Posts Tagged ‘skype’
Daniel Berninger
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Thursday, July 24, 2008 |
7:00 AM PT |
The disruption potential of VoIP lies not so much in its ability to push down the cost of telephone service than in its ability to get consumers to ignore the telephone business altogether. The nature of the Internet makes VoIP advantageous even after the cost of plain old telephone service goes to zero. For while the network determines all the essential features of traditional telephone service, from audio quality (low) to addressing (telephone numbers), the Internet asserts few constraints on VoIP services or devices. Thinking of communication solutions as an extension of the web and implementation as hosting can help break the grip of the telephone myopia reflected in most VoIP business plans.
Framing the value of VoIP as replacement for traditional telephone service makes interconnection with the telephone network seem essential, but VoIP enables communication solutions that go beyond the
“telephone call.” Think of it as viewing the telephone itself as a more efficient telegraph. The infocom industry needs to unleash new demand associated with new services. A transformation from world wide web to worldwide communication requires interconnection among VoIP providers, not the telephone network. The unwillingness of Vonage and Skype to interconnect with other VoIP providers makes no more sense than Yahoo imposing on users a proprietary browser that can’t be used to access any other sites on the web. Continue »
Om Malik
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Thursday, June 26, 2008 |
8:19 AM PT |
Jajah, in its effort to become a backend platform for VoIP services, has started offering call termination, billing and other such services to one and all comers. They got a big boost when they signed up Yahoo! Now, the Sequoia Capital-backed company has signed up SIPphone, the company behind Gizmo and will handle their call termination. Does this mean Gizmo’s call quality will increase? I certainly hope so - I have stopped using the service because of poor quality of voice.
Instead, I have opted for RingCentral, which recently introduced a Mac OS X soft client (in addition to a PC version) and it is doing a might fine job for me. I was highly skeptical of RingCentral in the past but they have won me over with their high quality service. (Full review, pending!)
Soft phones - whether they are from RingCentral, Vonage, Gizmo or Skype extremely useful. I almost never am close to a landline, but an internet connection is always handy. Using soft phone, I can make quick calls without really breaking away from the computer screen. I am not alone in professing a liking for Softphones. A Frost & Sullivan report says that as a percentage of total IP-telephone market soft phones share will increase from 5 percent to 20 percent by 2014. Softphone sales rose to 416,000 units, worth $18.9 million in 2007, up 30% over 2006.
Om Malik
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008 |
4:00 PM PT |
Updated: Skype, the peer-to-peer VoIP provider and a division of eBay, wants to grow up – both as a company and as a communications utility. To that end, it is launching the beta version of its latest Skype client software.
Josh Silverman, the company’s new CEO, acknowledged that from a usability standpoint, things hadn’t changed much, even as Skype kept adding more features such as embedding third-party plug-ins. Skype needed a better, easier and cleaner client — and Skype 4.0 beta, likely to be available for download tomorrow, is a start.
The new client is going to cause an uproar amongst many Skype loyalists used to the IM-like nature of the current software. With this version, the software takes up the entire PC desktop screen, mostly to accommodate a growing number of features. (Skype Journal’s Jim Courtney & JKontherun tell me that you can change the screen size, though it isn’t that obvious or easy.) I found it hugely annoying as it forced me to constantly toggle between the client and the desktop; merely doubling or tripling the size of the client seems like it would have sufficed.
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Jason Harris
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008 |
12:10 PM PT |
While the emergence of VoIP, or voice-over-Internet protocol, technology has already helped push down the cost of making a phone call, now it’s starting to have a deflationary impact on the world of mobile, where call charges remain stubbornly high. We at GigaOM are constantly tinkering with these mobile services, so we’ve put together a list of seven mobile VoIP apps that we think you’ll find handy. Continue Reading Continue »
Om Malik
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Thursday, May 29, 2008 |
9:31 PM PT |
Microsoft Corp., in its effort to woo telecoms has come up with yet another project, Echoes, a services platform that will likely to be sold to telecom carriers. It combines Microsoft’s Live Messenger, with over the air syncing of people’s address books with presence and gift wraps it as unified communications platform.
Mary Joe Foley points out that Bill Gates has been referring to Echoes in his speeches recently. Echoes was incubated by Microsoft Israel Research’s Corporate Vice President Moshe Lichtman and is being developed by Microsoft’s Israeli Strategic Development Center, Foley reports. According to one of her sources, the new platform will be able to:
- Syncs 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.
- Some sort of presence.
Skype, GrandCentral and others already deliver many of these services. From that perspective there is nothing new here, except for the need of being tied to Microsoft’s platforms. Echoes’ outlines Microsoft’s biggest challenges: the inordinate amount of time they spend on developing products that are either a platform or a suite forces them to make too many compromises. One can’t blame the company whose DNA is Windows (Platform) & a Suite (Office.) This is a malady which makes them unable to move ahead and define the future.
Om Malik
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008 |
10:32 AM PT |
eBay and by proxy Skype wants to do just more than IM and voice chats. And that is why they’re pushing the service, and its clients, into new directions — from telepresence to video to whatever they can think of next. (My inner skeptic says they have to keep that user base growing in order to spin out or sell Skype.)
According to NewTeeVee, Skype today signed a new deal with San Francisco-based Jaman that “will let Skype users insert film clips into their conversations to share with friends. The new service will be available on Skype over the coming months.”
The way it’s supposed to work is this: Continue »
Om Malik
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Tuesday, May 6, 2008 |
8:12 AM PT |
AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers, is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued this morning by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman. He argues that big shifts in the telecom landscape are forcing the carriers to think along these lines: Voice has become a losing proposition, and they’re losing fixed-line customers at an alarming rate. Continue Reading
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New Skype For Windows Released, Fixes Video Bugs:
Skype has released Skype 3.8 for Windows, and it has better audio, thanks to some improvements in the audio engine. Hopefully it will translate into better call quality and fewer dropouts. The best and most useful feature of this new release: If you change your headset, headphones or microphone, there’s no need to mess around with the sound settings — Skype adjusts everything automatically. Skype folks tell us that they have made a “number of video-related bug fixes” and added their own “UPnP implementation.”
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Stacey Higginbotham
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Friday, April 18, 2008 |
7:38 AM PT |
The Financial Times thinks so. The British paper quotes eBay’s CEO John Donahoe as saying the online auction firm will test Skype for “synergies” this year and if those synergies aren’t strong, reassess the division. eBay purchased Skype in 2005 with a potential payout of $4.1 billion. However, last year eBay wrote down the value of the acquisition by $1.4 billion, essentially admitting it overpaid.
Now, under the new leadership, it looks like eBay didn’t merely overpay, but also overreached with the buy. At the time, CEO Meg Whitman prophesied that Skype would allow eBay users to click-to-call during auctions. Why this feature was worth $4.1 billion puzzled the media and analysts alike. Skype is growing, but eBay hasn’t figured out what to do with the growth for the betterment of the company, which probably means that a divestment is the right thing to do.
Guest Column
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Monday, April 7, 2008 |
12:00 AM PT |
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said recently he was dismissing a petition from Skype that would force operators to connect any lawful device to the telephone network provided it doesn’t do harm to the network. The decision demonstrates nothing less than a failure on the part of a U.S. government agency to comprehend the available technology infrastructure. And it portends for a less competitive U.S. Continue »
