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It looks like the new BlackBerry Storm is way behind the expectations and doesn’t offer the same experience the direct rival iPhone offers. Here is a video showing how the BlackBerry Bold is way faster than the Storm. Thanks Alec for pointing this out.

What will business users choose?

Technorati Tags: BlackBerry Bold, blackberry storm, iphone, luca filigheddu, rim

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Mobile phones vendors know very well that the number of available market segments is really huge. Nokia alone releases a lot of different models of mobile phones in order to try to address very specific target markets.

The point is that different people have different ways to use their mobile phone, i.e. some features can be very important for someone but less important or even useless for someone else.

What are the top 10 features I look for when I buy a mobile phone? Here is my top 10, what’s yours?

1) Battery life

When I am on the go or even in my office, I use my mobile phone intensely, both for voice, email and internet browsing. The point is that while I’m traveling, sometimes I cannot find a power supply so easily and battery life is critical for me. Ok, I could buy a secondary battery… but it’s not always cheap neither convenient (you have to buy a new recharger too).

2) Signal Strength

Been reachable is critical for me, too. Most mobile phones have a very good reception nowadays, but places like basements could be a challenge for the best ones too.

3) Speed

Do you like waiting a couple of seconds to see the SMS editor finally displayed on your screen? I don’t. My mobile phone must be very very fast.

4) Build quality

I use it intensely and some of the latest mobile phones I owned were not great in terms of build quality. It must be solid!

5) 3G

Do I need to say more?

6) Wi-Fi

A great way to get hi-speed data transfer and save money at the same time. Great while you are on the go.

7) Big display and high resolution

If you need to deal with email and internet browsing every day, this is a must have.

Easy navigation

A wheel or a pad is very important when you need to browse emails or messages.

9) 3rd party apps

The availability of 3rd party apps for the applications I use the most on my Macbook is a must as well. Gmail and Facebook #1 priority!

10) A good Camera

To be honest, I didn’t really know what feature to choose as #10. Anyway, a good camera always in your pocket is not that bad. Unfortunately this feature is not usually available together with the previous ones…

Technorati Tags: luca filigheddu, Mobile phone, top 10 features, Wi-Fi

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A couple of days ago I noticed Jeff Pulver was putting together a new conference in the field of social communications. 

Today he announced it officially: The Social Communications Summit will take place in New York next February 10-11 and he’s looking for talented and passionate speakers to bring their experience and standpoint of the current status of the intersection of IP Communications with Social Networks.

Deadline for the submission of speaking proposals is Dec 5th, so please get in touch with Jeff if you want to be part of this event.

This latest news confirms that February and March are going to be very hot for the IP Communications industry, starting with ITEXPO East in Miami on Febr 2nd to 4th, going through  this new event by Jeff in New York and ending with the second edition of eComm by Lee Dryburgh in San Francisco.

I like being part of this!

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Technorati Tags: jeff pulver, luca filigheddu, New York City, Social Media, the social communications summit

Technorati Tags: jeff pulver, luca filigheddu

Lee Dryburgh, man behind the eComm conferences, hosts a private dinner for everyone involved in this space, a sort of kick-off meeting for the upcoming eComm Conference taking place on March 3-5 2009 at the San Francisco Airport Marriot.

Only 80 seats are available and 50 are taken already. If you want to attend, please get in touch with Lee through the eComm Facebook group.

The aim of the dinner is to simply be a light-weight social-networking
gathering of those interested in emerging communications. By
light-weight I mean zero organisation except for lets meet at this
time and place for dinner. The hotel informs me that the charge for
the three course meal including two alcoholic beverages will be 75.00
USD/head. It’s cash only but the hotel have informed me they can
provide individual receipts.

The room is booked for 7pm.

Unfortunately I cannot make it this time (next trip to the Bay Area should be in January), but I wish all the friends and colleagues attending a pleasant and enjoyable time together.

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Technorati Tags: dinner, ecomm, lee dryburgh, luca filigheddu

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Yesterday I was talking with an american friend of mine who told me how Wal-Mart became the winner in the fight among low price stores in the US. In fights like this you just need to offer the lowest price in the market, there is no more space for competitors and no alternative ways to win.

Today I came across two new web based VoIP services (Freeringer and Voxofon) who are offering PC to phone/phone to phone calls with a lot of free calls to specific destinations.

To be honest, I didn’t loose much time to pay attention at their offering, for me this was just another YAWN. I learnt there is nothing free in our life, especially when it comes to business, someone has to pay at some point. Many different models have been tried out over time by different services in various parts of the world, but aside from some exceptions, most of them have been a complete failure.

How can they sustain a credible business model? How can they (these two and any new entrant) deal with competition? I’m sorry, but I do firmly believe the space for new VoIP players is over. Market is full of offerings and services, all of them mainly fighting just in terms of price. Where is the value? What’s the strategy to take full control of churn rate?

New services who want to survive, must offer something new and different, something which provides final users with a different perspective, users who are not looking for money saving only. From this standpoint, Ooma is an interesting example (unlike some premature signs of failure, it seems to be still alive and well).

If your new VoIP service you are proud of and that you are going to launch and make it compete in this tough market, is not offering something DIFFERENT, SPECIAL, UNIQUE to your target customers, please refrain from spending time and money, you’re gonna fail. Period.

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Technorati Tags: Business, freeringer, luca filigheddu, Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP, voxofon

Carl Ford together with Scott Kargman, former men behind the demised VON Conferences, are on stage again with TMCNet with the aim to bring innovative content to the eager IP Communications professionals. People familiar with the VON events are surely familiar with Scott and Carl as well, so these names, under the TMCNet umbrella, are the first guarantee for a very high-quality and “super” interesting event.

This new show is really promising and I highly encourage anyone involved in the Telecommunications space to take a look and actively participate to this event, whether in the role of attendee, speaker or sponsor/exhibitor.

Here is a preliminary overview of the content and the target audience for this event:

4GWE Conference Themes:

• The evolution to 4G and how cellular’s technology history to date will impact the evolution to new technologies and services.
• WiMAX and LTE – Is this really an either/or scenario or will the Mobile network of the future combine both technologies?  If so where do they integrate?
• What are the 4G Wireless killer applications for both consumer and business customer?
• How will content distribution evolve on 4G networks?.
• Key wireless technologies driving investment strategies
• Are smartphones the right way to define the 4G wireless category?  What are device manufacturers’ role in driving demand and marketshare?
• Will applications become a the MVNO driver in 4G business models?

 
Who will attend:

• Mobile Network Operators
• Network Services Provider/ISP/ILEC/CLEC/WISP/MSO
• Handset Manufacturers
• Mobile Internet Device Manufacturers
• Application Providers
• Investment Banking/Venture Capital/Private Equity
• Telecom Network Infrastructure Vendor

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Technorati Tags: 4g, carl ford, Cellular network, Mobile virtual network operator, scott kargman, Telecommunications, tmcnet, WiMAX

I’m a Linkedin power user and I’ve been using it effectively during the past two years in order to talk directly to top levels executives of companies which could be potential customers of my company.

One of the services they provide is InMail, an easy way to send a direct message to a contact which is not directly connected to you.

I never sent spam, of course, but personal emails to try to engage a potential customer and discuss about the benefits of this or that product we provide. Private, personal, friendly messages.

That said, the worst answer you can get is shown in the box above. It’s not a reply, it’s not a “I’m not interested, thanks”, it’s something like people who hang up as soon as they hear your voice on the phone or people who close the door as soon as they see you outside.

This is not a polite way to use a great and powerful service as Linkedin is. I fortunately received just five of these out of over hundreds InMails sent so far. My recommendation, if you receive an InMail which is not interesting for you, reply to the message or ignore it, but not “decline” it, unless it is really spam. But I bet no one sends spam over Linkedin since it’s a “protected” and trusted environment.

My two cents

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Technorati Tags: Customer, inmail, linkedin, luca filigheddu, Message

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In a period when everyone is talking about financial meltdown, crisis, layoffs and how to deal with the upcoming bad times, it’s very important not to forget that customers are the “food” for any company.

While many startups don’t have customers yet so they face other types of problems, well extablished businesses can face a significant contraction of their sales because of a general feeling of “fear” by their customers. This feeling is due to different reasons: will your company be alive tomorrow? is your product essential for my life or is it better to save money to pass the winter?

One of the most important (and priority) ways to handle this situation is to create a direct line with your customers in order to make them comfortable while buying from you. This is essential and strategic for the future of any company because customers need to hear you, need to hear your voice and to be reassured they can trust you and keep buying your products and services.

Companies which undervalue this aspect and  keep thinking of making their websites more and more self-service oriented are likely to fail and this is even more true in times like this. Giving the right answer at the right time is crucial for any business, in order to take customers and prospects and guide them straight to the end of the purchase process, preventing them to quit as soon as they face a problem.

All that said, don’t hesitate and act now: engage your customers, make them feel your are there, ready to help them to take decisions faster and to make them happy buyers. Your customers are your life: in difficult times, do everything you can to prevent them from going away.

In conclusion, I’d like to share a quote from Sitofono’s website (disclosure: Sitofono is a service from my company):

e-commerce companies have constantly to deal with this paradox: a growing number of contacts, low conversion rates and an high abandonment rate.

The lack of real time interaction between the customer and the vendor, besides being a cause of dissatisfaction of the potential customer, is, for sure, one of the main reasons of missed opportunities to close a deal in a big number of online transactions.

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Technorati Tags: Business, customer engagement, luca filigheddu, sales, Service

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I just received a note from Fring informing me that the popular mobile IM/VoIP service has been selected by Mobikom’s brand A1 to be distributed to their customers in Austria.

Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give its customers access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, allowing A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device.

In Phase 1 of the project, the A1 over IP service will be integrated into fring’s SIP service, offering fring users the opportunity of using A1 over IP accounts and also the ability to configure their A1 over IP accounts to work within fring.

Phase 2 will see a fring application being built into mobilkom austria’s mobile offering and pre installed onto a large number of mobile devices. This will comprise fring’s entire feature set of voice over IP, instant messaging, real-time presence / availability indication, file transfer and access to fring’s new always-on mobile internet applications (fring Add-ons)

This is definitely a major news for the Israeli-based service, which is continuosly bringing innovation to the mobile market and making the mobile IM/VoIP experience much better than what you can get by other competitors.

Skype, Twitter, all major IM networks, SIP calling and much more are the key ingredients for this growing success. Moreover, they recently announced that Fring is finally available on the Apple iPhone’s App Store but if you don’t own an iPhone and you are a Symbian user, you can get the latest version of Fring released yesterday.

Congrats to all Fring’s team for these continuous important announcements, keep up the good work!

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Technorati Tags: App Store, deal, fring, Instant messaging & messengers, iphone, luca filigheddu, mobile voip