Applications, not platforms

I spent some time in the exhibit hall at VON this afternoon.  One thing that struck me was the large number of companies offering service platforms.  These ranged from BEA to Lucent to Ubiquity, IP Unity, Personeta.  Operators don't buy platforms.  They may say they want platforms, but they buy applications, and typically only applications that have been shown to be profitable somewhere else.  It's one thing if these companies were at VON trying to recruit developers, but most of them are selling a platform for which they are explicitly or implicitly the sole source of applications.

Personeta ( a customer of NMS) was better than most.  Their signage included applications as well as statements about their platform, but you had to watch their presentation to actually see the rich set of applications they have already delivered to a dozen or more operators around the world.

Why not lead with your applications?  That's what operators want.

And note - Personeta was one of the better such booths!