ITEXPO Expectations – Reality Check

Guest post by Anatoli Levine

Categories: Technology

September 10th, 2009

[back from ITEXPO, Anatoli Levine writes about his observations from the show.]

After writing last week about my expectations going to ITEXPO in Los Angeles, let me report back on what I think took place (yep, all subjective feedback).

All in all, the event was well organized, as expected – TMC knows how to run a show. It was also well attended, considering the on-going (almost-ending?) recession. And the technical content was solid, with moving and exciting keynotes (especially the one by Sir Terry Matthews).

Now, moving from fluff to the actual reality check, here is my take away:

There were 3 major themes at the show – ITEXPO, 4GWE and M2M.

1. ITEXPO: VoIP is Dead. Long live VoIP

Actually, “VoIP is Dead” was even a name of one of the panels. It is dead for all intents and purposes in the financial sense, as you can’t make money on VoIP itself, as it is commoditized to the extreme. But – VoIP is an ENABLER. It enables creativity and allows for the creation of new and exciting services. This is where it is alive, and it will stay alive forever.

On the other hand, Video is underappreciated, and HD Voice still has an unknown potential. I completely agree with item #5 in Garrett Smith’s observations from the show: HD Voice – everybody has it. However, not everybody knows about it and hardly anybody ask for it explicitly. This will be addressed next week at the HD Communications summit in New York – I’m sure it deserves a post on its own.

2. 4GWE – Technology Battleground

While the content and speakers line-up put together by Carl Ford was simply outstanding, it was quite amusing to see numerous battles unfold between proponents of WiMax and LTE. Yes, 4G technology is quite complex and sophisticated. Yet, my take away here is rather simple: one way or the other, a wide wire-free pipe will be available to many of us in not-such-a-distant-future. All the advanced x-over-IP services are available where IP exists, therefore, the question of LTE versus WiMax is really minor to the majority of “consumers” and as long as we keep advancing towards the goal of ubiquitous IP connectivity, it is all good.

3. M2M – Fertile Ground

The newest addition to the ITEXPO, M2M (Machine-to-Machine communications) is in its infancy. The need is here – in a world of information super-overload ( yep, don’t think we can keep calling it “just” “overload” anymore – it is really a lot more extreme). If machines can “talk” to each other and agree on things without us, humans, being involved, that will be great ( well, at least  until the science fiction predictions about robots enslaving the human race will become a prevalent conference subject).

The only technology available today for M2M is low level transport. That enables IP communications in a M2M world. However, starting from there, no standards have been set. Hence it becomes fertile ground – time for open standards to enable innovation, as it happened 12 years ago with VoIP. Bottom line here – innovators wanted.

Time to conclude, I guess. — Were my expectations met? Yes, to the large degree. Was the show worthwhile to attend? Yes. Am I looking forward to Miami? Yes, for the 3^rd time- with one request: it is the time to make Video a commodity too… Video for the Masses!