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December 15, 2006
Lotta hype about Skype
Who am I to judge, but I think some people have really gone bonkers with Skype. Unlike the iPod, they haven't created anything new; however, the buzz grew quite large when the company was acquired by eBay. For the record I'm not an iPod drone either. Marketing and promotion has done wonders for the iPod, but I digress.
Although their proprietary protocol was reversed engineered, they still compete with open protocols (SIP, IAX, and H.323). Since Skype hit the net about three years ago, there have been a plethora of alternative softphones (ie Ekiga, Gizmo, Google Talk, etc.)
I'm not sure whether latest thrust to create mobile devices which carry Skype by default would put a true stranglehold on this space.. What I do know is that eBAY is vigorously attempting to recoup a return on their investment. Now they want to charge an annual premium on the Skype out calls(Click to Call), that is PC to POTS / PC to cell. Who knows how many customers would be willing to pay for an existing free service? Only time will tell.
I personally will choose freedom. I'll fire up Ekiga in a hot second ;)
Posted by AG at December 15, 2006 2:08 AM