IP Telephony needs a hero: Hosted IP continues to face challenges, particularly in gaining the loyalty of the masses. A recent Research and Markets report points out that "Despite the promises of lower capital expenditures, ease of use, and flexibility, hosted IP telephony has failed to gain mass adoption so far." News release.
Cable gains favor with SMBs: Despite their lousy reputation for customer service and a closed-off corporate culture, U.S. cable operators are gaining traction with SMBs, a study from ATLANTIC-ACM reports. "Cable operators have done a good job of changing their image from low-service, consumer-oriented behemoths to being able to deliver value in small business services," said CEO Dr. Judy Reed Smith. Their results may be bearing out; Cox Communications and Cablevision's commercial customer service recently got high marks from J.D. Power and Associates. The research firm sees CAGR in this segment growing 5.1 percent through 2015. News release.
Broadband ascendant: Broadband subscriptions worldwide will reach one billion by 2015, a Strategy Analytics report says, with the Asia-Pacific region--already making up 45 percent of current subscribers--continuing to dominate growth. APAC will see an 18 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Of course, much of the broadband available will be DSL, but the research firm sees fiber moving in steadily enough that a quarter of all subscribers will be connected by fiber. News release.
Change is a constant for service providers: Transformation to next-generation networks has to happen in multiple layers, a new study offered through Reportlinker says, and IP transformation has particular challenges. Details and case studies are presented in the Service Provider Transformation Update. News release.
Video in the retail space: Online video continues to grow, but one area that needs more attention, according to SundaySky (not coincidentally, a producer of SEO-optimized video), is e-commerce video. These are typically short videos posted by retailers, like Amazon or Overstock, on their consumer sites to inform customers about their products. However, despite widespread adoption--65 percent of online retailers use videos to increase conversion rates--less than 10 percent have more than 10 videos indexed. Download the report at the company's website here.
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