Competing against Skype 107: Build VoIM into Browsers
Do you think Skype is a threat to incumbent telcos?
This is the seventh in a series outlining tactics telcos have at their disposal to answer the question "If you think Skype is a threat to your telecom profits, how can you compete?"
101: Pricing
102: Lobbying
103: Patent War
104: Value Chain Denial
105: Tying-up Value Added Resellers
106: Microsoft embraces VoIM
No-Download VoIM.
Occupy UI real estate.
Browsers are almost as ubiquitous as operating systems. Building VoIM into browsers will be a huge leap forward in talk-enabling the web. And for every application built with browser VoIM, that's one more batch of Skype opportunities displaced.
If I were an incumbent telco and wanted to make life harder for Skype, I'd encourage everyone to build VoIP and VoIM into web pages and into browsers.
Adobe has been shipping Flash with a SIP stack for more than a year. Imagine being able to talk-enable your flash banner ads so you can talk to others seeing that ad right now (just in time community) or to product specialists or to the video or music of your choice.
For example, Chizzat! by Dan Uyemura and Gary Chi is a free, third-party Facebook app that launches live text chat or voice calls or video calls from a person's profile page. I'm partial to the simplicity of WalkieTalkie by YackPack; just "Push to Talk."
In both cases, Facebook provides the social context to trigger a conversation and the device to start talking immediately. Few assumptions about prior software or hardware configuration. Excuse me for this but "it just works."
The technology for this is getting smarter fast. Adobe's AIR, Google's Gears, Microsoft's Silverlight let engineers and designers build rich, intensely interactive browser apps that work offline. Why download Skype, more than 20MB, when talking now comes without the download, installation, upgrade hassles, and device lock-in?
Some of the technology may become built into the browser itself, not just the web page. No reason not to build everything you need into Firefox, Opera, Safari, or Internet Explorer. Other protocols, like ftp and irc, were rolled into the browser; why not VoIM? Look at the new eBay-Firefox browser; if eBay can do it...
skype
Comments
There was something called openzoep that was exactly that (a jabber client built into firefox), but it seems to have disappeared. The blog for it still exists http://openzoep.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Scot | July 6, 2007 05:36 AM
You might want to have a look at BT Contact - it's unified in browser Mail/IM/VOIP from British Telecom
http://www.btcontact.bt.com
Posted by: Scot | July 6, 2007 07:38 AM
Phil, these last posts are good points. No question there is great value in lightweight solutions, but as you are well aware Skype still is building the richest platform to create solutions beyond me talking to you. While we can enjoy lots of cool alternatives, I think the value of a rich environment will claim a strong position with users.
Posted by: Ed Prentice | July 6, 2007 01:30 PM