I was thinking that things were awfully quiet in the IPTV space for some time. However, it looks like the major systems integrators are all looking for new angles of attack in the space. Last year, the company to beat up was Microsoft ("It's a monolith and doesn't allow third-party software developers to play within the Mediaroom framework"; "Microsoft can't scale"; etc., etc. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal says that Cisco is now in the crosshairs of some marketing campaigns, notably by Nortel. As Cisco has rapidly built up strong assets in video delivery, maybe they are the new king to detrone. Nortel's campaign is built around a green strategy - convince the world that Cisco's routers and equipment are electricity hogs.
Now, word has come that Alcatel-Lucent is buying Motive, an Austin, TX, provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services. Motive has built a good business from remote management systems, and its work has become more relevant to the digital home space, as it works with customer premise equipment companies that we cover, including 2Wire, Actiontec, Cisco (Scientific-Atlanta), D-Link, Sagem, Thomson, Tilgin, and Westell.
This marriage could be awfully interesting to watch. Amid all of the talk about converged services, high-definition TV, interactive TV, video-on-demand, and a host of advanced television and broadband services that are out there, the remote management systems and enhancements to customer support could indeed be the key to differentiating one service provider from another. It looks like Alcatel-Lucent is banking on this to strengthen its portfolio and its competitive edge.
