Join Alec Saunders, vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development at BlackBerry for a discussion with BlackBerry VoIP app development expert Gurtej Sandhu and Chief Architect of Hookflash, Robin Raymond about supporting theWebRTC platform and the opportunity for developers in voice and communications in mobile.

This was the promotional content for yesterday’s weekly VoIP Users Conference videocast that turned out to be one of the most comprehensive discussions of the BlackBerry Developer Program, WebRTC and the role it has the potential to play, not only for BlackBerry but also for its overall disruptive potential. Here’s the YouTube video that came out of the Google Hangout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jD-0jeQlRs

It’s a one hour and 17 minute panel discussion.To parse it down into topics:

After providing a brief update on iotum, his previous startup venture, Alec spends about 17 minutes discussing BlackBerry 10 and its development story. Once again Alec dispels myths about BlackBerry 10 and goes on to explain the evolution of the BlackBerry Developer program over the past 18 months.

• Four months after launch BlackBerry World now has over 120,000 applications, a record for a new platform offering
• The developer community targeting BlackBerry has grown from 30,000 to 70,000 with a doubling of developer intent to develop for BlackBerry growing from 47% to 88%. And goes on to discuss the results of other developer surveys, including how BlackBerry has grown to be the number 3 developer ecosystem of choice.
• He dispels the myth that, while it addresses the business community, that is not the entire target user base. For instance, BlackBerry 10 also is a great entertainment and gaming platform. In today’s world, business users need a single smartphone platform capable of dealing with both secure, managed enterprise activities while allowing the user to have access to applications of the user’s choice.
• How the portathons of last January came about to provide the lift to 70,000 applications available at the January 30 launch.
• Where you go as a developer to get information on the developer program, its five open platforms for development and the activities undertaken to make available re-usable code to minimize the learning curve.
• The power of BlackBerry’s Share framework and its ease of implementation.

The next 13 minutes: Questions re what challenges does BlackBerry face in addressing apps that are services dependent, such as Google apps, and other cloud services, such as Dropbox and Box.net, that can be accessed as HTML5 applications. James Body asks about VoIP on OS10 with responses from Alec and  Gurtej covering the wide range of what BlackBerry has done to support audio activities. Finally a query about how to access BlackBerry’s developers for assistance.

Just past 30 minutes Robin goes into discussing the Hookflash open peer-to-peer protocol and its use of the WebRTC engine. Their recent activity has involved bringing WebRTC to mobile devices. Robin lauds BlackBerry for both the documentation and the support he was given in completing this project. He then gives a demonstration of a sample application using beta code with the goal to have production code by the fall.

In the course of his presentation he discusses the benefits of open peer and provides an excellent articulation of what WebRTC is all about and the opportunities it provides to developers. Then he goes on to discuss the excellent echo cancellation incorporated into BlackBerry’s VoIP features and the ability to deliver high bandwidth audio. In response to a query he defines what impact WebRTC will have on IP-based communications. Security implications also come into the discussion. Alec Saunders goes on to explain how WebRTC has the potential to be one more tool in BlackBerry’s use of new web tools, such as HTML5, to deliver new customer experiences.

At 53 minutes the discussion goes into the sphere of BlackBerry’s audio quality, including its ability to support stereo audio streams and beam-directed audio.

At 57 minutes the discussion goes into more general questions about BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10 on a PlayBook, and miscellaneous questions about developer support and BlackBerry’s unique user experience paradigm.

Bottom line: VUC brought together a unique combination of “panelists” who provide an excellent over of BlackBerry as a developer platform and WebRTC as an evolving web developer tools. And it’s interspersed with other useful information about BlackBerry’s performance and the maturing of IP-based communications.

Related articles

• Moving Beyond Telephone Numbers – The Need For A Secure, Ubiquitous Application-Layer Identifier (disruptivetelephony.com)

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• WebRTC is growing fast: soon to surpass one billion devices [GigaOM] (gigaom.com)

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• Real-time Communications (VoIP) on BlackBerry 10: WebRTC and Open Peer (devblog.blackberry.com)

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• Expert Panel: Web Real-Time Communication Technology Poised to Transform Customer Service (prweb.com)

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According to the Truphone press release:

Truphone today became the first mobile operator to offer shared international mobile service plans for data, text and voice.  The plans allow businesses with employees based abroad and with employees traveling internationally to share local minutes, messages and megabytes from a single bundle when in the ‘Truphone Zone.’

Business customers will enjoy shared mobile usage at home in the USA and feel at home in Australia, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Additionally, businesses receive wider benefits from Truphone’s unique approach to international telecommunications, including better call quality, a single voice and SMS mailbox, all combined with a superior mobile data experience, and a single bill to manage users across territories.

Shared international pricing plans are a new innovation in the telecommunications marketplace made possible by Truphone’s unique global GSM network architecture. This network effectively eliminates the barriers of cost and complexity that prevent people from communicating internationally with the same attitude and effectiveness as they do in their home territory.

Pricing details are provided in Kevin Fitchard’s post at GigaOm:

Companies can now buy big batches of minutes, texts and megabytes and pool them across not just multiple devices, but also multiple nations. For instance a $500 plan includes 5000 voice minutes, 5000 text messages and 1 GB of 3G data, all of which can be used anywhere in the U.S., U.K. Netherlands, Australia and Hong Kong. Germany, Poland and Spain will join that list later this year.

This makes sense for businesses operating in the “Truphone Zone”. Having attended BlackBerry Live in Orlando last week where my BlackBerry Z10 was almost the only computing device I used, I can see where this offering would benefit business mobile phone users of any stripe, especially if they are primarily in the Truphone Zone.

However, their challenge remains to expand the Truphone Zone beyond these seven countries to have a truly unique offering that mitigates the need for expensive roaming charges regardless of location. For Rogers customers based in Canada, they can now take advantage of a $8.99 per day for 50MB data plan that certainly met my needs last week. The real benefit came while I was actually traveling as I did not have to pay for “one day” subscriptions at each of the airports visited in my trips down and back. On the other hand it also served as a backup to an overly-taxed WiFi situation at the conference hotel as well as keeping connected while attending off-premise events the evenings.

We can all appreciate these types of offerings; WiFi is another player in this scenario. But it seems like we have a bit of a wait before overcoming the last “bastion” of high wireless charges: Roaming.

The bonus in my travels last week: BlackBerry offered free in-flight WiFi via Go Go Inflight to Delta airlines passengers using any BlackBerry, whether BlackBerry 10 or a legacy BlackBerry. It turned out to be very beneficial.

With BlackBerry Live coming up this week, PamFax publisher PamConsult has put out a special offer for BlackBerry Live and BlackBerry Jam Americas attendees.

I will be attending many of the sessions; I have already installed the event program on my BlackBerry Z10.

During the event I will have business cards, as shown on the right, with the redemption code to get up to 22 free fax pages¹ using PamFax for BlackBerry 10 (or on any other platform which PamFax supports).

PamConsult wants you to actually experience its obligation-free ability to fax to over 180 countries worldwide in five or six easy steps using your BlackBerry 10 (or PlayBook). And they want your feedback on the experience.

More details here. Note that this offer is limited to the earlier of 500 redemptions or June 30, 2013. The QR code on the right will take you to the application in BlackBerry World.

If you’re attending BlackBerry Live, look me up. I’m one of the taller people there, wearing glasses and a bald spot amongst the grey hairs.

¹Actual redemption is for €2.00 (~US$2.60) of PamFax credit; number of free pages depends on termination country.

Full disclosure: I have been involved in the beta testing of PamFax from time-to-time since its launch in late 2007. The main goal of this promotion is to determine the interest level in having a fax solution available as one additional communications mode on the BlackBerry 10, beyond email, BBM, SMS (text) messaging, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. Certainly the volume of faxes currently managed by PamFax demonstrates there is still a significant need for faxing documents.

While I have an affiliate account it is not, as of this writing, linked to this promotion. PamFax’s main financial benefit to me to date is to have reduced my fax costs by replacing a costly fax telephone line at a fraction of the line cost. It’s there when I need it (and I seldom get spam faxes).

With the evolution of the Internet, including its email and online storage solutions, the need for sending and receiving documents using faxes has declined. Yet there are still several hundred million fax end points out there.

While your fax usage has probably declined over the past few years, there come times when a faxed document addresses a specific need. And you need a handy way to send and/or receive a fax at minimal costs. PamFax for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook provides the handy, obligation-free, on demand solution to send and receive faxes worldwide at a very low cost. Check out the five or six simple steps to sending a fax using PamFax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEDsULMqSyg

PamFax has no monthly cost and no subscription requirements for sending faxes to over 180 countries; no credit card is required to sign up. For 32 countries it also provides an inbound fax number. It supports sending documents in over 100 formats from a scanner, smartphone camera, local files and online storage services such as DropBox, Box, Google Drive and SkyDrive. With a PamFax number you can also receive faxes, at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated phone line, directly to a folder of any of these online storage services.

Your PamFax activity is managed through the personalized PamFax Portal; your PamFax account can be accessed on Windows, Mac or Linux PC;s as well as on iOS and Android devices.

With PamFax for BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook you can do as I did – throw out your fax phone line and its associated costs. While sending faxes has no minimum usage requirement or costs, a PamFax inbound line does have a $8.25 per month charge on a one year subscription that includes sending 20 fax pages per month.

Using the BlackBerry 10 camera or a scanning program such as Paper Pusher Scanner, combined with PamFax, the BlackBerry 10 is the only fax hardware device and “fax line” connection you need. And it’s totally mobile, allowing you to send and receive faxes not only at the home office but also at hotels, airports, Internet cafes, restaurants or wherever you have Internet access.

Sign up now and send up to three (3) free trial pages.

Disclosure: this post does contain affiliate links.

Blaq for BlackBerry PlayBook

However, earlier this week we learned where its developer team, Kisai Labs, has been focusing their resources when they announced the release of Blaq for BlackBerry 10. It is one entrancing and seductive Twitter application that goes way beyond the standard Twitter client on the BlackBerry 10.

Some criteria for a Twitter app include:

• Follow multiple Twitter accounts
• Real time stream of the Twitter feed
• Ability to Reply, Retweet, “Favorite” a tweet
  • access to the URL for a Tweet
• Access to the Twitter profile of a user:
  • Follow/Unfollow a user
  • Send direct messages
  • Learn about the users Twitter ecosystem (Follower, Following, tweet count, website link)
• Display on one screen tweet threads involving multiple replies
• Search for a user’s tweets and/or all references to a user
• Access to Saved Searches, Lists

In addition one wants the application to be “fast”, responsive to every touch or gesture, and easy, almost intuitive, to use.

Blaq for BlackBerry 10 is a native BlackBerry 10 app that has been developed “from the ground-up” using all the features available to developers. Features include:

• Support for two Twitter accounts (more to come in updates)
• Main feed streaming in real time – with very fast scrolling (did someone say “keep moving”?)
• A very interesting timeline bar at the top shows a “secondary” time where the tweets on your screen are in time relative to the current time
  • tap on the timeline bar to go to most recent tweets

• Most comprehensive use of the gesturing engine native to BlackBerry 10:
  • Swipe on the timeline feed to the right and you get a menu covering Twitter feed, responses, direct messages, lists and favourites
    • also access to Search and Mute features as well as your own Twitter account information
  • Swipe an individual tweet to the left, followed by up or down to select reply, retweet, “favorite” and other action from the right sidebar
  • Gesture the entire feed down and it rubber bands to update
    • very fast scrolling through the feed
  • Swipe down from the top for the application menu (Accounts, Settings, Help)
• A tweet detail screen that has not only reply, retweet (including RT with edit), “favorite” and “options” icons.
  • It also will show a full conversation thread if appropriate.
• Share from almost any application to Blaq via the Share screen
• Access to Saved searches (as set up in your Twitter account on a browser)
• On minimizing, Blaq goes into a low power mode to conserve battery
• A short, but complete, reference Help file to provide initial training on the gestures available

Let’s have a look at some screenshots (click on image, then click on right side of light box for “Next”, left side for “Previous”):

Bottom line: Blaq for BlackBerry 10 has quickly become my preferred Twitter app, not only for its feature set but also for its overall speed and ease of navigation. I can rapidly scroll through my timeline, access an entire thread and not only Search but also access Saved Searches. Obtaining information about a user is easily available along with access to their tweets, Followers and Followed lists as well as any URL link on their user profile.

Beyond becoming my preferred Twitter app, Blaq for BlackBerry 10 is a prime example of exploiting a wide range of BlackBerry 10 features, its underlying real time multi-tasking and its accompanying developer toolkits. Cascades UI , Share screens, amongst other tools, along with its overall speed and snappiness contribute to its uniqueness and rich user feature set. It makes very effective use of the screen real estate available while easily navigating amongst its features. While it supports the Q10′s 720 x 720 display, it is one application where having the larger 1280 x 720 display of the Z10 is advantageous. In summary, it enhances BlackBerry 10′s primary perception as a communications-focused smartphone.

It’s well worth the $2.99 introductory price; initial reports indicate it has become one of BlackBerry World’s most downloaded BlackBerry 10 applications.

However, even according to their own information, there are enhancements coming. I would like to see:

• support for landscape mode (especially for pictures and videos)
• support for more than two accounts
• Ability to Save a Search (currently sees searches saved via the Twitter web page)
• Ability to build Lists.

One final caveat: Our one hope has to be that Blaq will be able to continue its functioning at a time when Twitter itself is trying to de-emphasize applications for the mobile web.

During my experience on a management team restructuring a NASDAQ-listed company I had a real life baptism into the role of news releases, analysts and stock prices. And it was not pretty.

Background: In the summer of 1994 I was relocated to my employer’s Head Office in Santa Monica, California to participate on an interim management team tasked with the restructuring of a utility software publishing company. The company was experiencing declining revenue and earnings. It had been the leading vendor of utilities for Microsoft’s DOS operating system; two awards in my office can attest to that. Upgrade releases would see up to 60% of users updating their software (in the pre-Internet age of using direct marketing for upgrades).

But the company had also acquired rights to software supporting the emerging Internet. In fact we tried to launch a web browser, based on a license obtained from the University of Illinois. But, due to previous “hard line” intellectual property experiences, we did not understand the culture of the Internet when it comes to beta testing of new software. First to use an online beta program, Netscape took over that market space; later, under the leadership of Alec Saunders (yes, that Alec Saunders who is now Vice-President, Developer Relations at BlackBerry) as Internet Explorer Product Manager, Microsoft offered Internet Explorer as an operating system feature, not a product. With no revenue model left on the table our web browser, while having some features not duplicated in today’s browsers for about ten years, went into decline.

But during that time, as Internet Business Development Director, I had set up partnering agreements with the major Internet Service Providers of the day (PSI Net, UUNet, AT&T, Netcom and others) and had been involved with a press release that actually lifted our stock price by about 12% on the issuance day. Basically we would get a royalty for every user of our software who signed up with one of these ISP’s.

And it’s here that I learned about the fragility of being a public market company and its sometimes unfounded exposure to the whims of analysts.

Within two quarters we had returned the company to profitability; it remained profitable for another four or five quarters. At some point early in that period the press release went out. During that entire period the share price rise was “meteoric”; analysts were looking at every press release issued and rejigging their forecasts. Make an acquisition of a company with no proven revenue stream; issue a press release; the share price went up. Over that year period the share price went from around $5 to over $35 within a year.

While the press release related to my activity mentioned a potential revenue model built into those agreements, we had no real market experience with the model. Some analysts were calling our CFO for more information; beyond forecasts for our expanding line of market-tested utility software products, we had no real data to work on. Any forecast would have been purely speculative; in the long run I think it brought in about $50,000. (The company was eventually sold to Symantec for a product that overcame an intellectual property issue Symantec was having.)

Over that time period I realized that analysts want to jump on any information tidbits to see if they can out-forecast the company’s actual internal projections. We had internal spreadsheets and were tracking our distribution channels weekly for inventory movement of our utility software products through distributors to retailers. For most of those quarters we actually managed our quarter end shipments to meet our goals and left backlog for shipment in the following quarter. There was an element of misalignment between analyst projections and business performance.

We knew exactly how much existing product was moving through the channels. But there was no data upon which to base any forecasts on our new business partnering activities. Yet, analysts put out some reports that were purely speculative as to the revenue impact. Our share price would rise with little basis on the business’s actual performance.

In today’s BlackBerry environment we are seeing its stock price whipped around on every analyst report and news release. When it was announced that the service revenue model was changing over the following couple of years, some analysts wanted to wash out service revenue immediately. In after hours trading share price dropped minute-by-minute as analysts rushed to outdo each other on their spreadsheets during the press conference.  As we saw in the last quarter, service revenue only fell 3% as BlackBerry gradually launches new services while demand for the legacy service is slowly falling away. Subsequently other analysts have come out with new “Buy” recommendations, often based on attempts to forecast BlackBerry 10 revenues.

But here’s what perplexes me. Analysts have no history to run on for BlackBerry 10 sales. Encouragement for sales comes from potential renewal of the 76 million BlackBerry user  contracts over the next two years and having 650 carrier relationships, of which over 200 are now carrying or will soon be carrying BlackBerry Z10 and Q10. It was interesting to learn that 55% of the first month’s sales were coming from previous iPhone and Android users. But there’s no long term history from which any reasonable forecast for BlackBerry 10 units can be generated. Internally BlackBerry will have sales goals but there is no regulatory requirement that they be made public.

So, as a proxy, some analysts run out to their local retailers and try to extrapolate stories from a small number of stores giving feedback. Others will try to get component order information from suppliers. Yet, given BlackBerry management’s track record for turning around the company, tracking sell through on a, say, weekly basis has to be one of the key metrics followed internally. It would be much more accurate than any sampling visits by third parties to retail locations is going to provide. We do know they ramped up production in late February to meet the existing demand.

And then Thursday one analyst who has a history of bearishness puts out a report claiming that returns are higher than sales. And the share price tanks, potentially to the benefit of those holding short positions in the stock. But there is no research published to describe their methodology. And more importantly any revenue forecast by any analyst at this point is purely speculative. What this particular analyst has done is demeaning to the term “research”; to achieve my accreditation as a physicist, I had to provide substantial peer reviewed research backing up my conclusions. The price continued to decline through the day in spite of an early statement from BlackBerry.

Analysts are playing a short term game when BlackBerry is in a long term restructuring and rebranding process. As I have said previously with $2.9 billion in cash, 76 million current users and 650 carrier relationships (their distribution channel), they are in a start up position that most entrepreneurs can only dream about.

In the end it’s about the user experience. Many reviews have been positive. From my own perspective, as one who has sold multi-tasking for a large portion of my career, my summary statement is “Did I say it was fast?” Yes, there are going to be a few who just don’t get its unique features and will want to make a return. BlackBerry’s statement claims their return levels are in line with industry norms. They have, and have acknowledged, some initial teething issues that are gradually being addressed. They have the real time sell through data (or better have it); only BlackBerry’s internally collected numbers give the real picture.

Out of all this maybe the analysts need to take a regulator enforced holiday from covering BlackBerry until there are two or three quarters of results to work with. In the meantime, I consider any revenue forecasts to be purely speculative with no basis in fact. At times the stock market becomes a game of speculation whereas shareholders want to be rewarded on their investment for real business performance, based on real numbers.

BlackBerry has certainly had enough of this speculation. And the one report yesterday crossed the line when it comes to being an analyst with any integrity. BlackBerry has finally hit back from a legal perspective. As Chris Umiastowski at CrackBerry.com says, in What’s really going on with Detwiler’s false accusations, and how BlackBerry is handling it beautifully:

When somebody publishes incredibly negative information on a stock, like Detwiler did, and refuses to discuss their research with the company either ahead of time or after the fact, and that “research” doesn’t even pass the smell test and turns out to be totally wrong, it definitely raises eyebrows.

Good on BlackBerry for going after stuff like this.  Nice to see their new Chief Legal Officer, Steve Zipperstein, taking action.

Read Chris’ post (linked above); it gives an excellent perspective from the viewpoint of a former analyst.

Bottom line: any forecast of BlackBerry revenues will remain speculative for another two or three quarters. Fortunately they have an established customer base and distribution channel to work with. Their new management team has evolved an employee culture that is motivated to succeed. But they still need to not only market heavily; they need more users who can pass along their experiences. By their management’s own admission they are still in the launch phase of delivering not only new smartphone experiences but also integrating into their traditional enterprise base.  And we need to hope there are viral effects for which the outcome cannot be reliably predicted.

Sorry analysts, I’ll continue to be very skeptical of your reports, for any stock, not just BBRY.

Full disclosure: the author has a small holding of BlackBerry shares. But he also has iOS and Android devices in order to experience a cross section of the smartphone and tablet market. These observations are based on publicly available information combined with his own past business experience at senior management levels in high technology markets. His main interest is in seeing several thousand jobs maintained in not only the Canadian economy but also in BlackBerry organizations around the world.

Given that RIM stock has been somewhat volatile for the past few months I can only say check with your investment adviser before taking any action. These posts are for information purposes only.

But with today’s Internet-enabled communications it’s feasible to want that communications device to go well beyond making voice calls to include support for video calls, listening to a far-off classical radio station, monitoring a broadcast sports event, such as a golf tournament or a soccer match, or watching a YouTube video.

Would a device that:

• does not use the processor and memory resources of your PC,
• delivers stereo audio,
• holds your iPad (any version),
• runs Skype, Bria, Truphone and other communications software,
• delivers Internet radio,
• lets you watch YouTube and make video calls
• includes a standard telephone handset and
• provides fast charging of your iPad
• sets you iPad display at a viewing angle convenient for watching video

be a suitable replacement for that legacy desktop phone?

Portability of tablets is one of their primary features. However, when using it in your office, it would be convenient to mount it on a desktop at an appropriate viewing angle to easily follow, say, videos, movies and television events. Listening to music or Internet-based radio broadcasts, in stereo, would also be an option for office activity.

Of course the other activity carried out on a desktop is carrying on voice (and now video) conversations. At times the privacy of a handset is appropriate; at other times you may need a speakerphone so that everyone near your desktop can participate in a conversation. If the conversation supports superwideband HD audio, such as Skype’s SILK technology, one wants the full audio crispness associated with this technology.

At CES 2013, Tecom, a manufacturer of OEM VoIP phones, introduced its MOCET Communicator desktop platform for the iPad with features such as:

• Support for use with all iPad models from the launch model to the recently introduced “iPad 4”
• HD handset and cradle
• Stereo speakers and external microphone
• Support for superwideband audio
• One touch buttons for volume control, speakerphone, mute
• Bluetooth connectivity for external audio sources such as a smartphone
• Ideal office desktop platform for voice and video calling using Skype, Bria, Facetime and other IP-based communications applications
• Display viewing angle adjustable from 30° to 75°

Over the past few months I have been using the MOCET Communicator to:

• Place and receive Skype voice and video calls
• Listen to radio stations (local and remote via their iPad applications)
• Watch sports events – baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis (using Rogers Anywhere Live)
• Watch YouTube videos, especially where music is the content
• Receive Rogers One Number calls (made to my mobile but answered on a PC, tablet or smartphone)
• Read books on Kindle

In order to confirm they work I have also checked out:

• Bria for iPad – a business communications client
• Truphone – another communications offering (involving roaming SIM’s)
• HookFlash – an iPad communications application in beta
• News videos on CNN, BBC and CTV News amongst others

For text typing in social networking applications, the iPad continues to work with a Bluetooth keyboard.

Bottom line: I have found the MOCET Communicator turns my iPad into a convenient companion to my PC desktop PC activity, often offloading many of the activities outlined above from using my desktop PC’s resources. The audio quality is excellent. When not using it for communications activities, it becomes my office radio; occasionally it also becomes an office “TV set” for watching live sports and news events. Yet I can make and receive voice and video calls, using the handset for privacy or using the speakerphone for hands free conversations involving others around a table in the office.

And a major plus: it turns the iPad into a flexible desktop audio/video appliance, taking a smaller footprint than a full PC while providing display of video at a comfortable viewing angle. Having it always charged while in the stand removes one significant cause for delay or interruption of activity while using the iPad in the office.

For Small to Medium Businesses there are more features:

As I don’t have a small business operation I asked Marc Abrams, MOCET’s VP Product and Business Development, about its capability to natively support SIP-based calling  within a local or hosted PBX environment. Using the free IP Commander iPad application additional service provider options become available. The MOCET Communicator …

…. is a great solution for a remote office with hosted IP services like RingCentral or 8×8 or with an SIP IP PBX whether local or remote. This provides a professional business solution for the SMB user who needs to be able to transfer calls and work with the rest of the users in the enterprise.

At US$229.00, available in the U.S. on Amazon, and elsewhere by contacting MOCET directly, it is one communications device option worth investigating for both its convenience and audio performance.

2 billion minutes infographic by Skype

With Skype clients on PC’s, smartphones (iOS, Android, Windows Phone and soon to include BlackBerry 10), tablets, including Kindle Fire, and an emerging offering of Internet-enabled TV’s as well as the current migration of Windows Live Messenger to Skype, it’s bound to continue the growth.

Recent data from Hudson Barton’s Skype Statistics shows that recently as many as 55 million were online concurrently. This number is only an indicator but certainly supports the trending upwards as well.

Bottom line: the numbers speak for themselves.

Of note:

• Sales of one million Z10’s are only up to the quarter end, March 2, 2013. They do not include any shipments from the “one million unit” order or provide any indication of U.S. sales where the Z10 just launched this past week.
• 55% of carrier sales to end users were to customers who mostly migrated from other devices (according to a Bloomberg interview with Heins this was roughly an even split between iOS and Android). A real surprise; can it continue? Twitter comments and some reviews seem to suggest “yes”.
• Gross margins rose to 40%: a positive indicator but the real gross margin on BlackBerry 10 devices will not become fully apparent until next quarter’s report. However this increase  is testament not only to a contribution from Z10 sales but also to the internal restructuring of manufacturing and supplier relationships.
• Cash remains strong at $2.9B; combined with clearing up their income tax situation, it points to strong financial (and inventory) management.
• 350,000 PlayBooks were sold with little, if any, marketing. (And I still use mine as a larger display email and web browser device; it will be a significant advance when it simply gets its version of the BB10 operating system)
• While revenue was essentially the same as last quarter, subscriber base dropped during what was really the first transitional quarter to the new BB10 devices. With any degree of success for both the Z10 and Q10, this should be the low point in the subscriber base.
• And, most surprisingly, BlackBerry reported a profit. They were break even on operations with the profit coming from resolving income tax issues.

Based on my own past experience with a similar but less complex recovery several years ago, I would also note:

• Focus: the new management team triaged and defined the priorities with the result that, at the moment, there is total focus on the Z10 and Q10 launch. Yes there is no BB10 for PlayBook but that is not the recovery generating product. Mention has been made of new products later this year but one expects R& D efforts to continue in order to remain competitive.
• Culture: CEO Heins said it best when he stated: “We’re seeing a new attitude and cultural shift in the company where we look to innovate faster and [ask] how to operate more efficiently”. In my own limited dealings with BlackBerry personnel I have noticed a significant shift in attitude; gone is the arrogance; there is a much less hesitance and a much more confident and proactive “how can we help you?” attitude.
• Employees and managers now have defined responsibilities and goals. An important component of the cultural change. Been there; experienced that in the past.
• Introducing product methodically, in measured steps: The gradual worldwide rollout of BlackBerry 10 was a very smart move. Launch first in a market where there was not significant loss of market share (U.K); do the second launch in the Canadian market which can serve as a proxy for a U.S. launch as much as to deliver to the home country market; launch in east Asian markets where BlackBerry remains a major player. This progression provides time and feedback to get the initial hiccups out of the system, gather customer experience reactions and fine tune manufacturing, distribution and support operations prior to both the U.S. launch and the Q10 launch.
• Initially launching a device with the Z10’s unique touch keyboard experience was often pictured as a negative but this was a risk taken that has largely been a success. While everyone wants to think the traditional BlackBerry market only wants a physical keyboard, using the touch keyboard has created many converts who realize that a uniquely new touch keyboard user experience overcomes preconceptions  and changes the game, especially for a device whose primary function is “text-based.” communications.
• Ramp up manufacturing; it appears that demand has outstripped supply but that also indicates prudent management of inventory and the distribution channel. Determining initial build volumes had to be one of the more difficult challenges of the launch process; wrong guesses can play havoc with the balance sheet. Pre-orders by carriers had to help as one indicator. But until you actually experience real consumer demand, it’s a crap shoot.
• Managing the channel inventory. I have seen too many instances of “pushing” product out the door on the last day of a quarter resulting in mismatch of end user demand and distributor channel inventory. All in an effort to meet stock market expectations. In all cases it was counter-productive and came back to bite.  In BlackBerry’s case inventory levels and sell through reports seem to indicate that there was only enough product sitting on retailers’ shelves at quarter end to meet end user demand over the ensuing few weeks¹. As a former sales executive it would be interesting to know their backlog but that’s not required public information.
• Taking control of the message. For several quarters the company formerly known as RIM had let the media take control of the message, often sounding a death knell. But following the Annual General Meeting last July, CEO Thorsten Heins, accompanied by a his new Chief Marketing Officer, commenced reaching out to provide interviews with the media demonstrating both candor and reality with respect to BlackBerry’s position as a company and the current market environment. He set expectations and restored credibility. Eventually media got the message that BlackBerry was sticking to the QNX Operating System and  preparing a mobile computing device that would provide a new user experience.
• Applications: BlackBerry Z10 launched with 70,000 applications, increasing to 100,000 in time for the U.S. launch. We continue to see more of the popular apps arriving; last week we were told to watch for CNN, The Daily Show Headlines, eMusic, Maxim, MTV News, Pageonce, PGA, Rdio, Skype, Soundhound and Viber amongst others. Kindle, Wall Street Journal, eBay, MLB.com at Bat 2013, CBS Sports and WhatsApp are recent arrivals. It will take the combination of user adoption and developer recognition of the unique features of the BB10 OS and its toolkits, with onging support from BlackBerry’s developer evangelism program,  to build on this base. In six months to a year there I expect will be few complaints about the apps available.

A key point made yesterday; this is only the beginning. QNX and the BB10 OS provide a unique platform for a variety of new mobile computing experiences, not only for smartphones, but also for a range of other devices in the automotive, healthcare and other markets. The next quarter will continue to be a transitional quarter but provide a better picture of BlackBerry’s turnaround. The track record of the new executive team bodes well to date for turning around and managing the overall business but some interesting challenges remain.

Der Speigel started out its report on the earnings with “Totgesagte leben länger” or “the ‘said to be dead’ lives longer”. With this earnings report BlackBerry is now demonstrating that it has a long life expectancy. Credit must be given to all the employees who maintained their optimism and enthusiasm through the “worst of times”, the loyalty of the BlackBerry fan base and, finally, the new executive team for its leadership in making it all happen.

As for those shorting their BlackBerry shares, have a good weekend. And analysts will continue to be all over the map for revenue forecasts; there simply is not enough history to be able to make accurate forecasts.

Check out CrackBerry.com’s Chris Umiastowski’s more detailed thoughts on the results: Thorsten Heins brings BlackBerry back in black.

¹One of my most memorable occasions was when I could tell our somewhat feisty production manager he could go home at five o’clock on the last day of a quarter as we had shipped to our internal goals. Previous quarters meant he was working until midnight on the last day.

Full disclosure: the author has a small holding of BlackBerry shares. But he also has iOS and Android devices in order to experience a cross section of the smartphone and tablet market. These observations are based on publicly available information combined with his own past business experience at senior management levels in high technology markets. His main interest is in seeing several thousand jobs maintained in not only the Canadian economy but also in BlackBerry organizations around the world.

Given that RIM stock has been somewhat volatile for the past few months since I started drafting this series I can only say check with your investment advisor before taking any action. These posts are for information purposes only.

Related articles

• ‘We have now increased our production capacity.’ – BlackBerry CEO, Thorsten Heins (crackberry.com)

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• Kevin O’Leary dumps his iPhone for the BlackBerry Z10 (crackberry.com)

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New features and improvements:

• New, beautiful calling experience
• One-to-one chats now appear in the correct order
• Option to select your message as ‘read’ with just a few taps
• General fixes and improvements

A call with Dan York provided an opportunity to experience “the new, beautiful calling experience”. Fundamentally the call management bar has been reformatted with various action options and menus during a call:

Call Management Bar	Camera Selection
Speaker Selection	Select Chat Other Party or All
Called Party Messages (Show Messages)	All Messages (Show All Messages)

Note that the “Active Call” button in the Message Action Bar returns you to the call itself.

When making a voice call (no video) the options for the “Show” icon add in “Show Dial Pad”. While normally one would only need the dial pad on a SkypeOut call to deal with an enterprise’s ACD menus.

To check out “One-to-one chats now appear in the correct order” I compared the chat sessions shown in “All Messages” above with those listed under  the “Recent” tab in Skype for Windows Desktop and found the order to be the same.

Note that when you first log into Skype on your iPhone/iPad it may take a few moments for all the relevant chat sessions to be listed.

When making a SkypeOut call to a PSTN number the a similar call management bar appears; however when you click on the “Show Messages” icon, it will open up a window for sending an SMS message. However, SMS messaging from Skype remains outbound only as shown in the attempt to send a response below.

Call to BlackBerry 10	Text Message to SMS	BlackBerry 10 side of the SMS conversation

Make a few Skype for iPhone calls and provide your experience feedback in the Comments.

The Skype Garage Blog post also lists several resolved issues that make operation more reliable and intuitive as well as a few known issues.

A separate post will cover the Skype for iPad 4.6 issues.

Skype 4.5 for iPad – the new Portrait UI experience

It starts with logging in. When I attempted to log into Skype with my Skype user name it reminded me that I had associated my Skype name with a Microsoft ID. While remaining an option to use either ID, using my Microsoft ID does include access to any Live Messenger contacts I had.

The changes in Portrait mode deal with the fact that the left Recent/People/History panel would be squished onto the left side of the display and was essentially useless for navigation. I always found myself rotating to landscape mode to get the full picture of the left panel.

With this iteration, Skype 4.5 for iPad now launches into a full screen “All Contacts” page when in Portrait mode. Then Skype for iPad invokes a gesture to proceed.

Swipe from the left side and you get the previous “People/Recent/History” panel  overlaying the left side but with a full width view.

Launch screen in Portrait mode	Swipe from left to get the “Index” panel

As for the “menu” bar at the top, the options are to select the “People/Recent/History” panel overlay via a touch selection, launch a dial pad and perform Search activities:

Selecting the “All” button brings up your “Lists” menu including options to filter the displayed Contacts to Online Contacts, Skype Contacts, Recent Contacts, your iPad Contacts and any Lists that you have built up using Skype for Windows Desktop or Skype for Mac.

iPad Contacts is one way to access your iCloud Contacts for making SkypeOut calls, provided you have an iCloud account. This option showed up automatically on installing Skype for iPad. iPad Contacts do not show up in any of the other Contact List options.

Selecting your account name at the top brings a Profile panel for accessing various settings, including details of “My Profile” and updating the mood message.

Display Contacts Options	Profile Menu

In addition to the Contacts directories, as in previous versions, the main screen may also contain individual Conversation logs, including chat conversations, or, if History is selected in the “People/Recent/History” panel, a listing of all your past conversations, any of which can be brought up by a simple touch selections.

Landscape mode remains unchanged with respect to always displaying the “Index” panel on the left sidebar and Contacts, Conversation logs and History on the right.

Other Changes

One of the annoying aspects of Skype for iPhone/iPad was that, in the “Recent” or “History” screens, the conversation logs would not be listed in chronological order going backwards in time. This has been addressed in Skype 4.5 for iPhone/iPad.

The new versions have also incorporated a feature of Skype for Windows Desktop where dropped calls can be recovered automatically. This has worked for me many times when using Skype for Windows Desktop; however, not always.

Finally, should you call an emergency number from Skype for iPhone the call will automatically be redirected to call out over the carrier’s voice channel for making calls from the iPhone.

Minor changes have also been made to improve the UI experience on the iPad Mini.

Bottom line: More of a maintenance release, the new Portrait mode UI in Skype for iPad does significantly improve navigation around Skype for iPad in this display mode. Otherwise, the changes are iterative but do improve the overall user experience in small ways.

One very annoying aspect, and this is probably an iOS 5/6 issue rather than a Skype issue: every time I leave Skype for iPad to go to another application, it appears I have to go through the entire auto-login process when returning to Skype. Maybe I am getting spoiled by the background processing feature of QNX on my PlayBook (and soon to come on my BlackBerrry Z10). This is not the experience when using Skype for iPhone.

I’ll post about BlackBerry 10 over the weekend but as background I want to recommend two recent and significant posts.:

Chris Umiastowski at CrackBerry.com provides both the history and feature set of QNX, describing why it presents some unique opportunities as the real core asset for RIM’s future:

History of QNX and its Implementation in BlackBerry 10

In 2000, almost 20 years after the first version of QNX hit the market, the QNX team had completely re-written the OS and launched Neutrino. As Dan Dodge describes it, “QNX is used in systems where the cost of failure is very high”. The Neutrino operating system is used to control huge Cisco Internet routers, lighting and equipment for huge Las Vegas shows, slot machines, windmill turbines, and nuclear reactors, just to name a few markets.

Randy Cheng’s interview at CNet with Alec Saunders provides the full story on the evolution of the Blackberry 10 Developer Relations program and why we can expect to see over 70,000 apps announced for the launch:

Meet the man who would make BlackBerry apps cool

Saunders has embraced a concept that RIM had long ignored: that developers and a healthy app “ecosystem” can make or break an operating system. He’s tried to make the company more accommodating and responsive to developers. It’s the touchy-feely stuff RIM execs never thought was important.

My recent series on BlackBerry 10 provides some additional background; today represents the opportunity to get the full picture. You can see the RIM employees’s excitement building on Twitter and Facebook. Alec’s Developer Relations team, along with the entire RIM team under new CEO Thorsten Heins, deserves kudos for bringing together the infrastructure for what has to be one of the most complex technology company recovery efforts ever.

The final measure, of course, is user adoption. A new adventure for RIM begins.

I’ll have more to say on the launch information over the weekend; meanwhile back to completing a long overdue personal vacation. I will also be reporting on how I managed to stay in touch relying totally on WiFi connections for the entire 10 days; no roaming charges allowed! And there’s an interesting BBM Voice story in there.

When it became available Dan York made a test call with me and reported on it. Again excellent voice quality once the connection is made. In effect the “Free Call” button previously reported as inactive for Dan has become active. (There is no upgrade to the Messenger application involved; still using version 2.1.)

During a call the iPhone’s speakerphone can be used and you can go to other applications while having access to the call via a red bar across the top of the screen

But Dan also reports on the on huge caveat (and the difficulty I encountered when it was first available to Canadians):

It is difficult to find someone to call because:

• it is limited to iOS devices
• the other party must have Messenger running on her/his iPhone
• It does not link into Facebook for iOS itself.

So the real question boils down to one of who would reasonably be using it:

• Messenger itself needs more visibility and awareness as a Facebook app independent of the main Facebook app
• Will it become available on other platforms, such as Android and even the forthcoming BlackBerry 10?
• Will the service be made available outside Canada and the United States?
• Will it be integrated into the main Facebook application?
• The original integration of the Skype infrastructure into Facebook does not appear to have much traction; certainly there have been few, if any, reports on its use.

Bottom Line: we are continuing to see attempts at free voice calling services via various applications. RIM recently upgraded their BlackBerry Messenger to include BBM Voice (over WiFi only for about 60 million BBM users).  Yet we see little extension of these services to end points beyond smartphones and, sometimes, PC’s.

The long term underlying question, however, remains what will be in the impact of acceptance of a WebRTC standard – where calling can be embedded into the browser?  The debate for standardization continues.

2013 will prove to be a landmark year for the evolution of IP-based communications.

• integration with Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
• taking “Add a Contact” down to a 2 step process
• a new profile screen with more accessible account information, and
• not mentioned in the Skype Big Blog post linked above: a new user interface for the Contacts Management (left) sidebar

Windows 8 users should note that this is the edition of Skype that runs in the Desktop mode of Windows 8 and continues with the full legacy Skype feature set. Of course it also applies to Windows 7 and earlier Windows versions.

I have spent some time looking through the new features; in this post I’ll discuss the last three. As the Outlook integration requires significant discussion I’ll review it in a separate post.

However, looking closely at the images in the Skype Big Blog post one would think that there had been no changes to the Contact management sidebar. However, in practice there was almost a total reorganization of the sidebar.

Legacy Contacts UI (shown in Big Blog post)	Actual Skype 6.1 for Windows Contacts UI

The changes can be summarized as follows:

The User name in the top pane only takes you to the User Profile screen where you can update your user profile and access your Account Management via a web browser:

Underneath is a new pane that leads to four actions in the right hand conversation panel:

• Home button takes you to the previous Home screen with the most recently called Contacts. mood message change and one of (a) your Skype Contacts news feed, (b) your Facebook news feed (if you have connected to Facebook), (c) Alerts issue by Skype re your account or (d) All three. (see below)
• The telephone icon opens the dialpad in the Conversation panel for making SkypeOut calls by entering a phone number or Contact name
• The “group icon” opens up the Create Group window for multi-party conversations
• The “+” icon launches the “Add a Contact” process (more below)

The subsequent pane comprises a Search bar which can be used in several ways:

• Search within your existing contacts as has been available in the past
• As a replacement for the previous “Add a Contact” screen where you could search for a new Contact by Name, email address, or SkypeID (see below)
• Search for Outlook contacts (see follow up post on using Skype 6.1 with Outlook)

The Home Screen:

Add a Contact process:

Fundamentally this amounts to a new Search algorithm that invokes the legacy search capability plus “Add a Contact” plus searching for Outlook contacts.

Bottom line: in addition to the Skype for Windows Desktop changes to described on the Skype Big Blog significant changes were made to the Contacts management panel, including some new processes for bringing up the Phone Dialer, creating a Group and Adding a Contact. As a result it significantly modifies the user experience and algorithms for executing launching these processes.

A follow up post will discuss the integration with Microsoft Outlook email manager.

You can download Skype 6.1 for Windows Desktop (Classic) here.

What really caught my attention by surprise was the third line “Call friends for free right from Messenger”. On further investigation I found that this particular feature was only made available to Canadians as Facebook tests out the loads on their infrastructure created by this new feature alone.

I had to locate a Canadian who was available on Facebook Messenger and who had done the same upgrade on his/her iPhone. I then made a call with excellent voice quality. Some images that illustrate the experience:

Only in Canada	Facebook Contacts Online	Attach Photo Record Voice Message

On the left, while the “Free Call” button shows up for all Facebook contacts who are “online” to receive text messages, the button is currently only “active” for Canadian contacts (who have upgraded to FB Messenger 2.1).  The middle image shows the list of “online” Facebook contacts. The menu on the right image is activated by pressing the “+” to the left of the text entry window; in addition to the emoticons it gives the option to share photos or record and send a short voice message (<1 minute).

I was able to complete a test call to Randy where we agreed that voice quality was excellent; there was obviously at least a wideband, if not superwideband, codec involved. The call management bar gives options to use the speakerphone, mute/unmute the mic and open up a chat pane during a call.

While Facebook Messenger 2.1 for iOS also installs on the iPad, one only sees the iPhone size screen with the same features as described for the iPhone.

The concurrent upgrade to Facebook Messenger 2.2.4 for Android offers the emoticons, voice messaging and photo sharing; however, the “Free Call” button is not seen on the Contact Info screen.

These features are only available on the iPhone/iPad and Android devices. Voice and video calling between Facebook contacts, introduced in July 2011, remains available on the desktop Facebook applications (Windows, Mac) using the Skype infrastructure described at the time. Questions left outstanding include:

1. Does this feature also use Facebook’s underlying Skype engine for voice and video calling?
   (TechCrunch seems to think that Facebook developed a new back end infrastructure.)
2. Will Facebook Messenger eventually add a video calling feature for mobile devices?
3. How tightly will the Facebook/Skype relationship remain?
   • At the moment Skype desktop clients show your Facebook news feed on the Skype Home screen
   • Chat conversations with Facebook contacts can be initiated from the Skype desktop client
   • Facebook contacts can receive voice and video calls initiated from the Skype desktop client.
4. One can log into Skype clients on the desktop and mobile platforms via the Facebook login

Bottom line: Social networking is about engagement, whether asynchronous through text messaging or real time synchronous through voice or video calling. Facebook obviously sees the need to extend the feature set of its mobile applications by joining other messaging applications, such as BlackBerry Messenger, in offering a free voice calling feature. While Facebook sees its Canadian users as a test ground for it mobile voice calling feature, its availability obviously should expand to other countries soon.

And the larger question remains as to how tight does the Facebook-Skype relationship remain in light of Facebook’s relationship with Microsoft where both are competing for eyeballs?

One other question; while there was much fanfare about the roll out of video calling from within Facebook using the Skype infrastructure, its usage appears to have died out – or has certainly continued below the radar. How much will Facebook Messenger users use this feature, given the wider range of end points and general popularity of Skype  and Apple’s FaceTime?

Finally Facebook Messenger is available for a broad range of mobile devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry (legacy OS6 and OS7 phones); the chat sessions are tracked on all of them, regardless of the originating device. Will we see Facebook  Messenger with voice calling appear on BlackBerry 10, given we know it will have Facebook?

Related articles

• Facebook Rolls Out VoIP In Canada on iOS! (Dan York at disruptivetelephony.com)
• Facebook lets Canadians beta test VoIP calling over iOS Messenger app (mobilesyrup.com)
• Facebook Testing Messenger-Based VoIP in Canada (And it’s Amazing) (iPhone Hacks)
• Facebook launches voice in iOS and Android Messenger apps, tests VoIP calling in Canada (thenextweb.com)

For the past two weeks BlackBerry Messenger 7 with BBM Voice has been in beta mode only accessible to those willing to work within the logistics of BlackBerry’s beta program.

Yesterday RIM brought free voice calling to over 60 million BlackBerry Messenger users immediately by releasing BlackBerry Messenger 7 that delivers BBM Voice when they are both in a WiFi zone. Three other new features include:

• BBM upgrade notifications – BBM will notify you when there are updates to download straight from within the app
• BBID Synchronization – your BBM profile, Groups and Contacts are linked to your BlackBerry ID
• 16 Additional emoticons – for some reason emoticons are an emotional draw to any text messaging service.

The BBID Synchronization got a workout in my own case due to an issue reinstalling BlackBerry Messenger on my Torch 9800. I got back all my BBM Contacts and recovered some conversations. But this feature is mainly in anticipation of facilitating the migration to BlackBerry 10.

Important also is the ability to text or work in other applications while on a voice call, including the ability to send pictures. Here is their video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mf1KSELfQg

BBM 7 works on all BlackBerries with OS 6 and OS 7 with support for OS 5 coming out early next year. (Along with the obvious when BlackBerry 10 launches.)

Launching a service immediately available to 60 million potential users is a significant contributor to BlackBerry 10’s prospects for business success. It can bind together those who have formed Groups and even those individual contacts who have established a 1:1 relationship that rely on BBM. Another bond that would be broken by going to other devices. It’s a service that will work between legacy BlackBerries and BlackBerry 10’s, facilitating the user base transition to BlackBerry 10.

Yet there has been hardly any coverage of this launch. It is one more example of how the mainstream media and analysts simply don’t understand the complete picture of what will make RIM and BlackBerry 10 successful on its launch. One report in the New York Times worries about the impact on carrier relationships. In today’s communications world, carriers, such as Rogers, are learning how to deal with OTT (over-the-top) services by offering services using similar technology but where the end user uses a traditional telephone set. But these are largely legacy phone to legacy phone voice calling offerings without taking full advantage of the full potential of IP-based communications and smartphones. And WiFi continues to be the “stealth” carrier. The real revenue growth for carriers will come from increased data revenues driven by OTT services.

Bottom line: RIM continues to build the ecosystem required not only for a new user smartphone experience but also the infrastructure to support its acceptance in the market. With over 40,000 apps potentially at launch, a world leading browser, leveraging 650 existing carrier relationships and putting in place programs to facilitate enterprise transitions, the pieces for market acceptance and adoption are coming together.

Related articles

• BBM Voice Out Now On RIM OS 7(andyabramson.blogs.com)

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According to recent data published Gartner, global sales of “smart devices,” which include smartphones and tablets, will hit 821 million worldwide this year and 1.2 billion in 2013. As the usage of mobile and tablet devices continues to grow, it’s no surprise that Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad are two of our most popular platforms with over 120 million downloads. The photo sharing feature has taken off, with more than 20 million photos shared in just the first few months of availability. Every month, one in every three iPhone and iPad owners use Skype on their device, and according to a report by Distimo, Skype is one of the top 10 free iPhone apps of all time.

Back to the upgrade. According to the Apple App Store entry the new features include:

Microsoft Account Integration

As with Skype 6.0 for Windows Classic/Mac and Skype 3.0 for Android you can now log into Skype for iPad via your Microsoft Account. This allows you to chat with your Microsoft Live Messenger contacts. You can also create a new Skype Account within the application. I would suspect there are many, like Dan York and myself, who have not used their Microsoft Account for several years; however, the integration has “just worked” for me on all the platforms as well as Skype for Windows 8.

However, unlike the PC versions, there is no Messenger “List” to filter out those contacts. On Skype 3.0 for Android they at least are identified as either a Messenger or Skype contact; on Skype 4.2 for iPad there is no such identification:

Skype for Android	Skype for iPad

Edit/Remove Chat Messages

This feature is actually one of the least aware features of Skype on PC’s; right click on a recent (<15 minutes) chat message and you have options to Copy, Edit or Remove the message. (Or hit the up arrow if it’s your most recent message.) With Skype 4.2 for iPhone and iPad, tap and hold the message firmly and you will find this:

You can also “Copy” a message to be pasted into another Skype chat session. Edit and Delete are very handy for dealing with typing errors.

Choosing emoticons

The familiar (and popular) emoticons found in Skype for PC’s can now be entered into a chat message:

On devices with Retina display, some of these icons can become animated. The earlier Skype 4.1.2 for iPhone brought full screen support for the unique Retina display size on the iPhone 5.

Note that the actual release is Skype 4.2.1 for iPhone and iPad; it’s a hotfix to a Skype 4.2 for iPhone and iPad released a day earlier. The most recent upgrade should appear automatically in the App Store on your device.

Bottom line: gradually features on Skype for PC are being brought to Skype’s clients for mobile smartphones and tablets. We’re still waiting for the promised release of versions that support longer battery life on these devices.

Check out Dan York’s comments: Skype 4.2.1 for iPad/iPhone Brings Microsoft Integration, Chat Interop, Better IM Features

Related articles

• Skype for iOS updated with Microsoft account support, additional emoticons and message editing(thenextweb.com)

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• Login via Microsoft Account
• IM with Windows Live Messenger contacts
• Superwideband SILK audio codec support
• Call auto-answer option
• and the most visible: New user interface for Android tablets.

I installed Skype 3.0 for Android on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Jelly Bean (Android 4.0.4) and found the interface to look very similar to Skype for iPad with account information and recent activity listed on the left and conversations or Contact directories viewed on the right.

Since I use my “test” Skype account on this device I logged in via my SkypeID for this account which will be used for most of the examples in this post.

If you log in via your Microsoft Account you will have access to your Windows Live Messenger and Outlook.com contacts. As a test I did log in via my Microsoft Account and could see my Skype, Messenger and Address Book contacts. The Contacts brought over my “Lists” from my Skype account, including Favorites and Online. However, I could not find a “List” for my Messenger contacts only. It also brought in all my account’s messaging conversations for at least the previous couple of weeks.

Going back to my “test” account I then placed a video call to my website designer. While the video takes over the conversation side of the screen you can also go full size on the screen.

The Call Management bar allows you to switch between the rear and front cameras, mute the mic, share files and follow a chat session as well as end the call. Audio quality was excellent, as expected from a call supported by the SILK codec. One more bonus feature: it supports hosting group chat.

There is a Settings screen that includes options to auto-answer calls, set privacy levels, and display call technical information, amongst others. By placing a call to a Windows PC I found that the tablet’s webcam was sending 320 x 240 images at up to 15 fps using the H.264 video codec; the PC, using the Logitech C920 webcam, was sending 640 x 480 images at up to 15 fps.. What is interesting here is that the 320 x 240 images being received did not compromise the image quality at the PC end. But that’s a subject for a separate post.

I did encounter a few of the known issues mentioned in the Skype Garage blog post linked above. For instance when I went to another application and returned to Skype I could only see my own video and not the other party’s; yet the call was still audio-active. And the tablet UI currently only supports landscape mode.

One other point to note: whereas previous versions of Skype for Android supported a limited number of devices, it now supports all Android devices – all 1400 of them, regardless of screen size!

Bottom line: Skype for Android now has full support for tablet-size Android devices, bringing the Skype for Android user interface to one that is feature-equivalent to Skype for iPad. In fact, Skype for Android supports full file transfer (not just photos), launching and hosting a group chat and provides more user control over Settings, including display of call technical information.

Related articles

• Skype Acquires Microsoft: Windows Live Messenger Migrates to Skype(voiceontheweb.biz)

According to T.A. McCann, Vice President of BBM and Social Communities at RIM:

  “The new BBM Voice feature is for when you’re travelling and you want to call home without worrying about phone charges. It’s for when you have news you can’t wait to share, for quickly explaining complicated details, and collaborating with colleagues. Whenever your ideas are too big for text, there’s BBM Voice.”

Here are the conditions for placing free BBM to BBM calls:

• Both parties must have installed BlackBerry Messenger 7 beta
  • register in the BlackBerry Beta Zone
  • a release version will appear in BlackBerry App World once any issues found in the beta are resolved
• Both parties must be on a WiFi connection
  • does not require a wireless carrier connection
  • however, you must have a carrier service plan
• Currently supported on BlackBerry OS 6 and OS 7
  • Will support BlackBerry OS 5 in released version
• and, of course, both parties must be BlackBerry Messenger contacts
  • and with a status of “Available”

When a contact meets all the above conditions and is able to accept a voice call the “voice” icon in the upper right of the screen is green (otherwise it is grey). Click on the green “voice” icon and a call to the contact is launched. During a call there are options:

• to change to speakerphone,
• to return to the chat session
• to check other chat sessions
• to switch to any other running program

CrackBerry.com provides a demonstration of BBM Voice here.

Over my first day using BBM Voice I made three calls using my BlackBerry 9800 Torch with OS 6. But first a background to what we found was the amazing bonus. If you have followed this blog over the past few years you know I have lauded Skype’s crystal clear voice using its SILK technology. Its crispness makes conversations more effective as accents and tonal inflections are much more easily understood. It’s a productivity booster for anyone running a support operation. I long for the day when all voice calls can be “wideband” but this requires significant infrastructure change behind making voice calls.

Perhaps you have also noted that calls over the normal wireless carriers can be difficult to follow at times. Voices sound squishy; accents confuse. Ironically I have often found it difficult to follow cell phone calls while driving down the main street of Silicon Valley.

On all three BBM Voice calls we found the voice quality to be just as crystal clear as a Skype-to-Skype call. It’s much better than the voice quality of a normal cell phone call over the wireless carriers’ network. In fact, RIM must be using at least a wideband codec, such as AMR-WB with BBM Voice. As a side issue, it also demonstrates the audio quality of the BlackBerry microphone and speaker.

Why only WiFi? All the IP-based services on smartphones started out over WiFi only and only later migrated to support calling over carrier networks. It was over a year from the time Skype for iPhone launched before it was available over 3G carrier networks. Apple’s Facetime, launched a couple of years ago, is only now starting to work over carrier networks. This path provides a way to test out the service across a broad audience without the complications required for going over the carrier networks. I would suspect BBM 7 Voice over WiFi is a precursor to having it available over carrier networks on the launch of BlackBerry 10 January 30, 2013.

The other question, given that RIM has demonstrated Video Chat as an application on the PlayBook, is whether the launch of BlackBerry 10 will also include BBM Video as another BlackBerry Messenger feature.

Bottom line: over the years there have been many attempts to offer free IP-based calling services; most have failed due to an inability to build a significant user base – and the fact that Skype users already have access to over 280 million active users. With a 60 million-strong BlackBerry Messenger registered user base, BBM Voice has a significant starting point for offering a long term sustainable voice (and video) feature. It just needs a final release to readily build traction.

Related articles

• BlackBerry Messenger Voice: It’s About Time(allthingsd.com)

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I have searched the three major Canadian wireless carrier sites (Rogers, Telus Mobility and Bell Canada); on the first two I only find six outdated Windows Phone 7.5 offerings from Nokia. No sign of the Nokia 920 yet. And, frankly, while I had several Nokia mobile phones in the early days of cellular services, Nokia has never had a significant presence in the Canadian smartphone market.

At the moment it seems only Microsoft Canada employees will be able to check it out; however, maybe a hint of consumer distribution will come at the opening of Canada’s first Microsoft Store in Toronto on Friday. While Rogers has announced an agreement to promote Windows 8 product, it seems like getting them into the full retail channel is taking time.

Software needs a compatible hardware platform; at least that has always been a requirement in the past to take full advantage of its feature set. What will be the Microsoft Canada distribution strategy for Windows Phone 8?

Update: at the launch of the Toronto Microsoft store in mid-November, it was announced that Windows Phone 8 handsets, in the form of Nokia Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X HTC, are now available from Rogers as the exclusive Canadian carrier.