Last week, Cisco raised an objection to the Microsoft acquisition of Skype, saying it would hurt video conferencing interoperability -- even though, in this space, you could argue Cisco is not the poster child for interoperability. Coincidently, I met with the CEO of LifeSize last Thursday, and he saw this Microsoft acquisition as a huge opportunity. LifeSize is the poster child for video-conferencing interoperability.
So why would Cisco complain about a move and highlight something it doesn't do as a reason to block it, while LifeSize would applaud the same move because it plays well with its interoperability advantage? Given this is an election year, there are a lot of parallels to politics in the juxtaposition of these two companies and this one acquisition.
I'll close with my product of the week: a driving experience that saved me US$120k.
It often seems that in an election year, the truth takes a holiday. For instance, the Obama administration is requiring insurance providers of religious organizations to supply birth control pills. This is consistent with the state's position on nondiscrimination. If you supply a service for one, you have to supply the same service for another, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.
This was positioned by Obama's opponents as an attack against the Catholic church. It wasn't -- it was an attack on discrimination. However, it does involve birth control, which is a practice the Catholic church opposes. You couldn't exactly come out with a platform saying it is OK to discriminate against people who work for religious organizations, so the anti-church message was crafted, even though Obama appears to be pretty religious.
If you look underneath the pro-life vs. pro-choice controversy, it isn't about babies -- it is about control. Who should make life or death decisions regarding a pregnancy is at the core of the dispute: the government and the church, or the individual. But as a right wing party,China Rubber Hose catalog and rubberhose manufacturer directory. you can't very well argue for increased government control of personal decisions, so the platform becomes about life. If it really were about life, there would be more effort to fund and care for children born to parents who don't want them, but that isn't even a minor part of the pro-life/pro-choice debate. It's all about who can make the decision to abort a pregnancy.
The sad thing is,Specialized of injection mold, plasticmoulds, we don't seem to get this is all about manipulation. Someone -- or some group -- is tricking a large number of people to agree to a position that they would likely not support, if they fully understood what is at stake (personal freedom). For instance, if the government can make invasive medical decisions in one area, isn't it likely it will make them in others? At some point,Choose from our large selection of cableties, we'll live in that Big Brother world of 1984.
The problem with video conferencing is that it historically doesn't interoperate. From FaceTime to Cisco Telepresence, one system generally can't work well with another. There are no common directories, and even if they connect, they typically provide such a crappy experience that the primary vendor can convince you to buy more of its stuff in order to get an adequate experience. It is kind of like TV was when RCA owned everything,November, 2011 by injectionmoldes. except no one company is as powerful as RCA was, so it just means stuff doesn't work.
The end result is that companies like Cisco can have high-margin systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and even though there are cheaper alternatives, those alternatives can't get access to the proper Cisco control points to ensure as good an experience, so they can't compete, and Cisco maintains margins.
This is kind of like what the PC market was before Microsoft, and the server market was before Microsoft Server and Linux. In a Unix world, companies like Sun were king, and everyone paid a huge premium because once locked in, you couldn't move.
However, if Microsoft does with Skype what it did with Windows, it will establish a common, low-cost, high-definition standard that will commoditize the video conferencing market much as it did with PCs and servers. Suddenly, stuff will work together, and buyers will no longer have to buy the massively expensive and very high-margin, high-end systems. They'll chase the lowest-cost adequate technology provider.
This gives low-cost providers like LifeSize the potential to grow up to be the next Dell while companies like Cisco collapse and become the next Sun.Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. But Cisco can't step up and argue it is pro-high margins and against interoperability, so instead it crafts a platform on the evils of Microsoft and comes out in favor of standards.
So why would Cisco complain about a move and highlight something it doesn't do as a reason to block it, while LifeSize would applaud the same move because it plays well with its interoperability advantage? Given this is an election year, there are a lot of parallels to politics in the juxtaposition of these two companies and this one acquisition.
I'll close with my product of the week: a driving experience that saved me US$120k.
It often seems that in an election year, the truth takes a holiday. For instance, the Obama administration is requiring insurance providers of religious organizations to supply birth control pills. This is consistent with the state's position on nondiscrimination. If you supply a service for one, you have to supply the same service for another, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.
This was positioned by Obama's opponents as an attack against the Catholic church. It wasn't -- it was an attack on discrimination. However, it does involve birth control, which is a practice the Catholic church opposes. You couldn't exactly come out with a platform saying it is OK to discriminate against people who work for religious organizations, so the anti-church message was crafted, even though Obama appears to be pretty religious.
If you look underneath the pro-life vs. pro-choice controversy, it isn't about babies -- it is about control. Who should make life or death decisions regarding a pregnancy is at the core of the dispute: the government and the church, or the individual. But as a right wing party,China Rubber Hose catalog and rubberhose manufacturer directory. you can't very well argue for increased government control of personal decisions, so the platform becomes about life. If it really were about life, there would be more effort to fund and care for children born to parents who don't want them, but that isn't even a minor part of the pro-life/pro-choice debate. It's all about who can make the decision to abort a pregnancy.
The sad thing is,Specialized of injection mold, plasticmoulds, we don't seem to get this is all about manipulation. Someone -- or some group -- is tricking a large number of people to agree to a position that they would likely not support, if they fully understood what is at stake (personal freedom). For instance, if the government can make invasive medical decisions in one area, isn't it likely it will make them in others? At some point,Choose from our large selection of cableties, we'll live in that Big Brother world of 1984.
The problem with video conferencing is that it historically doesn't interoperate. From FaceTime to Cisco Telepresence, one system generally can't work well with another. There are no common directories, and even if they connect, they typically provide such a crappy experience that the primary vendor can convince you to buy more of its stuff in order to get an adequate experience. It is kind of like TV was when RCA owned everything,November, 2011 by injectionmoldes. except no one company is as powerful as RCA was, so it just means stuff doesn't work.
The end result is that companies like Cisco can have high-margin systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and even though there are cheaper alternatives, those alternatives can't get access to the proper Cisco control points to ensure as good an experience, so they can't compete, and Cisco maintains margins.
This is kind of like what the PC market was before Microsoft, and the server market was before Microsoft Server and Linux. In a Unix world, companies like Sun were king, and everyone paid a huge premium because once locked in, you couldn't move.
However, if Microsoft does with Skype what it did with Windows, it will establish a common, low-cost, high-definition standard that will commoditize the video conferencing market much as it did with PCs and servers. Suddenly, stuff will work together, and buyers will no longer have to buy the massively expensive and very high-margin, high-end systems. They'll chase the lowest-cost adequate technology provider.
This gives low-cost providers like LifeSize the potential to grow up to be the next Dell while companies like Cisco collapse and become the next Sun.Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. But Cisco can't step up and argue it is pro-high margins and against interoperability, so instead it crafts a platform on the evils of Microsoft and comes out in favor of standards.
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