You may remember Global IP Solutions, or GIPS, as the company responsible so many years ago for the audio infrastructure that made Skype sound so good in the early days. Skype was the tipping point that ushered in the age of internet telephony, and in the process, they made GIPS a well known name in the industry.
Today they’ve announced that their VoiceEngine platform is now available to iPhone developers. Want to build a voice-enabled WiFi application on iPhone? This may be the easiest way to deliver a quality audio experience.
This particular announcement caused a minor flap last week when GIPS agency, High Tech PR, blind mailed some prominent bloggers with details of the announcement, but asked them to honor an embargo — ie not write the story until the news was released today. You can read about it on Jeff Pulver‘s blog, including the snippy response from the agency’s Terry May.
I get asked to embargo news all the time, and when asked I honor the request. Usually I get mailed a teaser, and then I can make a decision about whether to accept the embargo. The problem with Terry May’s mailing was that the entirety of the news was included in the mail — that GIPS was planning to VoIP enable iPhone.
Or… perhaps it wasn’t such a boneheaded move. Perhaps it was a canny strategy by an agency to gain coverage for a thin story… I certainly wrote about it.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
