Video Action Keeps Expanding: In addition to service launches on the video communications front, (Skype, SightSpeed), it was a week when we learned where Skype's founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Jaanus Friis, may be spending some of their eBay-generated wealth.  (Keep in mind that Niklas and Jaanus had VC partners with whom they shared probably a significant portion of that $2.6B sale price.) Phil has commented on their Venice Project, a forthcoming video play first revealed in a Business Week story. Om thinks it does not bode well from an eBay investor's point of view:

"Whatever the case might be, this doesn't look good from an eBay investor's perspective.They spent $2.6 billion (and change) on Skype, and the two main guys are busy doing other projects."

My take, having worked with many technology-based enterprises transitioning from startup to a sustainable expanding business, is that eBay has let Niklas and Jaanus go back to doing what they are best at - entrepreneurship - and have let their more operationally experienced managers take responsibility for growing Skype from an emerging ~$100 million annual revenue enterprise to the multi-billion per year revenues required to justify a $2.6 billion purchase price. As long as Niklas and Jaanus can input their suggestions and viewpoints into management decisions and do not go to a competitor, I would not lose any sweat as an investor over this situation.

Will Niklas Now Visit The U.S.? Towards the end of the week we learn that Niklas and Jaanus have "reached into their own pockets to help settle a lawsuit brought by the music and movie industries." Om speculates on a link between settling the lawsuit and getting the Venice Project launched; No further word on the Streamcast or Net2Phone lawsuits. Will be interesting to see if Jeff Pulver can now convince Niklas to attend his Fall VON show; to date Niklas' only North American appearances have been at VON Canada.

WiFi Phone for Skype - Who Are The Real Players Going To Be?: While SMC announced availability of their forthcoming WiFi Phone for Skype at a MSRP of $199, Om uncovers a report saying that the launch of the NetGear version "has been pushed out again and because of the delays, NETGEAR has now lost its exclusive partnership with Skype." If I understand the Certification Program correctly, it sets bars for Skype Certification; however, I have never heard that "exclusive partnerships" are available with Skype. But NETGEAR certainly generated high expectations since their big press launch at CES in January. From the recent Skype press release, it seems like Skype has been working with four hardware partners on WiFi Phones for Skype.

Skype Toolbars Update: Skype finally issued a press release for the complete range of Skype Toolbars; we reported on them when the new releases actually became available at the beginning of July. A hotfix release of the Skype Office Toolbar this week has added support for Visio, Access and Project; the beauty of this particular Toolbar is the ability to transfer the file you are actually working on via Skype's File Transfer in a single step while the file remains open.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BlogHer starts today, perhaps the live blogger event with the least recycled blatfarb and the most human context. In honor of women bloggers everywhere, here's a guest post by Matt responding to our SkypeMe Eve post by Dina Mehta. 

You know, I haven't really given much thought to what it would be like for a woman in skypeme mode, but for myself I put it on when I just want to talk to someone and all my friends are busy. I don't often think of speaking with someone intimately that I don't know in real life, so the idea of meeting someone on skype, or anywhere else on the internet on intimate terms is kind of disconcerting to me, but what I have been thinking about is that the internet has slowly been taking the place of other social avenues.

At one point in time, people looking to find 'true love' as well as people looking to find 'a quick lay' would converge in physical establishments such as bars and clubs, and by being there it was like they were announcing themselves to be open to society (that is to talking with strangers). In such situations the people there would have to gauge what others were after by various signs that the person would make, as an example, if there was a woman sitting in a booth alone quietly, I would assume she wanted to remain that way, however if she were at the bar, I would assume she would be open to company at the bar.

What the internet has done, or so it seems, is to create a new avenue, where individuals have more open and apparent signs about what they are seeking, but at the same time, it has made this internet society be more fake, that is, the internet society can put up false faces very easily and become the person that they want to on that particular day. This means there is a vast separation between 'IRL' and 'IRC' so to speak. People online think less about what sort of person they appear to be, because tomorrow, they can be someone else and no one will know the difference. Perhaps when a woman puts herself in skypeme mode, men viewing that figure they can be completely rude, and have no fear, because even if she doesn't much like it, they can be someone else tomorrow. This is unfortunately a dim outlook for women, but also dim for men, because if society has allowed men to get too the point that they can have those attitudes then where else will society go?

Sorry for the long drawn out comment, but I read your article and gave it quite a bit of thought, something as I stated before that I haven't much done. I am fairly new to the internet, and yet I have already seen some rather crazy things online. I don't know if the internet is where I will choose to find society, and yet with my experiences chatting with people in skypeme mode, I have found many women that I enjoyed conversations with, and few men. Most men I try skyping are either all about the latest videogame, or only in SkypeMe because they are hoping for women to skype them for the reasons which you mentioned above. It seems most women I try skyping are rather nervous that I will simply want to talk about sex or other intimate things, so as far as I can tell this is a real problem.

Perhaps one solution would be a skype rating system, something where you can post a review of someone whom you have had a skype conversation with. A place to mention who is looking for a relaxing conversation and who is looking for phone sex.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We reported last week Skype's been experimenting with radio spots. Here is one spot that played in New York on hip hop station Hot 97.

"With Skype the whole world can talk for free. Skype is a free piece of software that you download at skype dot com. Skype now lets you make calls from your computer to any phone number including cell phones and land lines in the U.S. and Canada for free until the end of the year. That's right, talk as much as you want for free. Skype also lets you make free video and voice calls with other Skype users anywhere in the world. Go to Skype dot come and join over a hundred million people using Skype worldwide. Go to s-k-y-p-e dot com now."

Audio courtesy of Skype's P.R. department.

Let's do the word count: Skype: 8. Free: 5.

Who is Skype reaching on WQHT FM? "50% male - 50% female and primarily 18-34 years old" in the New York tri-state area. "HOT 97 weekly Arbitron audience: 2 Million."

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many of graphics and images that you see in Skype Journal  (including the ones in this post) have been captured using TechSmith's Snag-It. Snag-It has been a core utility for my Windows computing over the past five or six years.  Need to capture an object on your Windows desktop (or your entire desktop)? Snag-It does it and allows you to output it in many ways, including several graphics formats such as jpg, gif and png.

Today I received their monthly newsletter announcing the availability of three Skype profiles:

If you share images during Skype conversations, you know the process involves taking and saving the screen capture, then browsing for, opening, attaching and sending the image file over Skype.

Now, SnagIt has a set of profiles for Skype that allow you to take screen captures and send them immediately to the person you're talking to over Skype - or to any of your other Skype contacts.

More information and the free Skype Profiles download; there is also a video demonstration showing the entire process, including the ability to edit the captured image prior to sending it via Skype's File Transfer.

One more partner in the Skype ecosystem...

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since its introduction at the final Fall Comdex in 2003, I have been following the SightSpeed video communications service as it has evolved into one of the more highly respected personal video calling services. Today they are releasing a new version 5.0; last week I spent an hour talking with Peter Csathey, CEO of SightSpeed, about SightSpeed, its direction and their forthcoming new version.

Peter, who has been CEO since last December, has SightSpeed focused on offering "best-in-class" personal video services. These services are envisioned to come in the form of

• Communications: private, secure video and voice calling communications;
• Community/Content with the introduction of a public directory, video blogging and other user generated content and SightSpeedTV
• Commerce: video-enabled e-commerce,  video mail marketing; "click-to-call" video sales and support.

Previous versions of SightSpeed, a cross-platform service running on both Macs and Windows PC's, have included video calling (with up to four in a conference), video mail messaging, video blogging support, chat and, recently, a beta outbound PSTN service. SightSpeed operates using direct (node-free) peer-to-peer connectivity for 1:1 video and audio calls. Multi-party video conferencing with its additional processing demands passes through a server.

SightSpeed 5.0 fleshes out what Peter calls "a complete personal video services suite", offering several new capabilities;

• New video codec for sharper, crisper video in both 1:1 calls and n:1 (where N<=4) video conferences
• Over 90% dual firewall negotiation (no relays)
• A free PC to PC voice-only calling service (independent from the video service)
• Enhanced Mac support and adoption; their goal is to make the Mac experience be on par with the PC experience.
• Extends video blogging to two minute recording time.
• The outbound PSTN service will come out of beta; they will be adding inbound PSTN calling with DID numbers.
• Usability improvements
• My SightSpeed "click-to-call" buttons launching SightSpeed directly from a website.
• First beta release of SightSpeedTV; allowing viewing of analog TV channels, sourced from a Windows Media PC or TV tuner/video capture card.

One interesting feature of SightSpeed is its ability to adjust to "local user" network conditions. Normally video requires about 384 kbps bandwidth for a clear picture; however, if it determines the local user's situation has degraded it automatically switches to a protocol that works down to 128 kbps. The picture quality degrades slightly in this situation but a viable video and voice conversation can continue; the user does get notification of the change.

SightSpeedTV in its current state is limited to handling live, analog channels; it includes a simple remote control for stepping up and down channels. It is anticipated that it will support digital TV and PVR devices in future releases associated with the release of Windows Vista.

Our discussion then turned to marketing and building a user base. SightSpeed is relying on viral marketing and market partner agreements to build awareness leading to direct sales. In order to encourage experience with their services, the Basic Plan which includes unlimited two party video and voice calling and unlimited 30 second video mail messages is free.

Winning several awards has facilitated the viral aspect; channel partners include hardware vendors (Creative Labs webcams), software vendors (Sonic Roxio) and cable partners such as Telewest and the U.K.'s Virgin Mobile. And, of course, the viral Mac community makes sure that awareness of SightSpeed is generated amongst Mac owners.

I asked Peter if he had any concern about regulatory issues. SightSpeed is tracking the regulatory environment closely; at the moment they are doing the same as Skype in stating they are "not a telephony replacement service and cannot be used to dial 911 or other emergency phone numbers".

While Skype has had a lot of "regulatory visibility" since it is primarily a voice communications service, it is interesting to note that, since SightSpeed's primary focus is on video, their entry into Internet voice calling has gone "below the radar" with respect to regulatory issues. SightSpeed's use of VoIP-based services as an additional feature for its primary service is an ideal example of voice communication serving as an accessory application to another service and not a "phone system replacement".

I closed out my interview by asking Peter about future developments for SightSpeed. Beyond the evolution of SightSpeedTV to support PVR's and digital cable boxes, the most demanded feature is a session recording capability. And some day they hope to offer a SightSpeed client running on mobile devices such as Windows Mobile and Blackberries.

How good is SightSpeed's video? Here's a new (somewhat subjective) test for video quality. Yesterday, to check out Mac performance, I had my daughter install SightSpeed on her MacBook Pro (in a remote city); towards the end of our session she asked to see our dog. While positioning the dog so he could be seen by my webcam, the dog saw her on my laptop screen and tore off into the next room (behind the screen) where my wife reported that he was somewhat agitated and looking around the room for several minutes. Best we can figure out is that he was looking for our daughter, having seen her on the screen. (He does generate a lot of noise whenever he sees animals on our regular TV.)

From a more practical viewpoint, the video quality coming from the MacBook again was crisp with well defined images. My other test is to try it out full screen on my 1650 x 1080 screen; again while not quite as crisp it was certainly viewable without any problems.

Since its launch three years ago SightSpeed has set the bar for video-over-the-net performance; until the actual 5.0 release this evening we cannot do a full comparison with Skype's video on Windows platforms. Being cross-platform, it has attracted a significant base of Mac users; Skype just yesterday released a "preview" ("it's definitely not at beta stage yet"?) release of Skype for Mac that incorporates video.

The launch of SightSpeedTV introduces a new element into the place-shifting game. SlingBox uses a dedicated hardware platform that sits between the TV and cable box and/or PVR to bring personalized cable video to the Internet. SightSpeedTV relies on Windows applications to act as the source from a multi-tasking Windows Media Center PC or TV-tuner equipped Windows platform. In its current configuration SlingBox works with digital cable boxes and PVR's providing access to a wider range of programming (in my case NHL Center Ice and MLB Extra Innings, for instance); also SlingBox allows the remote setting of PVR recording setups. Finally SlingBox provides a full emulation of my specific model of Scientific Atlanta remote control. SightSpeedTV is a "nice-to-have" accessory if you have the appropriate hardware but SightSpeed primarily excels with personal video services and user generated content.

Jeff Pulver refers to 2006 as the Year of Video on the Net; he's even added a second VON show, Video on the Net, to be held at the same time as the Fall VON show in Boston. Skype and SightSpeed will be two of the major players in the personal video communications services space; we are entering interesting times as we watch the evolution of this space. In the meantime, let the SightSpeed Guy have his say.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Expanding Skype's user base beyond "geeks who use softphone clients" is key to Skype's ongoing growth that would justify eBay's $2.6B purchase price.  But the non-geek world is much more familiar with another user interface for its voice communications, namely, the 12-button TouchTone telephone keypad. This interface is associated with that large installed based of traditional telephone handsets incorporating the keypad. So when a device comes along that can effectively connect those phone sets into Skype such that users can dial in a familiar manner but take advantage of SkypeOut in appropriate situations, such as long distance calling,  they deserve an in-depth look. Once they are using Skype for familiar applications, they can learn and experience other applications -- even something as straightforward as "chat".

A plethora of devices is coming onto the scene for using my 12-year old Nortel M9417 dual line phone as the primary telephone handset on my office desktop (wood version). They continue to provide access to my PSTN services in the normal manner yet accessing Skype is as simple as picking up the handset and dialing 00. One such device that makes this possible is the newly released Skype Certified Multi-Link TeleVoIP Stick.

Key criteria for this review are:

• Ease of installation
• Ease of accessing either PSTN or Skype
• Access to Skype features, especially the Skype client
• Ability to run other audio programs (Windows Media Player, iTunes, SlingBox, etc.) while on a Skype call
• Duplication of standard telephone user interface features
  • telephone keypad, dialtone access

The Package comprises:

• the TeleVoIP Stick module (pictured below)
• a 12 VAC Power Supply,
• two audio cables;
• a telephone cord (RJ-11 connector to the Nortel M9417) and
• a CD-ROM with the TeleVoIP Stick software.

Other requirements:

• Installation of the Skype client on a Windows XP PC
• A broadband Internet connection
• A telephone handset that supports DTMF
• A working PSTN line for making standard telephone calls.

Installation is a five-step process:

• Insert the TeleVoIP Stick into the PSTN telephone line using the existing line cord and the supplied telephone cord
• (Remove any existing connection to the headphone/speaker jacks on the PC)
• Connect the TeleVoIP Stick to the headphone/speaker jacks on the PC using the two supplied audio cables
• Connect the headset or mic/speaker combination into the MicOut and SpeakerOut jacks on the TeleVoIP Stick
• Attach the power supply
• Install the TeleVoIP Stick software from the CD-ROM.

The software installation results in a client which sets up speed dial numbers, Call Forwarding and a Settings tab for parameters associated with the user's local calling environment.

Note that, while this setup appears to be physically at the Skype PC location, the actual TeleVoIP Stick hardware can be placed at the PSTN demarcation point in your house or home office. As a result any phone set beyond the demarcation point can work as a "PSTN" phone set for the TeleVoIP Stick installation. In this way as many phone sets as can be powered by the PSTN phone line can use Skype or SkypeOut from a single Skype installation. More on this aspect of TeleVoIP Stick later.

Setup:

Upon completion of the TeleVoIP software installation you will find a new Multi-Link "IP Voice Interface" icon in your System Tray. Right click on it and select Options:

• Restore brings up the TeleVoIP Stick client
• "Toggle PSTN-Skype Bridge" toggles the Call Forwarding feature (described below) On/Off.
• [There is also a Skype Forwarding tab but this feature is now overidden by Skype 2.x's inherent Skype forwarding capability.]

On the client's Call Fowarding tab the user can forward PSTN-originated calls to either a PSTN number or a Skype User. This is a feature that allows someone calling your PSTN phone number to reach you anywhere in the world where you have access to a Skype client whether on your own laptop at a WiFi Hotspot, on a Windows Mobile device or using a U3-enabled Smart Drive in an Internet café/

On the client's Settings Tab the user can:

• Set the number of digits used in local calls (for instance, the Toronto area requires ten digit dialing to access the four "local" area codes)
• Set the emergency number (default is 911)
• Set any digits required to get an outside line from a PBX
• Set a code for accessing all Skype functions using the PSTN phone set as the default audio device (default is 00)
• Set a land line access code (to access the PSTN line for making long distance calls on the user's PSTN plan; default is *9).

You are now ready to start using your PSTN phone handset to make calls on both your PSTN service and Skype.

Operation:

• To call a regular (local) PSTN number pick up the phone and dial in the normal manner (7- or 10-digits, as appropriate); the call will go out over your PSTN line.
• To call 911, pick up the phone and dial 911.
• To dial a North American long distance number, dial 1 plus the ten digit number; the call will automatically go out over SkypeOut. At least until the end of 2006 SkypeOut credits are not needed.
• To call a phone outside North America dial "00" + country code + local number (removing the leading "0" from any area code). For example to call someone on a land line in London, UK dial 004420-nnnn-nnnn. (SkypeOut credits required.)
• To call someone on your Speed Dial list, dial the speed dial number plus "#", such as 24#. To create a conference call with multiple parties who are set up on your Speed Dial, dial nn*nn*nn*nn# where nn is a speed dial number.
• To use the phone set as the speaker/mic for traditional Skype calls, pick up the phone set, dial 00 and then click on the appropriate Skype icon to launch a call (either in the Skype client or via one of the Skype Toolbars).
• On receiving Skype calls, pick up the handset and start talking (or use the headset or speaker/mic combination).
• On receiving PSTN-originated calls, one answers in the normal manner.
• During a call, whether outbound via Skype or SkypeOut or inbound from Skype, there is a button in the TeleVoIP Stick client that allows you to switch between the phone set as the audio device or any speaker/mic/ headset that is connected to the Skype hosting PC during the call.

Comments:

• The TeleVoIP Stick incorporates the ability to transmit the PSTN power appropriately when connected to multiple phone sets at the demarcation point;.
• It also transmits appropriate ringing codes such that when a Skype call comes in all phones in the home and/or home office ring.
• Only if a phone set is located at the PC can one take advantage of operations requiring the use of Skype services such as File Transfer and Chat or access the Skype Toolbars.

Positioning:

• TeleVoIP Stick is ideally suited for setting up the traditional home phone system to be able to
  • take advantage of the reduced cost of SkypeOut calls from any phone set in the home/office
  • accept Skype calls at any phone in the home/office.
  • send Skype calls out to the Internet to be picked up at a remote Skype client
• TeleVoIP Stick provides a familiar telephone touchtone keypad and handset user interface to Skype that does not tie up additional desktop real estate.
• As the TeleVoIP Stick involves incorporation into the home telephone infrastructure, it is best suited for connection to Skype via a desktop PC permanently located in the home.

Conclusions:

• Pros:
  • A device that merges PSTN phone line requirements with access to Skype/SkypeOut calling features
  • Maintains access to 911 and alarm services
  • Forward incoming PSTN calls to anywhere in the world where you have access to a Skype client.
  • Keep the same phone number available for receiving calls.
  • Takes up minimal additional desktop real estate to access Skype calling features via a traditional keypad interface.
  • Relatively simple five-step installation
  • No drivers to install (uses the host PC's sound card)
  • Delivers very high quality audio
• Cons:
  • Only those Skype Contacts who are entered into TeleVoIP Stick's Speed Dial tab can be called from phones located away from the Skype hosting PC.
  • TeleVoIP Stick provides a proxy dialtone on the PSTN phone that is different from the standard dialtone to identify that one is using a Skype-connected phone service. However, the proxy dialtone sound file should be selectable from a set of sound files. I think many would find the dialtone I heard to be objectionable.
  • While you can continue to listen to audio-enabled applications, such as Windows Media Player ("WMP") and SlingBox, while on a Skype call, you would probably want to mute the player's audio while talking on the call. An "auto-mute" feature would be helpful.

In summary, TeleVoIP Stick uses Skype as a PC-based complement to your home/home office phone system that allows you to reduce costs by both directing long distance calls to SkypeOut and by accepting Skype calls at any home/home office phone set. For the road warrior user, the TeleVoIP Stick allows callers to your PSTN phone to reach you wherever you may have Skype access on the Internet. For a phone set located at the Skype hosting PC, TeleVoIP Stick offers additional capabilities such as File Transfer, Presence and Chat without changing your legacy phone number and without disrupting access to essential services such as 911 and alarm systems.

Disclosure: Skype Journal would like to acknowledge the assistance of Multi-Link, Inc. in supporting our travel expenses to attend last month's eBay Developers Conference and eBay Live.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently a couple of posts discussing VoIP Quality:

Om Malik reports on a Brix Networks study, based on data collected on Acceptable Call Quality via their TestYourVoIP.com site.  Note that Brix also announces the availability of this service as a Google Gadget (for Google Desktop) providing ongoing measurement of the quality of your connection for voice and video activities. The study reports an ongoing decline in VoIP Acceptable Call Quality from 84% to about 80% over the period December 2004 to May 2006.

Andy at VoIP Watch found  MyVoIPSpeed Internet Connection Test and was using it as a tool to measure the connection speeds and QoS at the hotel he was staying at. I checked out my own home office connection and got this report:

Om talks in his post about degrading quality of calls received from callers using Vonage. I have been a Packet8 subscriber for almost three years and have found the quality to consistently improve over time to the point where I have minimal problems. I also find I am getting a high quality level with my Skype and SkypeOut calling with one exception: SkypeOut calls to some wireless phone services.  Too much compression/decomprssion going on? first via VoIP, then at the wireless end?

I also ran the Brix TestYourVoIP and got a MOS score of 4.2, close to the MyVoIPSpeed result shown above of 4.0. The tests appear to have some level of consistency across the tests and do appear to reflect the quality of calls that I am experiencing.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

See the Mac 1.5 Beta announcement. BETA release: 1.5.0.48. Also: Interface refresh, import contacts from Apple's Address book or Entourage, more languages (French, Spanish, German, traditional Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch), support for presence and SkypeMe buttons, and Mac starter packs. For OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer. The last minor update was May 11, and the last major update (1.4) was in January 2006. Download the Mac 1.5 beta.

Correction: (Thanks, Ryan) Video calling is only in version 1.5.0.47. 47 is the same as 48, but it has the only-modestly-tested video component added. Read about the video preview or download the preview. Known video issues from the Change Log:

• CPU load is very high when in a video call
• Skype has to be restarted in order to detect a new camera
• Problems when video preferences are opened during a video call
• Delays when enabling video, and when video call is resumed
• Pausing a call in full-screen mode closes the full-screen window
• If video is stopped while in a call with a Windows user, the call has to be restarted for the video to work properly

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

BusinessWeek broke the story of Skype's founders launching a TV net distribution biz as a venture separate from Skype. Not known if it will be in the eBay family, but Zennstrom and Friis will remain 100% and 80% at Skype, respectively. It is code named "The Venice Project," not likely related to a 1999 time travel movie about the arts of that name (Lauren Bacall, Dennis Hopper, and a large cast split between modern Venice, California, and an earlier Venice, Italy.) Om Malik says "we told you so." So do we. Skype Journal wrote in January that Skype's ringtone relationships would lead to music, television, and movie distribution. Then with Warner Music, now with EMI Music Publishing.

This isn't good for eBay. The way they are organizing The Venice Project, as a separate venture, may conflict with eBay's strategy to use Skype as a platform to make markets for intangibles. We live in a service economy but eBay makes its living making markets for atoms. One SkypeBayPal vision extends their community and market-making excellence to paid live and time-shifted conversation. Not just video files and streams, but one-to-one education, consulting, information services, and entertainment. And eBay's budding alliance with Hollywood loving Yahoo! could easily fuel an eBay entertainment distribution channel with alliances and content. While the Venice Project could build on Skype and eBay, it doesn't look like there will be direct business or technical connections to the mother ship. eBay's loss.

Meg won the fight for Skype's soul: Skype will be an eBay enabler (as opposed to revolutionizing conversation, work, and entertainment as we know it). Skype's new management is building Skype's community and eBay's sales in 2006 and 2007. Given that direction, could The Venice Project be an outlet for the founders' broader vision? Or just a simple thrust at a gobsmackingly huge market? Either way, it's almost always faster to build your skunkworks outside the behemoth.

Rafat Ali says N & J should talk with Masayoshi Son about his plans in this space. Ars Technica's Anders Bylund points to the founders' bizdev power as key to partnering with TV studios and producers. Mathew Ingram thinks TV execs must be ready to dive in since they are living with industry disruption. Not to mention the worst ratings ever.

Two years's from now? Imagine TVP launches in January, gets 100 million people in 2007 who want to watch TV on their PCs and mobiles. Brings a little long-tail to the game, so you can always find something to watch and an audience for nearly anything. Restores social elements to watching television on your PC (think Skypecasts for sporting events). If effective, it could easily add one more nail into advertising-based TV's ratings, stealing attention from cable and satellite delivered television. Who loses? Other television distribution channels, like cable and satellite. What kind of content and viewer lock-in can TVP secure against the Comcasts who will surely copy TVP's business models? 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What does the Internet mean to you? How will you celebrate it on Friday, 22 September 2006? Join me and many others in sharing the web with friends, family, neighbors and strangers on One Web Day.

For this year's OWD, I want to share the joy of internet calling, so I need a One Web Day project. Would it be cool to pledge to skype 22 strangers to say hello, introduce myself, and wish them a happy One Web Day? Or maybe going to a local school and teaching the IT person about Skype and setting up a language lab with Skype and headsets? Or scheduling greetings with my mayor and city council to express my enthusiasm for net neutrality and protecting the Internet? I'll make up my mind by month end, so please speak up now.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The gambling and telecom industries are both very effective at lobbying the American congress to raise barriers protecting their cash cows and starving innovative startups. Mike at Techdirt writes about the new U.S. ban on online gambling. All it will do is drive online gamblers underground, virtual casinos offshore, and the whole industry out of the reach of regulators, taxation, consumer affairs and law enforcement.

Who benefits? Offline gambling.

Doesn't this smell just like the incumbent-protecting legislation pushed by the telecom and cable lobbies?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype for Outlook Toolbar has become one of my key tools in day-to-day communications. In fact, I am at the point where I seldom actually "dial" a phone number; just look it up in Outlook Contacts, click on the Toolbar and click on the relevant "phone" number to launch a Skype or SkypeOut call..In his post on GizmoProject's All Calls Free offering, Alec Saunders says: "At iotum, Steve Lecomte and Julien Raynal, who spend lots of time on the phone, are using Skype for business calls.  Integrated with the Outlook Toolbar, it's a natural, since most of our calls are North American."

Peter Kalmström, Skype's Toolbar Program Manager, has written an informative post on how to launch conference calls across both Skype and SkypeOut using the Skype for Outlook Toolbar in any of three scenarios:

1. Select any meeting - you will see a conference button on it

2. From an email - starting an ad-hoc conference call with all the cc:s etc of an email

3. By selecting more than one Outlook contact in your contacts folder

Also works with the Toolbars for Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

The best part about using Skype for conference calling is not receiving a $200 bill from a legacy telco for a five person one hour conference call as recently as four or five years ago! The biggest challenge for Skype is getting a significant base of their users to realize they can easily do multi-party conference calling at little or no cost.

Note that there are Hotfix releases of each Toolbar put out this past week to fix some minor issues.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few items this week:

Cynthia Blumfield an analyst blogger at IP & Democracy, demonstrates how Skype is on the path to $200 million in revenue in 2006 when revenue per registered user increases by $0.02 per quarter for the remainder of the year. (Hat tip to Andy.)

In response to an email from one of his readers that starts out with "Why are so many people in the VoIP sphere excited by business models with negative gross margin.....", Jon Arnold asks where is the business model with GizmoProject's All Calls Free "offering":; he makes a point of not calling it a plan or program. (When I was in the software business in the early 90's, I recall that competition would be so intense amongst dealers such that many dealers would respond to large volume RFP's with "zero margin" pricing on popular software such as MS Office suites. They made their profit on the marketing development funds ["MDF's"] provided by the software publisher. Key here is to understand that dealers would buy from distributors but get the MDF's from the software publisher. However, in the telecomm wholesale business, there is no up-channel "buffer" business entity paying out MDF's.)

Janko Roettgers at P2P Blog comments on how Cringely doesn't get Skype since he makes incorrect assumptions about the roles of supernodes and "online Skype nodes. (Cringley's original post on Skype's scalability: The Skype is Falling.) Janko concludes: "I don't know how scalable Skype really is. But if it does break one day, it definitely won't be because of overwhelmed supernodes that can't handle all those chatty users."

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came across this recipe in the bottom of a drawer...

Bittersweet mashed telco business model compote -- Serves 6 billion

Ingredients:

1. Legacy telco 800 number business.
2. Parasitical Internet payment subsidiary.
3. Large e-commerce hub.
4. Merchant base looking to increase revenues.
5. Rapidly growing private voice network.

Directions:

• Create new intermediary 800 number, 1-800-VIA-EBAY.
• Create namespace for extensions, e.g. "PLUMBER" is 7586347 on your phone keypad.
• Get users to register their phone numbers; send SMS or callback to verify and enter activation code.
• Get users to register bank and credit card payment details with your payment subsidiary.
• Ask users to fill in profile details such as demographics, address, etc.
• Encourage users to set up a PIN.
• Incentivise advertisers to use your 800 number system.
• Simply forward calls from unknown/anonymous callers straight to the merchant at no charge.
• Mediate calls from known numbers. Offer a "merchant edition" call receiving suite. Make exchange of profile data and transactions instant, anonymous and secure. Request user PIN where appropriate.
• Charge merchants for higher close-out rate, better personalisation of product targeting, transaction fees etc.
• Use PC telephony subsidiary to enable higher-quality multi-modal alternative access mechanism.

Scoop out telco revenue, place in serving dishes, share among yourselves.

Martin cooks at TelepocalypticKitchen.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the challenges of entering the VoIP consumer space is to simply sign up users; so how do you match up the fact that Skype has over 100 million registered users (even if only max 7 million, and climbing, are on Skype at any given time)?

A lot of posts yesterday about Gizmo Project's newly announced "All Calls Free" program whereby registered GizmoProject users can make free calls from GizmoProject to  either VoIP or PSTN phones, provided both parties are registered GizmoProject users. At the right is the resulting right click menu for individual contacts.

The genius in this program is the attempt to drive market awareness virally by getting all your (PC- and headset-equipped) friends and family to sign up for GizmoProject and experiment with it. You then have the option of calling them at no charge; they can receive the call on either the GizmoProject softphone or their legacy PSTN phones. However as Mark Evans states in his post, "Telco Hell":

"The idea of free calls will no doubt appeal to the bleeding and leading edge who have no concerns about using software and computers rather than traditional telephones. For the mainstream, the Gizmo Project is probably difficult to grasp."

Alec Saunders, in his post, Gizmo "Friends and Family" concludes:

"If you primarily call North American numbers, for now Skype is a better offering. It's really free. It may not always be, since free calling is supposed to be a promotion. If you make lots of calls overseas, depending on where you call, Gizmo may be a better offering (if you can get your friends and family to sign up for it)."

Om Malik, in "Voice Now Nearly Free", speculates on the business model: "

"This free voice movement had me thinking - what kind of a loss is acceptable to these companies? Though it is hard to get a straight answer, Jajah officials say they can make up all the losses in premium services such as scheduled conference calling, or other such services."

The limitation for GizmoProject's "All Calls Free", as Mark implies, is that the party initiating the call needs to be using a PC with a headset (or equivalent USB audio device). This highlights the thinking behind Skype's decision to launch a hardware certification program which has resulted in devices that let a much broader user base of non-geek users effectively "add" Skype to their current phone services. Devices such as VoIPvoice's Cyberphone and UConnect or Multi-Link's TeleVoIP Stick.that provide links between traditional telephone keypads and Skype, And, of course, the forthcoming Skype for WiFi phones eliminate the need for a PC.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

If you have ever used Google Language tools to help understand or communicate in another language then with this Skype Add-on is for you.

Sadly, the product's name, (makes me sound like a robot or someone speaking with a mouth full of marbles ULRTMT v2.6 (Beta) - Universal Language Real-Time Message Translator), does a great disservice to this very useful utility. It is simply marvelous.

I certainly could have used this last week while I was in Buenos Aires. I had only one Spanish word in my vocabulary, which turned out to be more than most Argentineans had in English. Did I ever feel lost!
If you get that same lost feeling in some Skype Chats you will want to have this tool as a short cut on your desktop.

ULRTMT is a beta product, a politically correct term in Skypeland to describe shit. But there were no obvious bugs during my trials. The install needs to be simplified. If you try to install it without studying the instructions (yes study, don't just read and click) you will be embarrassed like I was. The user interface is cluttered and non-intuitive. None the less, it is worth the pain.

A simple use case
Let's look at a simple use. There are many different Use Cases from one on one, multi-languages in a multi-chat, to translating old chats.

1. Start by deciding the language you want for the Skype Chat window. I chose English.
2. In my test scenario I took the role of a Spanish speaker, while ZOverLord (the developer) took the role of an English speaker. So for this scenario I set the translation language field to "English to Spanish".
3. I selected the current Skype Chat that I wanted to participate in, i.e. translate my Spanish into English.
4. I typed my Spanish text into the lower left Window below the instruction bar says: "Type Spanish only below, and press the Enter key to send"

All my Spanish text (Hola Bill, ¿puedes traducir esto?) was translated into English and appeared in the Skype Chat Window as English. Sweet.

Language pairs:

English to Arabic BETA
English to Chinese (Simplified) BETA
English to Chinese Traditional
English to Dutch
English to French
English to German
English to Greek
English to Italian
English to Japanese BETA
English to Korean BETA
English to Portuguese
English to Russion
English to Spanish

Don, the developer prefers his Skype Forum name, ZOverlord. He hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a retired Tandem Computers consultant.

Great product concept Don! Thank you. Please go polish it off before starting your next project of creating a version for Skype SMS.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (2)

In a press release issued today, Skype announced "collaboration with [four] hardware partners to deliver the first WiFi phones for Skype(TM) software, making Internet calling on the move a reality". Basically these devices will eliminate the need for a PC to make Skype calls in a "authorization-free" WiFi-enabled environment. Sounds like we may finally see the mildly overdue offering from NETGEAR but they will have some competition.

Andy at VoIP Watch comments: "Unfortunately, the phones remain only useful with open hotspots and do not provide the ability to be used on services supplied by T-Mobile, Boingo or The Cloud." I can add Bell Mobility (who provide service at Starbucks' Canadian locations) and Rogers Hotspots in Canada to the list.

The easy to use devices come with everything built-in to connect to Skype via any personal, business or free public WiFi access point that does not require browser authentication. The phones are extremely easy to set-up and use with automatic synchronization to a Skype account and contacts. The devices support common WiFi encryption protocols including WEP, WPA, and WPA2 with PSK support.

So while at home or visiting friends, businesses and Internet cafés with freely accessible (but hopefully encrypted) WiFi, these could be useful devices.  But, with the browser-based authentication required by most hotels, I'll still be using my PC to make Skype calls to bypass hotel switchboards while on the road.

We look forward to the chance to evaluate these units when available in the fall.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype announced four WiFi phones today. Mobility for Skype user got a real boost with this news. And just maybe this will be the spark that will wake up the Skype Market in the US.

We saw these at CeBit show, but now they are real. All four come preloaded with Skype.

Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype (F1PP000GN-SK)

Edge-Core WiFi Phone for Skype (WM4201)

NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype (SPH101)

SMC Wi-Fi Phone for Skype (WSKP100)

Check out the Skype store for more info. Maybe even buy one. I will.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype ran a few radio commercials in the San Francisco Bay Area in the last few weeks. So far I've confirmed KFOG, easy listening, and KQED, a public radio station. I've only heard the fifteen second KQED spot, a simple description of skyping.

Meanwhile, Skype's U.S. channel partners need marketing help now for their fall advertising. In interviews they're telling us, and presumably Skype, they need previews of marketing messages, design themes, audio/video/flash elements, research, planned media placement, and anything else to help them sell Skype-related goods in their back-to-school and Christmas campaigns. At least one mentioned wanting to piggy-back their own ads to run at the same stations and time slots as Skype's ads. It's not clear if Skype will budget co-operative or co-branded advertising funds.

Skype makes money by licensing their "Skype Certified" logo to selected hardware sellers.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

From today's Form 10-K:

"Communications net revenues totaled $44 million in Q2-06, representing a 26% increase from the $35 million reported in Q1-06."

The trend: large but linear. Skype's net transaction revenues six months' ago were $24.8 million (q4-2005). Linear growth means Skype's viral spread is offset by switching to a rival or people just dropping out.

The number of Skype accounts is growing slower than revenue.

Registered Users -- Communications had a cumulative total of 113 million registered users at the end of Q2-06, representing a 20% increase from the 95 million in Q1-06. Communications registered users represent the number of unique user accounts created on Skype.

So Skype is picking up about 6 million accounts monthly, worldwide. Now any other new softphone would kill and get VC money for numbers like this. But Skype is shooting for 200 million accounts by year end. At this rate they'll only make 149 million.

How about U.S. growth? 86% of Skype's revenue remained international, down a hair from 87%. This just means that Skype's growth in the United States, the great untapped market, is matched elsewhere. Let's assume 86% of the new accounts are international, just like the revenue. This means Skype's been picking up 840,000 new US users per month. Big in absolute terms but small as a percent of all US people online or even eBay customers. The U.S. market will need a promotional shove to grow faster and catch up.

Do you think the North American challenge may have factored in promoting Henry Gomez, former eBay Chief Marketing Officer, to be Skype's CMO? Or in offering the promotion of free SkypeOut in Canada and the States until year end?

Technorati Tags: skype, ebayinc, ebay inc, financials, statistics

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I had a quick conversation earlier today with a vendor who was sitting in the departure lounge at SFO airport waiting for a flight. He is based in the UK, and this is roaming on a US network.

Here's how the sequence of interactions went.

1. He calls my SkypeIn number.
2. I get an incoming call from a UK cellular number. Assume a UK-based caller.
3. I don't have my headset plugged in, or Skype set up to use my USB headset instead of default Windows settings. Scabble around to retrieve headset, plug in, configure.
4. I call his number back, it goes to voicemail. He hasn't answered me.
5. A minute later, I've got a new voicemail in Skype from him. He gives his context and contact details.
6. I call him back, he answers.

There are lots of places here where the telephony user experience broke.

Firstly, Skype's device management is a total mess. I need to be able to tell Skype my #1 preference is for my USB headset, second choice is the USB handset I'm trying out. I want to set the PC built-in microphone to "never", as I don't have any such device; and my laptop doesn't have a built-in microphone.

I should be able to take the call in Skype and then plug in my headset. In the meantime, Skype can play a message that says "The person you have called doesn't have a headset plugged in, but has answered the call. Please hold." The message would also be played in other appropriate languages to the country of the caller/callee. Elaborate as necessary to create ultimate experience.

Next, the voicemail I was left had a caller ID, but not a name or company. We need next-gen caller ID.

Furthermore, the contact details he dictated were rather hard to understand; he's calling from a cell phone, and has a name that's not exactly "Bob Smith". And that's from someone with the same southern English accent as myself, let alone something harder to decode. So we need a "calling card" system, too.

The UK number failed to convey the actual context of the caller and the time zone he is in.

The whole sequence around me interrupting someone who is trying to leave a voicemail to myself is a farce. In this case, Skype was in a position to fix it. When I call a number of someone who is already leaving me a voicemail, it should immediately give me the option to connect to that person directly.

Naturally, if he'd got on the plane before I called back and turned his mobile off, I'd want to know that before having a pointless interaction with his voicemail system. In-person, or nothing at all, please.

One final observation. In the world of IMS [Editor: a software platform for telephone companies], his roaming would probably mean that the US telco would have to be involved in supporting a whole bunch of these advanced features. My prognosis: ain't gonna happen. A few hundred lines of code in a software client over the Internet, or a few billion dollars of network kit to add QoS? Any guesses where the future lies? Answers on the back of a large denomination note to the usual address, please.

UPDATE: One last thought. If voicemail was just a mailbox with an API and a bunch of ID/authentication, then it'd make far more sense for his message to be recorded locally on the handset with a quality audio codec and then uploaded at leisure over the network without jitter and QoS issues than pretending "everything's a circuit".

Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past week there were a couple of news items about video communications services:

• Out of Japan, Novac has released a product, Skype TV, that lets you stream your TV across Skype video. More commentary from Gizmodo.
• Last Monday came news about the forthcoming SightSpeedTV, a new feature to be included in SightSpeed's next release at the end of the month.

But moving beyond the place-shifting domain, last week I had a demonstration of Tele3DWorld from Mellanium, a 3D design and modeling studio. Using 3D texture rendering CAD software with output via a video capture card, they have Skype or SightSpeed recognize it as a webcam for video.

One of the people behind this has already used it on a sales call for the remote dynamic 3D presentation of a new anode metal refining furnace where different types of refractory brick are used within the furnace depending on the high temperature profiles.. Using this tool, Joe was able to walk his customer through the interior of the proposed furnace, zeroing in on critical heat sensitive areas and showing how they have addressed issues related to the different types of brick. In another demonstration, he walked me through a tour of a proposed palliative care unit; a third demonstration is a walk around tour of a WWII Spitfire bomber, initially drawn up in AutoCAD.

In the course of my experience with desktop sharing or web conferencing services, one frustration has been the inability of web conferencing products to do 3D CAD viewing in real time within the desktop sharing tool sets due to the intense real time graphics demands. With video configurations such as demonstrated by Mellanium perhaps we can see this methodology become the standard for this business requirement.

Bottom line: Personal video services, such as Skype's video and SightSpeed will eventually deliver more than basic video calling. They will require either special hardware (Novac) or TV-tuner-equipped PC's, such as Windows Media PC's (Mellanium and SightSpeed) as the video source. Obviously the creative juices are flowing in developing webcam emulations that can flow video through Skype and SightSpeed.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)