Given that Skype is being coupled with everyone from Yahoo to EBay, VoIP analyst Jon Arnold says, Why Not Apple, or what he defines as “Skapple.”
With all that’s going on, here’s the one that makes some sense to me - Skype and Apple. I haven’t seen or heard about that combo yet, and it’s just my thinking, but I like it. Just look at the companies, their cultures, their leaders, their audience. It all fits - if you recall, at VON Canada, Jeff Pulver noted that Niklas Zennstrom is the Steve Jobs of VoIP - Skype is the iPod of our space. It’s all true - they’re both visionary guys, with maverick, upstart companies that are reinventing their spaces with offerings that are fun, good, easy to use, and wildy popular. I can certainly see ways they could work together. How about downloading iTunes to Skype? Or custom ring backs? Of course, these are the kinds of things that the Skype developer community is frantically working on now, and no doubt more cool stuff like this is in the works. How about bundling Skype with the iPod?
Okay, this is wishful thinking, which would be nice, but unlikely. Apple, like everyone else needs to hang on to their dollars in order to compete, with well everyone. I don’t think at this point it would serve Apple’s long term goals to buy Skype and mess with the phone companies. In addition, I think again, like everyone else, the decision will come down to build-versus-buy.
Another interesting post on why it makes sense for Skype-eBay, and others that disagree. Skype’s super valuation might be justified, some argue. No not as far as I can see!
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11:46 AM PT
Snapple to buy Skype
Om Malic just posted an entry about how Snapple was “looking to buy Skype”. Or at least that’s what I thought when I saw the headline “Why Not Skapple?”. Unfortunately, he was talking about Apple and Skype talking it up,…
7:57 AM PT
[...] Business Week reports that EBay is hosting an investor call at 5 am pacific time tomorrow morning - which they call unusual. Is this the eBay-Skype announcement? FT has a story saying the deal is in the works for $4 billion or change. “Honestly, I still don’t see the logic at anything near that price, but it could be we’ll find out shortly what eBay has up its sleeve,” writes BusinessWeek’s Rob Hoff. Me neither - it is a strange acquisition, if that indeed is the case. Yet another proof, in SV there is a sucker on every exit! More of my opinion, and what others think! In VoIP (the New Phone) Posted Sunday, September 11, 2005 at 10:44 PM PT [...]
7 comments so far
11:37 AM PT
Dang. I was hoping Snapple was trying to get in on the “Looking to Buy Skype” bandwagon.
That would be so cool. Buy a Snapple, win free SkypeOut. Want to talk but you’re too busy drinking? Just Skapple!
12:07 PM PT
And if they’re worth their mettle they’ll skip the old-world phone (line or cellular) angle altogether and go straight for a wifi-voip-ipod thingie… and at least I would be happy as a clam :)
1:16 PM PT
> Skype’s super valuation might be justified, some argue. No not as far as I can see!
Well, as I said… let the market decide. Maybe we’ll soon find out. That is, if Skype has any plans to be bought at all. They might want to hold on and let the VCs exit the IPO route.
1:41 PM PT
Google. News Corp. eBay. And now Apple? When will it end?
1:45 PM PT
And I agree about Apple and Skype. Don’t know why Jobs’ would be interested in that. He’s already got too much on his plate (ceo at Pixar as well).
3:04 PM PT
Gizmoproject is a better piece of software, very Mac like and offers more features than Skype. It is just out of beta but isn’t a closed system like Skype.
7:54 PM PT
I’d like to see Apple, Skype & Sony get together!!
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