Avvenu, aka Kinetic Tide, of the early entrants into the market place is giving away a free year of service to anyone who participates in their beta cycle. (Russell, this is your chance to compare it with Orb Networks’ service.) It is fairly simple to sign-up for the service’s beta program. Download the software and during installation use “AvvenuBeta” promo code during installation. Voila, you will get a free year of the service. This is an interesting twist for the company. I am assuming as it gears up for high volume roll-out with partners like Motorola, it might want to iron out the kinks in its offering, hence the expanded beta plan. Orb Networks changed its game plan in the middle of rolling out its service, going from paid to free, hoping to get a major share of the place shifting market. Clearly the market is hyper competitive and any strategy is fair strategy.
OK, I’m biased, but it seems like a better comparison would be to http://www.gotomypc.com or maybe Grouper, Grokster, etc. Orb is about streaming, Avvenu is about file sharing. There is a HUGE difference, both in technology and in the user experience. Sure, its nice to get a photo on my cell phone. But not at all nice to transfer a huge video recording… for that I need streaming technology. Nothing that Avvenu does to today suggests that it can handle streaming your music or TV to your cell phone. So why do you want Russ to compare them?
best,
Ted Shelton (Orb Networks)