Dryburgh reads between Skype's Lines
From comments eComm2008's Lee Dryburgh made on a mailing list about interviewing Skype's Jonathan Christensen.
Did you notice the enthusiasm of Skype towards open spectrum?...
Now the comments about something "linear" for them (Skype/eBay) but "non-linear" outside means something they consider significant/disruptive.
- I'd be expecting a fully worked application that combines ecommerce (eBay), money (PayPal) and communications (Skype).
- And I'd be expecting this application to work on handhelds, including later on those made for open spectrum networks.
- I'd also not be too surprised to see a version running on Android quite a bit later on.
It's a terribly powerful synergy when you combine commerce (markets), money exchange facilities, and communications within the same offering. And if that can be set on the back of open networks and open handsets in addition, things are terribly exciting.
So IMHO the fruit of Skype going forwards will be in:
- increasing voice and video quality (they are like a telco R&D lab now with their team)
- integration of comms and commerce and
- support and development around the emerging open handset (Android) and open spectrum ecology.
When you stack up the enthusiasm at Skype towards (3) and the Google push towards (3) expect a powerful movement on "our" side.
We'll have to wait and see. A public beta of Skype 4.0 for Windows didn't fit in Skype's usual November/December launch window. It may take until eComm in mid-March to see how well Lee reads the tea leaves.
