Tag Archive for 'skype'

Skype 4.0 beta

Published by Ben Kepes on June 18, 2008 in Business, Collaboration, Design, Efficiency, IT, SaaS and Strategy.

Skype is rolling out a beta version of its newest software and it marks a distinct change in tack for the company. Skype’s formative days were centred around voice communications, video functionality had been something of a bolt on to the UI. The new version is all about communication, not favouring voice over video.

The new Skype is all about building up a user’s networks, support is included for importing contacts from a number of installed and web email apps.

The UI might shock a few hardened users, used to seeing the rather minimalist current look, but in order to maximise video functionality, Skype had to command more monitor real estate.

With most Telco’s already offering, or soon to introduce, VoIP offerings, Skype needs to up the anti in terms of functionality. This beta release takes yet another broadside at another of the incumbents high value revenue streams - namely video conferencing. The Telco’s must hate Skype - first P2P VoIP ate POTS lunch and now they’re looking at big ticket stuff - disruption hurts!

The beta release will be available here tomorrow.

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Microsoft - building a room that Echoes….

Published by Ben Kepes on May 31, 2008 in Design, Efficiency, IT, SaaS and Strategy.

So Microsoft has announced its “Echoes” project, a unified communications platform for telcos that, via the windows live service, seeks to;

  • Sync Address book contacts over the air
  • Ensure that IM messages work seamlessly with SMS
  • Windows Live Messenger contacts get local numbers
  • Voice calls from Messenger on PC to mobiles
  • Give some sort of presence verification

Mary Jo got down with some hyperbole, saying that this was an attempt by Microsoft to eliminate phone numbers (in her defence she was direct quoting Bill Gates). Zoli returned with a well reasoned retort saying that Echoes, rather than eliminating phone numbers, simply makes it more convenient for people to use them. He also touched on the fact that these services are already offered (in part or in full) by a number of other players.

And therein lies the rub - for unified communications to be, well unified, it needs to be all inclusive - MS Echoes lock-in plus Skype lock-in plus Grandcentral lock-in does not equal unification by any measure I’m comfortable with.

No what is really needed is for a third party to offer the unification service, achieve buy in from all the various players and look, act and feel neutral.

So, whereto for Echoes? Well it is an MS product, MS have some serious relationships with the telcos so there is every chance that it will work. Whether or not it should of course is another discussion. In any case, and for the current and ex-pat antipodeans out there, I leave you with another Echo - one firmly emanating from the eighties.

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Can Telco symbiosis beat Skype?

Published by The Unreasonablemen on May 7, 2008 in IT and Strategy.

(A cross posting from unreasonablemen.net)

A couple of posts today (Om Malik and a follow up on Skype Journal) discuss a rumoured Skype killing application that is allegedly being planned for. It seems that some of the Telco heavyweights want to build a VoIP based P2P calling service in order to stunt the success of Skype. Those providers in the consortium won’t charge interconnection (on net) calls, but if you call another carrier’s number (and I’d hazard a guess here) or even a POTS number within the providers number pool, you’ll get charged (like Skype out).

It’s a good strategy that has been successful before. The basics are that you enter an adjacent market, tank the revenue pool in that market to such an extent that the incumbent (Skype in this instance) has no resources left to enter your market because it’s fighting for its life in its home market.

Great plan except for a couple of things fella’s.
Firstly Skype’s disrupting you!, secondly you can’t tank what is already free, and thirdly Skype is already in your market (the oops too late moment!).
Apart from the problems with the strategy, I see a bunch of implementation issues with this the approach

  1. Can these Telco’s work together
  2. Can they get a value proposition that isn’t “old Telco” going at the same time as “Telco 2.0” - BT is a strong advocate of the “Protect and Grow legacy revenues”. How will this fly?
  3. Can they suffer the cultural change of not charging for calling?
  4. Can they physically build it
  5. Who will buy it? - only ray of hope is that they have financial security that Vonage etal don’t. They have a long way to go here. Skype’s adding 360 000 subscribers a day. That’s growth no Telco except China or India has dealt with ever.
  6. Can they sell it? Big step change for a sales teams

Thoughts on this anyone? Smacks of desperation to me.

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