shortly before the appointed time to confirm. Allow the customer to reply to the SMS with a modified time.

It's not perfect, but anything's better than hanging on the line (from Thailand) for 40 minutes...