eSP - IT Solution Providers in Europe

We are about to witness the largest deployment of digital signage in history.

That's right - the largest deployment of digital signage technology, ever.

How big?

Well, well over 100 million (yes, million) people (translation: sets of eyeballs) will instantly be part of the world's largest digital signage network tomorrow (July 1st) when Apple launches iAd on the iPhone, iPod Touch and, one assumes, the iPad.

Apple has laid out its plan with iAd and it's pretty simple - advertisers can embed "interactive" ads inside Apps (I also assumes that eventually - although this hasn't been addressed directly by Apple, yet - ads could be embedded into other services that Apple includes on all iPhones (e.g., Mail, Text Messaging/MMS, Safari).

However, these aren't just banner ads, the ads are interactive such that you can run the ad totally inside the App itself and when you finish the ad, go back to where you were in the App. May not seem like a big deal, but one of the biggest complaints of banner ads is that they take you somewhere on a website that you may not want to go - thus, many people never click on them.

Cisco launches its Cius tablet (pronounced ”SeeUs”) for business, a 7” touch-screen tablet computer running on Android operating system.

Yes, it’s definitely going to be compared to the iPad. But this Cisco product is all about business and Cius comes in two form factors: tablet and a desktop dock (a phone-like format).

CEO John Chambers showed Cius at the Cisco Live customer event, using a live videoconferencing transmission from researchers on a submarine in the Aegean Sea.

The device works with cellular 3G and 4G networks, as well as with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. HD 720p video is supported.

Microsoft Goes to War on Cloud Effort

Microsoft creates a new division, putting all of its SMB resources in a single multibillion dollar division to convince SMB solution providers that it’s time to be leading with cloud services like Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), the new Windows InTune systems management software/service and the Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference kicks off with the company’s loudest message that "Microsoft partners need to be “All In” with the cloud, just like Redmond itself."

Dylan was right: The Times They Are A’ Changin'.

The keynote address at this year’s InfoComm (an AV, not IT, show) was delivered by…Cisco.

Representing the IT giant, Marthin De Beer, Senior VP Emerging Technologies Business Group at Cisco, took the InfoComm stage to tell delegates that collaborative technologies like video and telepresence are changing the way people work, learn, and communicate—and even forcing radical changes in network architecture.

He says future collaboration will make it easier for users to create and control rich media and for IT departments to deliver these technologies while also cutting back on the need for end-user support. "When it comes to rich human interactions, being able to easily create, find, share, consume, and manage content is very important. And we believe the network, what we now term as 'medianet,' which you should think of as the evolution of the network that is ready for rich media,... will play a very important part."

"Video and collaboration and, in particular, telepresence are at the heart of how the future of work, the future of connected life, and the future of computing will change over time," de Beer says. "I believe it's just the beginning. We're going to see an exciting world unfold in front of us."

Go InfoComm Keynote