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  • iPad Available Internationally on May 28

    Apple announced iPad international availability and pricing – the “magical and revolutionary device” will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.

    Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10.

    Pricing details:

    UK:
    • 16GB WiFi £429
    • 32GB WiFi £499
    • 64GB WiFi £599
    • 16GB WiFi+3G £529
    • 32GB WiFi+3G £599
    • 64GB WiFi+3G £699

    Continental Europe:
    • 16GB WiFi €479
    • 32GB WiFi €579
    • 64GB WiFi €679
    • 16GB WiFi+3G €579
    • 32GB WiFi+3G €679
    • 64GB WiFi+3G €779

    Canadian pricing is $50 (in CAD) more than US pricing.

    Apple also informed that it plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. The availability and local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries will be announced at a later date.

    In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

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  • Verizon Boosts Functionality and Security for Selected VoIP Services

    Verizon Global Wholesale is now offering additional functionality for three of its product platforms — SIP Gateway Service, Advanced Toll Free IP Termination and Carrier IP Termination Transport. This new functionality enables the product platforms to share a single, secure virtual private network connection called an IP Security (or IPSec) tunnel.

    According to Mike Yancey, director of wholesale voice services for Verizon Business, Verizon bypasses other security protocols in favor of IPSec tunnel because it offers the greatest level of flexibility.

    An IPSec tunnel maintains integrity and confidentiality because all data is encrypted prior to transmission, then authenticated upon receipt to verify the data has not been altered. The source of the data is also authenticated to prevent the possibility of such security breaches as "spoofing" an IP address – a fraudulent network technique in which a program or person masquerades as another.

    Verizon’s SIP Gateway Service comes in four configurations: Inbound Complete, Two-Way Local, Two-Way Complete and Outbound. These services are complemented by Carrier IP Termination Service. This offering allows customers to take advantage of the cost savings of originating long-distance traffic and terminating that traffic via SIP protocol over a global network.

    The company’s Advanced Toll Free Service allows U.S.-based customers to support toll-free calling solutions on a global basis. The service supports in-country toll-free dialing outside the U.S. across more than 80 countries and Universal International Freefone Numbers across more than 40 countries.

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  • Visa Brings Mobile Payments to iPhone

    Visa and DeviceFidelity are working to allow iPhone users to make payments by simply waving their iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal. The new technology, developed by DeviceFidelity and certified by Apple, combines a protective iPhone case with a secure memory card that hosts Visa’s contactless payment application, called Visa payWave. The technology will work for both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices.

    iPhone users will be able to make Visa mobile payments in retail stores, at fast food restaurants, in taxis, during sporting events, and also make purchases at vending machines that have contactless payment terminals.

    Visa claims that “thousands of merchants throughout the U.S.” have already upgraded their payment terminals to allow consumers to make Visa mobile payments.

    The technology will also work with a majority of smart phones that have a slot for a memory card. “By simply inserting the card into the memory slot on their phone, mobile users can transform their existing mobile phones into a Visa payment device,” according to the company.

    Visa has already rolled out a similar technology in Malaysia and Japan, where consumers can make mobile payments in stores and restaurants.

    The mobile payment application can be password protected and utilizes advanced security technology to uniquely identify each contactless transaction. In addition, all Visa mobile payments are backed by Visa’s global processing network and analyzed for potential fraud in real-time. If a mobile device is lost or stolen, account holders should contact their issuer, as they would if their card was lost or stolen. The issuer can immediately deactivate the account.

    Market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are scheduled to start this summer.

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  • Sprint and Virgin Mobile Introduce "Beyond Talk" Unlimited Data Prepaid Plans

    Since Sprint’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the company has rolled out a series of new prepaid products, and today Sprint officially unveiled its new comprehensive multi-segment approach to the prepaid wireless marketplace.

    On May 12, Virgin Mobile will unveil three new "Beyond Talk" plans that all include unlimited messaging, email, data and web:

    • The $25 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 300 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $40 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 1,200 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $60 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with unlimited voice.

    Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for $10 more, enabling $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.

    Virgin will also introduce new handset lineup that will include: Blackberry Curve 8530 (available for $299.99 at the end of May), LG Rumor Touch ($149.99; only available without a contract on "Beyond Talk" plans), LG Rumor 2 QWERTY ($89.99; also only available without a contract) and Kyocera Loft QWERTY ($69.99).

    Sprint’s prepaid portfolio will initially be driven by four brands (Virgin Mobile, Broadband2Go, Boost Mobile and Assurance Gíreles) with each focused on a specific audience. "The launch of this portfolio goes far beyond changing prices," explained Dan Schulman, president of Sprint’s prepaid group.

    "We are introducing innovative and attractive offers for specific groups of customers based on usage and habits – from those who are on limited budgets and use their phones infrequently to those who want high-end devices to use for all their communications, entertainment and social networking."

    According to him, this is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of the mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and we predict that approximately 70% of the net adds in 2010 will choose plans without a contract," he said.

    "With almost 60 million people now on prepaid service," Schulman continued, "the no-contract market has clearly moved beyond the credit-challenged and lower income segments. The prepaid market has changed dramatically, with customers across multiple demographics and lifestyles demanding a wide variety of handsets, features, and plans tailored to their specific needs and wants."

  • Winning VoIP Philosophy: Interview with Arash Vahidnia, CEO of IPsmarx

    “VoIP penetration among businesses is increasing rapidly, but I believe that reliability and redundancy can still be improved. Many service providers have not yet implemented redundancy to improve reliability,” said Arash Vahidnia, President and CEO of IPsmarx, in an interview with VoIP.Biz-News.com. 

    IPsmarx SIP-Based Calling Card Platform has recently been awarded our “Product of the Year Award 2009”.

    The platform is an all-in-one solution that incorporates both Pin & Pinless service management with advanced recharge options, integrated billing and e-commerce, as well as rich marketing features. Because the solution is SIP based, there is no need for a physical gateway to be installed, which dramatically reduces operating costs and go-to-market time.

    The award goes to IPsmarx second year in a row. We asked Arash to tell us what he thinks makes their product unique: “Because all of our solutions are built on the same platform, we are able to provide a unified solution. Therefore, service providers are able to offer a wide variety of VoIP services without installing and managing more than one piece of equipment or billing interfaces,” he answered.

    He gave us this example: “We have clients who offer residential VoIP service, calling cards, and manage callshops or internet cafes and they are able to use the same billing system, agent management solution, and marketing features for each service, which significantly reduces their operating costs.”

    “IPsmarx also puts focus on testing and reliability, enlisting the top testing companies to test our billing and switching capabilities under the most stressful conditions and the highest capacity and CPS (calls per second), to ensure that our platform can support the most successful VoIP companies out there,” he added.

    When asked how the Platform has changed during this year and what features have been added to keep it competitive on the market, Arash said, “Our development team is constantly adding new features based on our clients’ needs. This year we’ve added a complete suite of marketing features, such as integrated email marketing, a customer service ticketing system, loyalty program management, and discount and promotion tools for service providers. We’ve also enhanced our reseller and agent management platform, enabling many different multi-tiered selling strategies among our clients.

    “We’ve also added additional solutions to our product line, enabling calling card providers to expand and offer other VoIP services as well, such as business and residential VoIP service. We’ve released the latest version of our IP-PBX platform for business service providers recently.”

    He revealed that the company will also introduce some new features pertaining to smart phones in the near future.

    He said IPsmarx has seen a lot of their clients grow and expand their businesses with IPsmarx solutions over the years. “Small start ups have become nationwide chains and we have remained their preferred backbone because of our scalable solutions and high customer support standards,” said the CEO of IPsmarx.

    As for plans for 2010, Arash said the company will continue to add features to our IP-PBX Platform to encourage growth among Small and Medium Business Service Providers.

    “We believe that the Small and Medium business sector will begin to adopt VoIP more rapidly in the near future, creating an opportunity for service providers. That is why we have placed an emphasis on developing features for providers addressing this market,” he said.

    He also said IPsmarx is looking forward to the ITW show in Washington, DC May 24th-26th where they can meet with new and existing clients.

    “For the last 10 years, our philosophy has been to foster growth among our service provider clients’ businesses. Therefore, we strive to support all of our clients to achieve success and expand their service offering in any way that we can,” he concluded.

    Related articles
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  • NPD: 75% of US iPhone and iPod Touch users Download Apps and Games

    The NPD’s "Entertainment Trends in America" update reveals three quarters of iPhone and iPod touch users are connecting to the Web to download entertainment content and apps.

    According to the latest update to the NPD’s tracking survey, 16 percent of Americans age 13 or older are using devices other than their home computers to download software applications, music, video, and other entertainment content from the Web.

    Based on NPD’s entertainment market research, 75 percent of iPhone and iPod Touch users are connecting to the Web to download entertainment content and apps, compared to 19 percent of game console users and 17 percent of Blu-ray Disc set-top product users.

    “It’s not surprising that Apple users are ahead of others when it comes to downloading Web-based content, given the breadth of the company’s app catalog and the head start iTunes had selling music for the iPod,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.

    “Like other groups of early adopters, consumers downloading entertainment content are mostly younger and male; however, as app stores expand beyond Apple, as connected devices become more commonplace, and as connectivity is simplified we expect to see more activity on other devices and platforms,” he added.

    According to the report, among iPhone and iPod Touch users who downloaded content, free apps were the most popular download category, followed by video-game apps, and music downloads.

    Among consumers who connected via game consoles, game add-ons were far and away the most popular category, followed by purchased downloads of entire games, and movie rentals.

    In addition, one-third of Blu-ray Disc consumers who actually connected via their BD reported downloading a movie rental.

    “Music now competes with games and other apps for share of device, share of wallet, and share of time,” Crupnick said.

    He says that entertainment companies need to start to thinking of apps in broader terms, not only as a way of garnering direct sales from downloads, but also as a pathway to paying for additional entertainment content.

    “For example, an app that reviews movies could also be a direct channel for purchasing DVDs, BDs, or digital forms of video,” Crupnic concluded.

  • Skype Introduces New Monthly Calling Subscriptions and Group Video Chat

    Starting tomorrow, Skype is rolling out new calling plans to more than 170 countries.

    1-month, 3-month and 12-month calling plans will be available in 60-, 120-, 400-minute and unlimited packages.

    The range of subscriptions start from $1.09 (€0.89 /£.69) per month and offer effective rates as low as €0.01 ($.01/£.01) per minute to almost any destination around the globe.

    According to Skype, this provides customers with a savings of up to 60 percent compared to Skype’s standard Pay As You Go rates.

    Skype also announced that it will be releasing the new beta of its Windows software next week. It will feature video conference calls for up to five callers.

    Related articles
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  • IPsmarx to Demonstrate New Solutions at International Telecoms Week (ITW)

    May 4th, 2010 – IPsmarx, a leading provider of VoIP application and switching solutions for service providers, will be attending and displaying new products and services at exhibit booth #717 at ITW 2010. ITW is the premier global wholesale telecom industry event that serves as a meeting point for the international telecoms wholesale community.

    ITW 2010 will be taking place at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC from Monday, May 24th – Wednesday, May 26th, 2010. Each year ITW expects at least 4,000 delegates from over 130 countries to attend. Conference sessions include a wide range of high-level speakers from carriers and service providers will be discussing the latest market developments from around the word. The exhibit area will provide an opportunity to see the latest new offerings from IPsmarx.

    IPsmarx provides VoIP based solutions that provide integrated customer applications, softswitching and billing solutions for VoIP service providers, wholesale carriers, VoIP Calling Card Operators and ISPs. IPsmarx solutions are designed specifically for competitive VoIP service providers. The All-In-One architecture makes allows for easy management of the entire operation from a single web-based Unified Management Console, streamlining operations and saving money. IPsmarx also offers peace of mind not found in low-end solutions, with an extensive QA process and 24/7 technical support.

    IPsmarx solutions support a variety of business models allowing service providers to offer customized features and a customer management system tailored to their business requirements. IPsmarx works closely with customers to assure successful deployment providing security, technical training, support and a reliable billing platform.

    The IPsmarx portfolio includes:
    • Prepaid and Postpaid Pinless Calling Card Solutions
    • Softswitch IP-IP Billing Solution
    • Wholesale Carrier Solution
    • Callshop Solution
    • Callback Solution
    • The NEW VoIP Business Communications Server

    About IPsmarx
    IPsmarx has been providing VoIP applications and switching solutions to service providers, carriers, ISPs and calling card providers for almost 10 years. To schedule a time to meet with IPsmarx at ITW please contact [email protected].
    For more information contact IPsmarx at 703-871-5273 or email [email protected], and visit www.ipsmarx.com.

  • StorSimple Announces Integration with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft

    StorSimple today announced integration with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft to enable customers to seamlessly and securely use these cloud storage services with their existing data-center applications.

    By providing an easy on-ramp to cloud storage for application-specific requirements, StorSimple aims to change the game by bringing the operational benefits of the cloud to applications such as SharePoint, Exchange, Windows User Files and Virtual Machines.

    “With the upcoming launch of SharePoint 2010, customers will increasingly look to extend their deployments with cloud-based services,” said Ed English, group product manager, Microsoft SharePoint.

    “The hybrid storage solution from StorSimple is a good example of this; it shows how SharePoint customers can realize cost and scale benefits by using the Windows Azure Platform.”

    “Iron Mountain’s Archive Services platform is a natural fit for enterprises looking for simple but secure cloud storage,” said Jaimin Patel, director of developer programs, Iron Mountain Digital.

    “By combining StorSimple’s robust solution with Iron Mountain’s proven cloud storage solutions, companies can now integrate secure cloud storage into their environments with the confidence that their data is protected by one of the leading information management services brands in the industry.”

    "EMC believes there is an opportunity and approach to cloud storage that delivers financial and functional benefits to both our partners and the customers they serve," said Mike Feinberg, senior vice president of EMC Cloud Infrastructure Group. "By making our cloud infrastructure accessible and allowing easy API integration, we enable our partners to respond to customers’ fast-growing demand for cloud-based solutions with greater scalability, elasticity, and lower costs. We are pleased to work with StorSimple to embrace and deliver these benefits to our joint customers.”

    “Our relationships with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft allow us to deliver the integrated support and operational experience of enterprise storage with the business and operational benefits of cloud storage,” said Ursheet Parikh, co-founder and CEO of StorSimple.

    “Enterprise cloud storage service providers have chosen to partner with StorSimple, because of our differentiated technology that optimizes for application-specific data-access patterns to ensure primary storage performance for target applications.”

    The StorSimple Armada Storage Appliance is a hybrid storage solution that makes cloud storage appear like local data center storage that integrates into customers’ existing storage and data management tools. Armada identifies and stores all the hotspot and bottleneck data on a tier of high-performance Solid State Drives (SSD), enabling the use of lower-cost SATA storage and/or cloud storage as primary storage. StorSimple also performs real-time data de-duplication to minimize the footprint of the data stored and provides the WAN optimization functions for cloud storage. All data that is stored in the cloud is encrypted.

    About StorSimple

    StorSimple has developed an application-optimized hybrid storage controller for SharePoint, Exchange, Windows User Files and Virtual Machines that delivers consistent storage performance at scale, significantly simplifies data protection, and reduces cost by up to 90 percent compared to traditional enterprise storage used with these applications. StorSimple is based in the Silicon Valley and is funded by Redpoint Ventures and Index Ventures.

  • 300,000 Petabytes of Storage Capacity to Enterprise Datacenters and Clouds

    According to new research from IDC, HDD shipments for enterprise applications will increase from 40.5 million units in 2009 to 52.6 million units in 2014.

    Moreover, the HDD industry will ship more Petabytes for enterprise applications in the next two years than it did in the preceding 20 years.

    Several ongoing trends will continue to impact enterprise HDD market revenue over the forecast period, including a continued shift away from higher cost performance-optimized HDDs to lower cost capacity-optimized solutions and solid state drives (SSDs) to complement HDDs in storage systems.

    HDD revenue derived from enterprise markets will grow at only a 1.7% CAGR during this time. Additionally, there will be an increased effort among end users to better utilize existing storage system assets.

    "We’re definitely seeing intensive cost cutting measures among end users striving to bring more efficiency to current solutions," said John Rydning, research director for Storage Mechanisms: Disk.

    "The employment of technologies such as data deduplication, thin provisioning, storage multitiering, and storage virtualization are all contributing to reducing end-user costs."

    Other key findings from IDC’s research include the following:

    * The transition from 3.5in. to 2.5in. performance-optimized form factor HDDs will be complete by 2012

    * Growing interest in new storage delivery models such as storage as a service, or storage in the cloud is likely to put greater storage capacity growth demands on Internet datacenters

    * The price per gigabyte of performance-optimized HDD storage will continue to decline at a rate of approximately 25% to 30% per year