Comments on: Is Skype Speeding Along its Own Demise?

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:56:43 +0000

Slightly off-topic, but since he mentioned it: what does Apple not pre-installing Flash player on a Mac have to do with Apple’s up-coming App Store on OS X? I do not see any relation at all.

By: Ted T.

Ted T. — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:58:10 +0000

“Facetime may be fine for people when both of their friends use Macs, but until Facetime is either opened up or it gains access to larger rivals it will be a fun add-on, not a serious communication service”
Paul, Facetime was released by Apple as an open standard. Anyone is already free to use it — it is just a matter of time before Windows, Android, etc./ clients appear.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:46:30 +0000

When Apple releases FaceTime for Windows, your point will be mute.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:22:05 +0000

I think Skype is slowly digging itself its own ditch. Just the way the come off lately as being anti-cooperative is bad for their image. Not to mention the fact that they’re dragging their feet on a very lucrative market with iOS users. FaceTime has the potential to eat at some of its market-share, especially if it releases on Windows. I wouldn’t rule that out of the realm of possibilities.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:20:11 +0000

Seriously, does anyone on a blogging site actually do journalism, or do they just regurgitate everything company PR people tell them.

Nimbuzz, 30 million active users? Are you friggin’ kidding me? They may have 30 million registrations over their lifetime, but anyone who knows anything about mobile knows that user retention is brutal. I’d be shocked if they have more than 3 million actives. Don’t think that cutting off Nimbuzz is a particularly large threat to Skype.

That being said, it was probably a waste of Skype’s time. The rumor is that Nimbuzz is running out of money, and their investors are at the end of their patience cycle.

By: Anders

Anders — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:56:31 +0000

Could you please cite the source that says “Skype’s iPhone efforts are one of its major sources of revenue”? I doubt this considering that there’s only 5 million iphone downloads and 500 million Skype users.

Also I don’t see how FaceTime could render Skype redundant. FaceTime is a video calling application and Skype is a VoIP service. Skype’s revenue comes from SkypeOut and not video conferencing.

By: Ames Tiedeman

Ames Tiedeman — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:52:23 +0000

I think Skype will have a new owner sometime in 2011.

By: Dennis Christian

Dennis Christian — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:11:02 +0000

I find all this speculation about the purpose of the datacenter (just like the speculation about the purpose of the PA Semi acquisition) a bit silly.

You don’t need a big new datacenter to cope with “increased server demand” resulting from FaceTime. The audio and video is streamed directly from end user to end user and does not create any server load. Same with Skype. All that the servers do is manage online presence information and initiate the FaceTime session. That’s not more server load than running a simple instant messaging service. Sure, for a future extension like SkypeOut, you’d need more server power. But compared to what Apple is already handling, that’s not rocket science.

By: Eddie Gear

Eddie Gear — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:43:26 +0000

They are making some major changes and adapting to new tech. I dont think that they would close down.

By: IbearTouch

IbearTouch — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:59:33 +0000

I find Skype doesn’t speed along to do anything. I find them to be quite slow to react to what’s going on. I don’t know if you can call it meticulousness, or what, but Skype should get a grip before they get surpassed. Just my 0.02