Skype for Mac 2.5 Goes Gold
Last day for 50% discount on North American Unlimited Plan
Skype for Business Updated

Skype for Mac 2.5 went Gold this morning; download it here. It brings Skype for Mac much closer to the feature set of Skype 3.0 for Windows. Key points:

• Send SMS messages to any mobile phone worldwide
• Host conference calls with up to nine other participants
• Takes full advantage of the built in webcams on recent Macs with upgraded video (one-to-one calls only); SightSpeed remains the market leader for multi-party video conference calls.
• Added a birthday reminder feature (which requires the Pamela Call Recorder for Skype for Windows users).

Also, if you are located in the U.S. or Canada note that today is the last day to get a 50% discount on the North American Unlimited Calling Plan. So while the link will remain live, expect those US$14.95 per year sunshine spots to disappear tonight.

Monday, Skype surpassed 9 million users online for the first time. Jaanus gets kudos for tracking this milestone.

Finally, last week Skype announced new features for Skype for Business; according to the press release this includes:

• easy installation on multiple computers within an enterprise
• via Skype Control Panel, allocate SkypeOut credits to individual users while providing a consolidated overview

Partner offerings include Unyte's Desktop Sharing (more information in a story later this week), Convenos web conference and collaboration service and the ACD Call-Centre offering from On-State. These are all available for trials via Skype's Extras Gallery.

We hope to have a more in-depth review of Skype for Business shortly. I have been constantly amazed at the number of Skype "business" stories that have come to us; we certainly would be willing to share your experience to provide more real life cases. Skype has issued a press release on one case.

Other bloggers' comments on Skype for Business:

• SaundersLog
• Skype for Business Isn't Taking Messages (thanks to Andy at VoIP Watch for the link)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype Journal is proud to sponsor the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference for its second year.  

The speaker list and program are infinitely more cutting edge than any other VoIP conference on the calendar.

Skype Journal friends and contributors will be there.

• Martin Geddes will deliver a Wake-Up Call to Telcos.
• Lee Dryburgh on Auto-Buddies: Connecting Relevant Strangers.
• Equals' Ajay Madhok on How Consumer Identity Powers the Next Telecom Wave.
• Iotum's Alec Saunders, TalkPlus' Jeff Black and GrandCentral's Craig Walker ask is Telephone 2.0 for Real?
• Kaliya Hamlin on Empowering People and the Coming Identity Layer of Everything.
• Phil Zimmermann on encrypting live conversations.

I'll be there too.

Remember, when you register for ETel, use the code etel07fnf40 for 40% off.

Technorati tags: etel, events, skype, skypejournal, conferences, etel07, iotum, equals, voice2.0, telco2.0, digitalidentity, News,

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

24. Jack Bauer stops a world war by Skyping the President's sister with vital information he tortures from an eBay customer. Terrorists fail to crack Skype's crypto.

Lost. An Internet kiosk washes up on the beach, glowing in the night, on the Internet yet running without power or connectivity. Sadly, it only runs Skype and all calls for rescue are answered by echo123. Eerie sound effects.

Veronica Mars. Campus sleuth Veronica drops her Sidekick in favor of a Wi-Fi hybrid with Skype. Notices strange mood messages to prove a prostitution ring is running out of the drama department. Hands over the madam's Skype contacts to the inept sheriff.

Stargate SG-1. The team lands on the first planet out of hundreds where -- gasp -- none of the natives speak American English. Carter leaves behind a laptop with Skype and translation software so they can chat with Stargate Command. In French.

East Enders. Using Skype on a pub computer, the regulars take turns making prank calls, failing to make themselves understood to English speakers. Anywhere. Even with translation software.

The Sopranos. Tony's crew muscles a hacker to bling-up Skype phones for their wives. The feds force the hacker to install a wiretap plug-in, but he becomes landfill.

Monk. The obsessive compulsive detective wants to Skype but can't bring himself to touch the filthy keyboard.

When Will I Be Famous? Graham Norton announces you can get on his talent show by just Skyping in. Skype Video's high resolution, frame rate, and audio quality don't improve the quality of the performances.

Ugly Betty and Yo Soy Betty La Fea. Betty deploys Skype, saving the fashion magazine a fortune on phone bills. She quits her job as a the president's secretary and makes a fortune for her family by selling Skype tones for Armani, Ralph Lauren, Versace and Manolo Blahnik.

Seventh Heaven. The Reverends Camden Skype with God. God sends Skype credits to Darfur victims.

Footballers' Wives. Who's that sket you're Skyping?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you noticed Skype "growing up" its look? It's been gradual, introduced in some of this winter's local calling promotions. Co-marketing partners were told to fold new design guidelines into packaging, merchandising, and tradeshow art in the last week.

Skype's brand ranked seventh worldwide (in one unscientific study), beating out Ikea, Coca Cola and (gasp) eBay. But in the US and Canada, neither Skype nor eBay make the top ten. Skype hasn't ever made the US+Canada Brand Channel Readers' Choice rankings.

Skype needed to tinker with their winning brand. Skype is bigger at three years' old, more corporate, walks among telecom titans. Skype is also positioning itself for the workplace and the United States. It's natural to nudge the still young brand away from the adolescent. 

Skype leaves behind two visual elements from its marketing palette and adds two.

Skype is losing Akbar, the handwriting font inspired by The Simpsons cartoon. They are also retiring Skype's colorful dialog bubbles.

Skype is keeping white space, its color palette and the clean, modern, sans-serif Chalet Book typeface, developed by Rene Albert Chalét.

Skype adds clouds and line drawings of skylines, sounds, and exuberance carved into or growing from those clouds.

Beyond looks, Skype's tagline is changing to "Take a deep breath." This inches the brand away from low cost toward value add. What do you do with your saved money? Talk more, and more freely. It also emphasizes the conversation more than the network carrying it. I like this clever and appropriate reframing.

Technorati tags: skype, ebay, ebayinc, brand, brands, marketing, markets, marcom, advertising, promotion, clouds, akbar, simpsons, chalet book, chaletbook, font, fonts, type, typefaces, voip, tagline, takeadeepbreath

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Shiny Media's Susi Weaser shows Star Wars toys that double as as a USB Skype phone (the light saber even has a keypad in the handle) and a webcam (R2D2 robot). You use the light saber to control the robot's rolling around. Could be hot for next fall's holiday gift season. Reminds me of Spyke.

Ike Roelfsema thinks they're blogworthy too.

Technorati tags: video, webcam, starwars, skype, skypephone, usb, lightsaber, saber, sword, robot, r2d2, skypeout, gifts, toys, toy

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To: Meg Whitman,
CEO, eBay

That was quite the quarterly report; lots of good news. Congratulations to the entire eBay team (including Skype, of course). But there is the Skype monetization issue to address. Following up on my other post Wednesday, I think I found one way to contribute to this while at CES. Bottom line: it can bring in more Skype registrations of eBay members (@ $0.38 Skype revenue per account per quarter), increase the fun and enthusiasm associated with participating in eBay auctions while minimizing desktop real estate and probably is the most virally intuitive way to justify the Skype acquisition.

In Wednesday's post I drew attention to the eBay Tab for Skype available for eBay U.S. members. It has significant usability issues and definitely results in a negative user experience. You mentioned in the analyst conference call Wednesday that priorities for 2007 include a focus on improving the user experience and experimenting with Skype to increase the fun and excitement associated with an auction. (BTW, Jordan Banks, Managing Director for Canada, at a presentation in Toronto last night, reinforced that theme when he talked about the importance of understanding user behavior and finding an action point within 2 clicks.)

One of your eBay and Skype developer partners, Germany-based PamConsult, has already developed a solution. (Their Pamela-Systems Call Recorder is ranked third in terms of Skype Extras Downloads.) In fact, their eBay Skype Tab has been licensed by eBay Germany and eBay France with other major eBay subsidiaries upcoming. Based on the slide show of screen shots below enhanced by an accompanying video and a discussion with one of the principles of PamConsult at CES, their eBay Tab for Skype:

• provides a positive user experience,
• allows an eBay member to carry out ALL their major eBay activities within a Skype Tab and
• basically elevates their eBay activity to the level of Skype IM activity within the Skype client both in terms of delivering real time information and creating a truly interactive experience
• has the potential to virally drive Skype subscriptions by eBay members.

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The user experience provided by this version of an eBay Skype Tab brings to the table:

• a user login that is accessible and visible -- note the same screen also shows the day's top auctions
• an eBay search capability for logged-in members
• complete item descriptions with the Tab itself (no need to open a web browser)
• a bid confirmation screen
• real time notification of the upcoming end of an auction
• options for user determined parameters
• as well as access to My eBay
• appeals directly to both buyers and sellers (whereas SkypeMe buttons are targeted at sellers to install on their listings)

To provide a more real time experience (pardon the German but you get the flavor):

Bottom line is that all eBay members can participate interactively in the full eBay auction process within the Skype client, obtain real time information and switch quickly between eBay and Skype activities. Did I mention it also saves on desktop real estate? And, most importantly, it has viral potential.

Merging and integrating acquisitions is not trivial; been there, participated in that! But, aside from generating more revenue for both Skype and eBay, this situation demonstrates: the developers of a product must be passionate about what they are doing. The Pamela team understands both eBay and Skype infrastructure as well as the Skype and eBay user cultures in a way that would take months if not years for an internal synergy between eBay and Skype to develop. (I have had experience with situations where "big" companies thought they could do a better job than a dedicated solution provider on an infrastructure task and eventually came back to the solution provider to get the job done right.) And it did not go unnoticed that this solution has been licensed by the two eBay European subsidiaries whom you highlighted in the analyst conference call Wednesday.

Let me do a calculation associated with monetization: Skype generates $0.38 per registered account per quarter (~$1.52 per year). With 97 million eBay U.S. members that represents a minimum sustainable market size of $148 million for Skype. Now, if one could just raise the revenue per registered account! Or considering the North American Unlimited Plan, at $29.95 per year, the market size to consider booms to over $1.4B!

BTW, PamConsult was participating in the AMD booth demonstrating eBay auctions (including bidding, notifications, etc.) through a set top box connected to a Windows Media Center PC. Imagine eBay auctions for the SuperBowl championship clothing immediately after the game!

Have a great Weekend-Before-SuperBowl!

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

50% Discount for Skype North America Unlimited Plan Expires Next Thursday (Jan 31)

This morning I was reviewing my SkypeOut usage and noticed these two lines:

The phone number associated with them was my mobile phone number. SkypeOut calls to other phone numbers in North America had no charge associated with them. I am a subscriber to the Skype North American Unlimited Plan. As a result I had to conclude these two items were Call Forwarded calls for which I have been charged for both the new connection fee at C$0.059 plus one minute @C$0.024.

Skype needs to clarify its policy as to what is included within the North American Unlimited Calling Plan and how it handles Call Forwarded calls. (Update Jan. 29: finally found it way down amongst the FAQ's here; this should be given more visibility, perhaps in the text under the Call Forwarding link on the NA Plan Overview page). Obviously SMS messages still have charges; they always did during the "free North American calling" promotion last year.

Just a reminder that the 50% discount for the North American Unlimited Plan expires next Thursday, January 31, 2007. But if you sign up between now and then, ensure the 50% discount is applied to what you are paying. I had one report today of someone being charged C$35.00 vs the discounted C$17.50 I was charged back in December when I signed up. Seems like Skype's billing system is not synced to an appropriate reference atomic clock (link requires Java).

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

You don't need to know Portuguese to see this short (1:40) connectivity test using the QTEK 9100 smart phone connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and running Skype.

fernandofcastro via YouTube: "Teste de conectividade (voz sobre IP), utilizando um QTEK 9100 conectado na internet via wi-fi e o programa SKYPE." 

Technorati tags: qtek, 9100, wi-fi, skype, voip, video, demo, qtek9100, skypejournal

correction: Sorry for the "QTel" typo. Qtek Corp makes phones, while Qtel is Qatar's exclusive telecommunications provider. Sorry for the confusion.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Phil and I listened in on the eBay conference call this afternoon; obviously announcing a successful quarter and year for eBay as a company and by several measures for Skype.. Some of the highlights, especially with respect to Skype:

• If we heard it once, we heard it multiple times: the number one challenge for Skype is monetization and the associated drive to develop new sources of revenue. The one Q4-06 "downer" was the lower than expected monetization of Skype. For the full year Skype brought in $192MM revenue (against what has been thought to be a target of $200MM).

• eBay CEO Meg Whitman expressed as the major achievement for Skype during the quarter the market share lead they had built up within the VoIP competitive space and how the gap between Skype and the others was growing.

• Notice within those numbers how the quarter-to-quarter SkypeOut usage doubled in Q4 to 400 million minutes from the 200 million minute growth of the previous three quarters. Was some of this the full impact of free SkypeOut in North America resulting from increased North American subscriptions?

• They feel that SkypeMe buttons are showing success both through increased conversion rates by eBay sellers who use SkypeMe and increased SkypeMe availability for over 150 categories in 20 markets. Basically they are letting eBay sellers determine if and when they introduce SkypeMe and letting the viral feedback from successful outcomes drive adoption.

• One of eBay's overall priorities for 2007 is to improve the user experience. To this end they transferred an executive from Germany to manage the auction business. One of his goals is to increase the fun and excitement of the auction business; including "experimenting with Skype". (In my second post tomorrow on an eBay-Skype viral opportunity I'll be including one recommendation.)

• Over 25% of Skype's payments are now coming through PayPal. As an aside, in response to a question about Google CheckOut's impact, Meg mentioned how the publicity for Goolge CheckOut had actually given a bump to market leader PayPal in both users and transactions. She also mentioned how PayPal has many more ways to make payments than Google CheckOut which she described as a wrapper for Visa and MasterCard.

• In response to one question on Skype's incorporation into Google Pack, Meg described how Google had taken an agnostic view of the best features of the web in coming up with an introductory package of products and services for "newbies' to get acquainted with what one can do on the web.

Overall 2007 goals for eBay included:

• improving the user experience through a better integrated experience, simplified sites for buyers and improved ease-of-use and voice quality for Skype
• extending their leadership position in all businesses
• continue to innovate
• apply financial discipline

Two indications of eBay's financial health and confidence in the business were (i) increased guidance to investors for 2007 and (ii) expanding their share buyback program to double its initial goal of $2 billion.

Now if they would just eat their own dog food and do their next quarterly conference call using Skypecast or one of their partner's conferencing services!

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Per the pre-conference call, Skype:

164% YOY growth net revenues

• Q4-2006 $66 million (91 days)
• Q4-2005 $25 million (75 days of operations - from the acquisition date of October 14, 2005 through end of Q4-05)

129% YOY growth registered users: More than 380 thousand new users every day in Q4.

• Q4-2006 171 million, 35 million new accounts in the quarter
• Q4-2005 75 million users

Other highlights

• 32 billion minutes of Skype conversation in 2006. [Correction: an earlier version of this post read "2005" instead of "2006". 2006 is correct.]
• China growth high; try-before-you-buy promotions a hit.
• Working to improve the quality, so bought Sonorit.
• 2007 Skype goals: more users, more partners, expanding the product, ease of use, voice quality.
• eBay-wide goals: better user experience. improving security.
• Skype Me buttons now in 150 categories and in most countries. Positive feedback from sellers on sales conversion rates.

Technorati tags: skype, stats, statistics, financials, ebay, ebayinc, skypejournal, chart, minutes

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever since eBay's acquisition of Skype sixteen months ago, speculation has abounded on why the acquisition and, more importantly, what synergies exist for integrating eBay, (PayPal) and Skype.  While we have seen stabs at eBay "SkypeMe" buttons for premium auctions and a PayPal button in the Skype Outlook Toolbar, nothing has really taken hold virally with eBay users. In fact, Ken Camp has taken issue with eBay's entire Skype strategy, stating that Skype has become just another phone company, questioning the entire deal. On the other hand I am seeing the number of Users Online, Skype's most telling statistic, increase -- to the point where this morning (EST) over 8.8 million users were online. (We should have some further guidance on North American usage from eBay's quarterly report due out this afternoon.)

At Skype's CES press conference, in response to my question about building North American awareness for Skype, Don Albert, Skype's North American General Manager, responded to the effect that Skype North America would largely be relying on "viral" activity to build out awareness:

• Will enough users tell their friends about a service that provides toll-free North American long distance for $14.95 ($29.95 effective next Thursday, Feb. 1) per year -- not month?
• Does Skype have any strategy for building usage amongst its North American eBay and/or PayPal user base?
• I do see that X10, infamous for its ongoing banner ads and daily newsletters, now offers Skype as an option for customer service; will Skype build partnerships or even awareness with other vendors that encourage the use of Skype for customer service and support?
• How will Skype make users aware that Skype is more than simply voice communications, incorporating other real time communications such as Text Chat, SMS Messaging, File Transfer and, via the Extras, Desktop Sharing (Unyte).

One direction where we thought Skype and eBay were working together was reported by Phil last June just after the eBay/Skype Developers Conference. Check out the post "Skype Gets eBay Tab; Catches up with Microsoft, Google and Yahoo". At the time I felt that, given how many eBay members track their activity in real time on mobile devices, incorporating an eBay Tab into Skype would also have the potential to drive viral adoption, given that auction activity can have a high requirement for "real time" information, especially as the end of an auction approaches.

As a result of some of my conversations at CES two weeks ago I came home and tried out Skype with an eBay tab. Don't bother trying it even though it has been upgraded to work with Skype 3.0 (but lacks the Skypecast Tab). From what I can learn it appears this "Tab" was developed somewhere within eBay U.S. by a team that obviously has little knowledge or understanding of Skype, let alone having a "gut feel" for a user interface that drives viral adoption. Succinctly put, its operation is an embarrassment to Skype (and eBay).

My career has involved many experiences involving user testing and beta testing of software. I often measure a company's ability to manage a software-based business not only on the quality of the software but also by observing their process for quality assurance. We certainly know, as reinforced by the experience with Skype 3.0 Beta, that Skype appears to have not only well above average Quality Assurance processes and, again from experience -- I was a beta tester for the Skype Email and Skype Web Toolbars -- that Skype seeks out a positive, simple customer experience. Unfortunately it appears that eBay brings a different QA culture to the table, at least when building Skype mashups. Here is what I found:

The initial screen on the Tab has no obvious way to do a user login; in addition, one of the graphics simply will not come up.(Also note that the eBay logo is not appropriately sized and positioned within the Tab itself.) And I am certainly not "new to eBay"; having used eBay several times over the past five years. But there is a Search bar so let's try it; I am interested in the Canon Rebel series SLR cameras so I enter a Search request. I do get the listing page within the eBay tab but it all goes downhill from here. If I click on View Item, it opens the relevant eBay page in my default web browser (Firefox 2 in my case), not in the eBay Tab; If I ask to "Watch" the item I am asked (in the web browser) to log in and the item is added to my eBay Watch List. Then I can click on "Watching" in the eBay Tab to see the item. Other circumstances may bring up the Login screen in the eBay Tab.

However, it gets interesting when I am logged in and trigger a new Search. In this instance I have now asked for another Canon camera but I simply get "0 items found ...." as shown on the right; check on the eBay via a web browser and it finds the requested item. No matter what I search for I get the same result. Sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Tab in that if I am logged into eBay I cannot do a search. If I log out and do a search I can get a result. Recall that graphic in the initial screen above: it fails to come up beyond a place holder in any of the Bidding, Won or Selling sub-tabs.

Bottom Line: this version of an eBay Tab in Skype is not going to drive any viral adoption of Skype by eBay members. If anything, it will be a discouragement to try out Skype (even though Skype had little, if any, control over its development).

But at CES I learned that there is a solution available for accessing eBay through the Skype client; in fact, eBay members in Germany, France and, soon, the U.K. have access to it. More to come in a post Friday. But, most importantly, they have a solution that will help drive viral adoption of Skype amongst eBay members.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a win for Skype, eBay, and others named in StreamCast's lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper found StreamCast failed to make its case. StreamCast seeks justice for what they see as ill treatment by Skype's founders when they worked at KaZaa. StreamCast may take the case to a state court.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest post by Taran Rampersad of KnowProse.

Via this press release:

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Centric today announced Second Talk, an easy-to-use voice communication system for Second Life. Second Talk "headsets" automatically scan for other Second Talk users nearby, and offer instant voice chat for groups of up to 10 users through Skype, a popular Voice over IP communication platform.

"We feel that easily accessible voice chat brings a new dimension to Second Life," said Jason Stoddard, Centric's Managing Partner, Interactive. "Whether you're coordinating a business meeting or talking to a new friend, voice is faster and more immediate than text."

Second Talk offers significant benefits in terms of convenience and cost. Since voice chat is facilitated by Skype, use of the system is free and virtually unlimited. In addition, Second Talk does not require the installation of proprietary software or SIP server setup. Finally, Second Talk does not require a base station to designate a chat area or manage chats - the headset is wearable and fully portable.

Second Talk launches with a free public beta...

So I headed over to SecondTalk, read the blog announcement and hopped into SecondLife through the SecondTalk locations. Guess who beat me to it? Tateru Nino (You can read her piece here).

While this isn't the first attempt at voice communication within SecondLife, it is probably the first that works with Skype. I know quite a few people who use Skype and SecondLife at the same time (myself included now and then), but not quite like this.

From the notecard received inworld with the headset - the SecondTalk FAQ:

Q: What do I need to use Second Talk?
A: 1) A Skype account. You can get one free at http://www.skype.com.
2) A microphone headset. Even your laptop has a built-in microphone, you'll still want to wear headphones so other people don't hear echoes.

Q: I'm hearing echoes on my conversations.
A: See above. You just need some cheap headphones. Otherwise, your speakers will feed back to your microphone, and, presto, echoes!

Q: How does this thing work?
A: By using LSL to scan for other users, place them in a potential chat queue, and using an external server with some code on it to facilitate a Skype call.

Q: Why's it asking me to load a web page?
A: That's how we talk to the external server.

Q: Is there any way to get around loading the web page?
A: Sorry, no. This is a limitation of both SL and Skype. We're working on some new ideas that offer better integration.

Q: So can you listen in on my calls?
A: No, we're just connecting you via Skype. Your connection is as secure as any other Skype call.

Q: Is this good enough to use for business conversations?
A: If you're comfortable with using Skype to do business, you bet.

Please join the Second Talk group for updates and information!

Interestingly, since the Skype connection is not part of the grid... it is more secure to talk about business on Skype than it is to chat in world, in cases where you are dealing with sensitive material.

Time will tell how successful this will be, but I'm betting that it will see some success.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just a few observations after reflecting back on CES two weeks ago:

Most visible PDA in real use: Blackberry by far - every time I turned around somebody had their Blackberry out checking messages, etc. I swear one couple was messaging between each other via their respective Blackberries even though they were beside each other. Sure there were lots of other mobile phones stuck to people's ears but Blackberry had by far the most visibility. And lots of Blackberry Pearls out there. I think the fact you have to hold it out to read the display has become a marketing feature. We were told at the Skype press conference that a third party would have to develop a Blackberry client for Skype.

Flat panel displays: walking through the main hall especially one becomes overwhelmed by the quantity of flat panel displays. Sharp, with its newly announced 108" LCD at the base, had a "mountain" of their various sizes. Now if they all had a Skype voice and personal video channel for personal communication between remote TV sets. I was made aware of a Skype client that will allow one to make calls within the Windows Media shell in Windows Vista. (More to follow once Windows Vista is available.)

Memory keys are popping up in many form factors and have become the favored medium for handing out press collateral. The Trendnet device shown on the left includes a laser pointer, an LED flashlight and, of course, a pen in addition to the 512MB USB memory key. Unfortunately it was one of those that requires a reboot after it is installed on your PC -- but still very handy (and it was one of the more practical handouts.). As an aside, Skype missed an opportunity to add the U3 version of Skype to its handout.

However, the major impressions and questions arising out of CES were:

1. Will the consumer world adopt to multi-media multi-function home entertainment installations that combine all your entertainment modes into one system: television, audio, radio, photography, video, even telephony. If so, it will take one highly ergonomically engineered remote -- along the lines of Logitech's Harmony series remotes -- to simplify operation for the average consumer. Does every home need a SmartTouch PC running Windows Vista's Media shell?
2. How will we handle our mobile/portable requirements? Can one device optimally converge our requirements for telephony, audio and video? Even though iPhone's introduction at MacWorld stole Day 2 from CES, is it really that revolutionary or has it simplified operation of a converged mobile product? Can we really see an economic business model for mobile VoIP incorporating, say, Skype?
3. Certainly Skype is building a partner ecosystem, delivering hardware capable of seamlessly transitioning consumers from traditional PSTN telephony into VoIP telephony with its many additional "smart" features. But will consumers take up the technology when Skype is relying almost totally on viral marketing?

Bottom line question: Can the vendors bring simplicity to the complexity of technology?

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Download hotfixes here. Details on the changes are below the fold...

Update Jan. 25: The latest release has now become Skype for Windows 3.0.0.209 to make minor fixes including the ability to send SMS messages from Chat windows. Full Release Notes here

From Skype:

It's recommended to update your Skype client to latest version.

Released version, 3.0.0.205, has following changes compared to previous:

• bugfix: 'Add SkypeOut Contact' opens wrong dialogue
• bugfix: API: FOCUSED notifications missing
• bugfix: Hotkeys did not work correctly
• bugfix: Upgrade from client crashed on some rare cases
• bugfix: Skypecasts host is always shown as connected
• bugfix: Skypecasts incorrect number of participants showed
• bugfix: Skypecasts buttons are out of align for host
• bugfix: Rare error when joining conf call and 1:1 call simultaneously
• bugfix: Closing chat with non-authorized contact results an error message
• bugfix: Cancelling file transfer causes crash
• bugfix: File Transfer notification not formatted correctly
• bugfix: Sound Setting Widget: Mic indicator shouldn't move, if microphone is muted
• bugfix: Sound Setting Widget layout design is messed up due to resize under Vista
• bugfix: Update Extras Manager menus to remove 2nd line of text
• bugfix: Issue in Finnish and Hungarian language files caused an error message when adding a friend

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype is in a war for customers. 

The company with the largest active, loyal, and paying social network wins.

Skype's user population grows by a million new accounts every four days, per Skype.

That adoption rate seems to be pretty flat over time. That's a big problem. Because if you rely on word of mouth marketing, this means your current users aren't telling many more friends. Skype is actually getting less viral over time, if you consider the new user accounts per 1000 previous user accounts.

90 million new accounts a year is handsome, especially for a startup only three-and-a-half years' old. But Skype's rivals are huge (think AT&T, T-Mobile, Microsoft, et al), have existing relationships with paying customers, and spend more on marketing daily than Skype is likely to spend in the next three years. The rivals are waking up, bundling voice with broadband or their house VoIP brand. The market windows to get people to try and switch to Skype are closing.

So Skype must reinvigorate their word of mouth. Skype needs to fuel virality. Give it a kick in the pants.

Local calling is a strategy.

For most people, most of our phone calls are within our metro area. We use it doing our personal business, like calling our kids' teachers or checking that our dry cleaning is ready. More important for Skype, we use the phone to keep in touch with our friends, with our family, with our neighbors; people on speed dial or in our mobile's address book.

Skype wants you to bring these people into your Skype world.

Flat rates for local calling is the tactic.

People call more on a flat rate plan. True for Skypeland as it is with landlines and mobile services.

People talk longer on a flat rate plan. No worries about "using up minutes" or racking up scary bills.

And, chances are, out of a hundred people using Skype, some will want the value added features. Presence. File transfer. Conferencing. Video calls. Games and other extras.

And they will tell their friends.

And drag them into Skypeland where the sun shines brightly, the birds sing sweetly, and the presence is fine.

Thus kickstarting the penetration of rich, local, social networks.

This can work.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In spite of the recent pricing announcements, Skype has always been known for its free Skype-to-Skype calls. This not only covers calls between two parties who are simply using Skype but also to those parties in a conference call who are on Skype. And international borders do not exist for these calls.

Seems like the larger telcos and cablecos are starting to catch on:

Andy at VoIP Watch reports on AT&T's announcement of Unity, a plan where any AT&T cellular customer can call any AT&T landline customer without incurring additional usage fees or using their wireless minutes. This extends AT&T's program for its wireless customers who apparently can already call each other free. Andy makes the bigger point:

For all the VC's and investors who thought the idea of minute stealing and the prospect of millions of customers flocking to cheaper calling by VoIP services like Packet 8 and Vonage making their investments the next Amazon, Google, Yahoo, eBay or even Microsoft  what may be their worst possible nightmare is now unfolding before their eyes.

To quote AT&T's press release:

The AT&T Unity^SM plan, which is available beginning Sunday, Jan. 21, brings together home, business and wireless calling, creating a calling community of more than 100 million AT&T wireless and wireline phone numbers.

At home here in Canada, Rogers, which has dominate cable and wireless services within the Canadian consumer market, is starting down a similar path with its Home Phone service. From their website:

With My Home Connections, Rogers Home Phone customers get FREE Long Distance calling to all Rogers Home Phone or Rogers Wireless customers, anywhere in Canada. Talk for as long as you want, whenever you want without any Long Distance charges.

Call over 5 million people for FREE!

When it comes to long distance to non-Rogers (Bell Canada and Telus) customers within Canada or to the U.S., Skype's North American plan still wins out at C$17.50 per year vs Rogers C$19.95 per month. More justification for those USB dual phone products, such as the VoIPvoice UConnect and RTX Dual Phone, as well as the PC-Free dual phones that were announced at CES to be entering the market. Now if Rogers could just figure out how to make calls amongst their wireless customers across Canada free!

However, overall, combined with 3 Group's new X-Series services in the U.K., it appears that Skype's concept of creating calling communities is becoming infectious. But Skype remains the only fully featured voice service with a truly international calling community of any significant size.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Andy Abramson on Unity: "So lets take stock in what AT&T now has. Lower price. More customers. Millions of mobile customers under contract. Millions of homes already reached." A direct attack on minute stealers with new types of Lock-In.

• Meebo gets more VC money for connecting Google, MSN, Yahoo! and AIM messengers in the browser. $9 Million without a Skype connection.

• MobileCrunch: Nokia N800; A Real World Review After One Month's Use. May be lower octane than iPhone but more immediately and broadly useful.

• Current.tv: video journalism training.

• Spyke: the French WiFi Spy Robot; does Skype voice and video calls. Small stairs too.

  

• VoIP News: VoIP semiconductor market massively leaving network plumbing (routers, gateways) for network edge (mobile and desktop phones)

• New German antiterrorism law gives authorities easier access to telecom records. Skype included?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Business Week's Olga Kharif blogged Skype's prices are creeping up in reference to the coming Skype Pro pricing plans. What is your breakeven point on the new plans?

Skype says the plans will be around two euro a month. That puts it about $31 for 12 months, a touch more than the US+Canada Unlimited Calling Plan. At the global SkypeOut rate of 2 cents a minute (1.7 eurocents), Skype Pro pays if you're SkypingOut [SkypeOuting? or is SkypeOuting admitting to your friends and family that you use Skype and are proud of it?] for 1553 minutes per year, 129 per month (about two hours), or average 4.3 SkypeOut minutes per day.

Maybe you don't SkypeOut four minutes a day. With a free plan, would you switch from landlines or mobile to Skype for a few calls a week?

How about that long call? That two hour, long-distance but in-country call to your true love ("You hang up." "No, you hang up." "I'm still here." "Hang up, honey." "No, you hang up, dear." "I love you so much.")? To your family? Infinite call waiting with your local phone company's customer service line?

Skype in the workplace may be the big winner. Fixed per-capita rates fit nicely into annual budgets, so Skype Pro is more convenient to buy than wading through phone bills for each office each month. Customer-facing jobs (eBay sellers? Call centers?) can be on the phone for 20 to 30 hours a week, paying off 52 weeks of Skype Pro service in the first 2 weeks.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I love wicked publicists! Here's small-guy VoipBuster making fun of big corporate Skype just hours after Skype's announcement on its home page and in a news release sent through the same channels Skype uses.

Skype increases all prices!

(Full text of a statement. Contact details follow below.)

Cologne (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - They kept millions of users waiting for more than a month, but today Skype (eBay) finally announced their new "pricing strategy"....

VoipBuster could not believe it: instead of lowering their prices they decided to put a new charge of 3,9 eurocents on all calls!! For almost all Skype users this means a price increase of over 50%!

Time to switch, because VoipBuster, the biggest rival of Skype, announced today more new countries can be called for FREE. Making the price difference even bigger!

VoipBuster a service of Betamax GmbH & Co.

KG Postfach 19 04 25
50501 Koln
press@voipbuster.com

Technorati tags: skypeout, skype, voipbuster, voip, minutestealer, skypepro, voim

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I was discussing the Skypecast tab with someone in Germany; went to the tab and got the text shown on the right. Seems like Skypecast is going into support server overload mode. The German colleague with whom I was talking was also receiving the same message. Over the evening this tab's panel would revert between the normal Skypecast listing and the above message from time-to-time. And, in Skype's search for new revenue sources, will souvenir SkypeHammers be offered at the Skype Store?

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

1. Skype:speakablogblog
2. Speak your message in a voice mail
3. Hang up
4. Go to Simon Crowfoot's LiveJournal blog
5. See how SpinVox converted your voice to text and posted it

What do you think?

• Should Skype build this as a feature into the clients? Yes, especially Skype for Business.
• Would you pay, say an extra euro a year for a voice-mail-to-text service that sends the text to you via blog, email, RSS feed, IRC, and/or SMS? Yes. Until everyone else includes it for free.
• Right now it is just for English and works best with UK standard; what spoken languages would you like? The 10 most common flavors of Chinese, Estonian, the several Spanish and Portuguese, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic.
• Once in text form, languages I don't speak could be run through a translation machine.

Could be huge for asocial eBay sellers. Or anyone else in business who values a missed a call.

Technorati tags: multilingualcomputing, translation, x8n, spinvox, voicemail, crm, speechtotext, simoncrowfoot, skype, skypejournal, voip, voim

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype made three changes to its rate plan.

1. New PSTN connection charge (3.9 eurocents per call)
2. Skype Pro annual domestic calling plan for some countries
3. More regions now get 1.7 eurocent global calling rate

More details in the slideshare below.

These are aggressive marketing moves. Skype Pro should boost Skype's viral spread, and make it harder to leave the Skype community.

skype rates prices pricing plans callingplan skypejournal

A version of the Skype news release below the fold.

SKYPE TAKES INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS ONE STEP FURTHER WITH NEW PRICING STRATEGY

Disruptive pricing gives Skype users more value and choice

LUXEMBOURG, January 18, 2007 - Skype, the global Internet communications company, today announced its new global pricing structure which offers a simple, convenient and cost-effective way for consumers worldwide to call landlines and mobiles over the Internet. The new pricing structure complements the foundation of Skype's success in letting anyone in the world talk for free, from one Skype software account to another.

The pricing structure is the latest in a series of new steps Skype is taking to give consumers a choice of easy-to-understand, value-based Internet communications packages. Initially focused on Europe, Skype's new pricing strategy will roll out worldwide during 2007.

When launched in full, the pricing strategy consists of a premium subscription package (Skype Pro), one feature of which removes per-minute charges for SkypeOut™ calls to domestic landlines and includes a small connection fee. This will be available in the following countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

"People like using Skype to make free calls from one Skype account to another, but more and more they are choosing our paid for products that offer excellent value. As a result of this, we're introducing a new pricing strategy today that will include a premium package. This premium package builds on the success we've had in North America and the UK with subscription-based calling promotions. It offers our users more for less because they can buy additional Skype paid for products but for a smaller cost," said Stefan Öberg, General Manager, Skype Telecoms.

As a part of Skype's premium package the global dialing rate to a number of countries is also reduced. The first phase of the SkypeOut pricing structure, effective from 13.00 CET on Thursday January 18th 2007, includes a reduction in global dialing rates to 0.017 € per minute for:

Czech Republic (including Prague), Guam, Hungary (including Budapest), Israel (including Jerusalem), Luxembourg, Malaysia (including Kuala Lumpur), Puerto Rico and both Alaska and Hawaii in the United States.

For some countries, this represents a reduction of up to 65 per cent.

Skype also confirmed today that its previously announced connection fee rates, applicable worldwide, are now effective. The connection fee is a straightforward set-up charge per call. The Skype Unlimited Calling plan in the U.S. and Canada and the Talk for Britain campaign in the UK do not include a connection fee for national calls.

The connection fee is 0.039 Euro, excl VAT or the equivalent in local currency.

Today Skype users around the world can make free voice and video calls to any other registered Skype users as well as send instant messages, transfer files and participate in Skypecasts which are live moderated conversations with up to 100 people.

Skype users can also take advantage of Skype's premium calling features, including SkypeOut™ (calls from Skype to traditional landlines or mobiles), SkypeIn™ (a number which can be called from a normal phone anywhere in the world) and Skype Voicemail (takes calls when users are busy or offline).

As the world's largest Internet communications community, Skype is committed to giving its users the ability to set their conversations free at home, at work and on the move. It is focused on further developing its ecosystem of more than 50 hardware partners and more than 150 Skype-certified devices to broaden the appeal of Skype to a wider base of users who want to use Skype away from the PC, no matter where they happen to be. This is especially true for Skype users who want to take advantage of the mobile Skype experience, which is already accessible to more than 5 millio