If you’re like me, your head is still spinning from everything that happened this year. The year was full of many surprises – both good and bad. On the positive side, the first half of the year saw predictable sales in IP telephony equipment that included IP-PBXs, iPhones and an increased number of sales (at least from my observation point) of unified communications products. The second half of the year sales were not so positive due to the stock market crash, energy crisis, banking crisis, mortgage crisis and rising unemployment figures.

What’s interesting is that despite the economic turmoil, several technology changes took place in all sectors (IT, carrier, enterprise and consumer) of the economy. For instance, from an IT perspective, several major trends gained ground like server virtualization and green IT. Virtualization technology was able to gain significant ground due to the energy crisis and the promise of cost reduction in the data center. green IT gained ground due to the energy crisis as well as increased publicity around global warming and a desire for businesses to appear socially responsible.

From a carrier perspective, IPTV deployments from major Telco’s have now begun to threaten cable companies. AT&T and Verizon were a couple of the carriers that focused on IPTV deployments this year and it appears as though they may have found “the next big thing” for their companies. It will be interesting to see if the carriers simply keep this as a new service or begin to reinvent themselves as video service providers.

From an enterprise perspective, there were also several changes. The first change was that Apple products, like the iPhone, expanded out of the consumer domain and gained traction in the business world to challenge RIM (Blackberry) and Nokia for smartphone market share. In fact, iPhone deployments were up 327.5 percent over last year and Apple is now the Number 3 manufacturer for smartphones in the world. There was a renewed interest in video conferencing and telecommuting due to high energy and transportation costs. Many existing and new vendors are jumping into this foray. Even with current energy prices at a four-year low, this will definitely be something to watch in 2009 as the technology improves. And finally, social networking took on an increased role for businesses to use with company promotion and market research. Even some of the political campaigns embraced social networking, Web 2.0 and Internet as key avenues to promote their view points.

From a consumer perspective, there were interesting developments as well. One of the surprises was Vista from Microsoft. Despite the marketing prowess and financial resources of Vista, it failed to capture the hearts and minds of the public, prompting Microsoft to speed up development of its next operating system, which might be available as early as sometime in 2009. Computer game sales figures were a huge surprise, especially as the economy worsened. Industry game sales were 10 percent higher for November 2008 than the November 2007 sales figures as reported by GamePro. In addition, the Nintendo Wii sales figures were almost double both major competitors Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3.

As far as personal surprises go, I was very pleasantly surprised how well China was able to integrate technology into the summer Olympic Games (both the opening and closing ceremonies) with digital signage, laser lights and computer software. I thought that this was an excellent demonstration of the integration of technical and non-technical showmanship. Kudos to China!

As 2008 winds down, it will be extremely interesting to see what 2009 will bring.

Keith Bromley is a product marketing manager for NEC Unified Solutions Inc. He joined NEC in 2004 as the product line manager for the UNIVERGE SV7000 VoIP server. Prior to NEC, Keith worked for several national and international telecommunications companies including DSC, Metro-Optix, Cisco Systems and Ericsson, for whom he was industry liaison to several technical standards bodies.

Many people use the terms IP, VoIP, and IP telephony interchangeably, when they are actually three different concepts. IP (Internet protocol) is a technology that employs packet-based switching to capture and transport bits and pieces of data over an IP-based data network. IP is essentially a best effort system, which means that no packet of information sent over the network is assured to reach its destination in the same condition it was sent. Protocols such as TCP that ride on top of the basic Internet protocol try to minimize the data loss, but even those protocols cannot guarantee success in a congested or impaired network. This is why users can still end up with corrupted files, duplicate arrivals and lost or dropped packets.

In the past, voice and data resided on two separate networks. IP makes it possible for them to coexist. VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) uses IP to transport voice signals and turn them into digital data that can be transmitted over any IP-based data network. Voice packets, unlike data packets, must be delivered on time and in the order in which they were sent. As a result, VoIP employs the real-time protocol (RTP) in tandem with IP to alleviate the issue of latency. Although it’s not technically correct, the term VoIP is often used to refer to various other real-time media such as fax, video and streaming media.

IP telephony is a generic concept that addresses the conversion of real-time analog and TDM media to IP. Voice is only one component carried across a traditional TDM network. Facsimile, video and data signals (modems, remote alarm systems, etc.) are others. A fourth typical capability addressed by telephone networks is the use of various CLASS (custom local area signaling services) and AIN (advanced Intelligent network) features such as call waiting, last number redial, distinctive ringing and so forth. Therefore, IP telephony typically refers not just to VoIP but also to FoIP (fax over IP), video and data transmissions over IP and the ability to have a service creation environment as well.

In the end, IP is the foundation on which VoIP and IP telephony are built in order to properly transmit telecom signals on a data network. Without IP, there would be no VoIP, FoIP or specialized IP voice features. However, IP would still exist to drive a packet-switched, data environment.

Keith Bromley is a product marketing manager for NEC Unified Solutions Inc. He joined NEC in 2004 as the product line manager for the UNIVERGE SV7000 VoIP server. Prior to NEC, Keith worked for several national and international telecommunications companies including DSC, Metro-Optix, Cisco Systems and Ericsson, for whom he was industry liaison to several technical standards bodies.

In today’s market place, finding a competitive edge is extremely important. One solution rapidly emerging as a competitive edge for both small to medium businesses (SMB) and enterprises is the concept of a mobile office. A mobile office takes the capabilities of the mobile worker (i.e. the ability to reach a worker even if they are not at their desk) to the next level.

Now, not just the worker is mobile — essentially their whole office comes with them. This can be extremely important for individuals who perform multiple roles within their organization and need to shift between those roles quickly, especially in vertical industries such as real estate, insurance, healthcare, and construction.

So what do I mean by “mobile office?” The concept has been around since the 1990s, when laptops came out and workers were able to use them to perform work while out of the office. This work could include creating documents and making presentations or it could be of a more technical nature, such as loading software or making the laptop a piece of test gear.

With the introduction of unified communications during this decade, more office functionality has been incorporated into the mobile office. For instance, voice mail, e-mail, softphones and fax over IP now make it possible (along with a VPN) to replicate most core office functions away from the office.

One of the newest wrinkles is the movement of the mobile office to a different platform. While laptops are still in use, we have hit an inflection point for those devices. The mobile office is now transitioning to smartphones that offer remote e-mail access, Internet access and mp3 player capability, as well as the ability to read e-mail attachments.

While the smartphone screen size and typical lack of full office application software (Microsoft Office, Adobe FrameMaker, etc.) are restricting the widespread acceptance of smartphones as the new mobile office platform, other features such as integrated camera, Wi-Fi, and mobile client software are value-added features propelling it forward. In addition, the compact size of the smartphone and its easy connectivity to the network (vs. Wi-Fi or Ethernet for the laptop) are huge advantages over a laptop.

While enterprise advantages are easy to understand (like remote 24/7 e-mail access and a mobile client that turns the smartphone into an extension on the enterprise PBX), advantages also exist for smaller operations.

One clear example is in the real estate market. Realtors are able to use the camera capabilities of their mobile devices to take pictures of properties, then instantly e-mail the digital photographs to clients or other agents without returning to the office. This saves a considerable amount of time and productivity. The Realtor can stay in the field, moving from one house to the next taking pictures and possibility receiving e-mails or calls in response to the photos they’re sending out.

Another example is in adjusting insurance claims. When processing routine insurance claims, the agent has no critical need for mobile office capabilities. However, during emergencies (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, severe thunder storms, etc.) the smartphone-based mobile office can be a huge benefit, making rapid response from the field possible. An adjuster can take digital pictures at the scene with their smartphone, then e-mail those pictures along with notes back to claim processors in the home office and move on to the next claimant. Claim processing is faster and customer satisfaction is greatly improved. In addition, the adjuster can use the smartphone to make use of GPS navigation and mapping programs.

It will be interesting to see how technology will change mobile office capabilities in the future as device processing power increases and smartphone technology improves.

Keith Bromley is a product marketing manager for NEC Unified Solutions Inc. He joined NEC in 2004 as the product line manager for the UNIVERGE SV7000 VoIP server. Prior to NEC, Keith worked for several national and international telecommunications companies including DSC, Metro-Optix, Cisco Systems and Ericsson, for whom he was industry liaison to several technical standards bodies.