Skype is in Verizon Company Stores

Verizon's go-to-market teams had Skype in place last week.

• Employees were oriented. Six months' ago these same employees had never tried Skype. Now they know a few talking points.
• Demo Blackberry and Android phones had Skype installed and easy to find
• Local test accounts with contacts were created for each demo phone
• Information cards for the phones were updated with Skype listed as a feature of each phone (right above Bluetooth!)
• A small Skype sign was with the phones
• The in-store phone selector software now lists Skype as one feature among many.
• Inventory comes with a shortcut to install the latest version of Skype mobile for Verizon, a thin client.

Seven things to improve:

1. Preload the whole Skype client, not just a download link. Conversion rates are much higher with a full preload.
2. International positioning. "Call your family" in Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Ethiopian and Portuguese (my neighborhood) on store-front posters.
3. Unbury Skype. Show Skype on the first page in the phone selector.
4. Enroll. "What Skype name would you like to use with your new phone?" in the check-out procedure.
5. Top up. Accept payments for Skype credits in the store.
6. Educate. Data sheets and flyers for customers to take, explaining Skype, Skype mobile, Skype To Go, Calling Plans, and how Skype mobile is different from Skype on PCs or iSkype.
7. Front of store posters showing video calling (whoops, not this year)

Great rollout to the company-owned stores. Now to check the reseller channel.

tags: skype, verizon, mobile, usa, smartphones, android, droid, blackberry, retail, news

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Video: Skype+Verizon at CTIA: We're living together

In which John Harrobin and Russ Shaw announce Verizon Wireless (the largest 3G company in the US) and Skype (the largest over-the-top Internet calling company) are moving in after announcing they were dating in February at the Mobile World Congress. Reactions to Skypizon (Veriskype?) are enthusiastic here at the  mobile industry's association and lobbying arm love fest.

The news release:

SKYPE MOBILE FOR VERIZON WIRELESS AVAILABLE THURSDAY
Companies Deliver Expansive Global Calling Community and Free Skype-to-Skype Calls on the Most Reliable Wireless Network in the United States

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg; LAS VEGAS and BASKING RIDGE, N.J., United States – (Virtual Press Office) - From CTIA WIRELESS 2010® in Las Vegas, Verizon Wireless and Skype today announced Skype mobile™ will be available this Thursday, March 25, starting with nine Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones. Skype mobile uses the Verizon Wireless voice network for the wireless connection of the Skype-to-Skype calls, providing Verizon Wireless customers with a superior experience and top-notch call quality.

Beginning Thursday, new and existing Verizon Wireless customers with Android 3G smartphones and BlackBerry 3G smartphones can get Skype mobile in a number of ways. Visit www.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile or www.skype.com/go/mobile from a PC to enter the mobile phone number to receive a text message with a link to the application. Verizon Wireless customers can also text “SKYPE” to 2255 to receive the link. In addition, Android customers will be able to download the app from Android Market™. New BlackBerry customers will find the application on their 3G smartphones’ home screens in the Downloads folder when activated.

Skype mobile gives Verizon Wireless 3G smartphone users with data plans a simple new way to stay in touch with friends, family and business colleagues around the corner and around the world while on Verizon Wireless’ network. Skype mobile users can:

• make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype contact around the globe;
• send and receive unlimited instant messages with other Skype users;
• manage the Skype contact list directly from the mobile application; and
• call international phone numbers at competitive Skype calling rates.

John Harrobin, senior vice president of digital media and marketing, noted, “Skype mobile will change the way mobile consumers in the United States make and receive calls. With an ‘always on’ capability, Skype mobile on your 3G smartphone means you never have to miss a call or make an appointment to connect with Skype users around the world. With Skype mobile, we’re untethering Skype users from their PCs and enabling them to stay connected – on the best wireless network in the country.”

Russ Shaw, general manager of Mobile for Skype, noted, “Skype mobile will deliver an unparalleled experience for Verizon Wireless customers. It will be the best way to enjoy unlimited conversations with Skype contacts all over the world at no extra cost. In addition, Skype mobile will allow people to easily and inexpensively make calls to landlines and mobiles abroad at Skype rates.”

Customers need a Verizon Wireless smartphone and data plan to use Skype mobile. Skype-to-Skype calls will not be charged against their monthly minute allowances or data plans. Verizon Wireless customers can visit www.skype.com to purchase Skype Credit to make Skype Out calls and make calls to international landline or mobile numbers.

Skype and Verizon Wireless have been working together to create this application specifically for Verizon Wireless customers and to take advantage of the most reliable wireless network in the United States.

Skype mobile will be available initially on millions of best-selling Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition, and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

For more information about Verizon Wireless, visit www.verizonwireless.com or follow the company on Twitter at http://twitter.com/verizonwireless. Learn more about Skype at www.skype.com or follow the company at http://twitter.com/skypemobile.

# # #

tags: skype, verizon, blackberry, android, storm, storm2, curve, tour, droid, motorola, devour, htc, eris, rim

Skype for Business: Interop2009 video

Stefan Öberg spoke at Interop 2009 last month, as Jim Courtney reported and Öberg blogged.

Two key takeaways.

First, Skype plans to formalize and extend its premium (prioritized queue, private resources) online customer support for enterprises and to deliver local language, in-country customer support through channel partners.

Last, Stefan said survey results show Skype is making its way into US and UK workplaces.

The slides go by very fast, so here are screenshots on from the Stefan Öberg's Skype for Business presentation at Interop 2009 flickr set. The comments below are mine.

hmmm. "The future of business communications" is a pretty big scope.

Not much new about the consumerization of IT. Been going on for generations. Mobile phones were smuggled in. Wi-Fi, Macs, even PCs were first brought to work by employees. Here's a 2005 Gartner release saying "Consumerization Will Be Most Significant Trend Affecting IT During Next 10 Years."

Tough times call for desperate measures. Even "consumer grade" tools will do if they save lots of money.

We do have lots of connectivity, for now. Good enough for Skype video calls.

Not just by IT employees but by everyone. Darned employees, using strange software and connectivity in ways we didn't plan.

 

We have one life, and we spend it at home, at school, and working. Our tools are becoming closer to us, less tied to or provided by our employers.

Presence will be matter when people stop lying about their availability. Skype's presence service only lets you set one presence message for everyone. Yet you might be available to your best customer and not available for Bob from the accounting department.

More stats... 

Oh, and Skype Lite is coming out for the Blackberry this month.

Harder questions: What percent of smartphone users in the UK and US have ever downloaded an application? What percentage of smartphones sold in the US and UK will come with Skype preloaded?

Less integrated than bolted on or sitting next to your existing workflow. With a few limited exceptions, you cannot build Skype into an enterprise application. Unless you consider Outlook an enterprise workflow app.

Of the nine applications shown above, five were made by Skype, and three were made by one Skype developer. Not exactly a robust ecosystem. 

The "tools" talking points are real accomplishments, although far from complete. Skype offers a version specifically for easy configuration (networking options and feature crippling) by IT. The readable admin guide to Skype has been useful in explaining how to make Skype installations conform to company security policies and assert control over users. Skype's business control panel is a first stab at letting companies manage user accounts and distribute account funds.

"Enhanced service" as used here means customer service and technical support. Interoperability, well, Skype's not there yet but it's nice to hear executives acknowledge it as an opportunity.

The closing slides say Skype is good wherever you work (office, travelling, at home).

Critique: A friend in the audience told me it was too salesy for the Interop IT crowd. Everyone there knew Skype already and they generally appreciate live demos more than PowerPoint. I tend to agree. The best parts of the talk were the hard numbers and the real world stories of companies putting Skype to work. Using real company names and showing photos or video of people using the tools at work would have been more meaningful.

See also:

• Voice On The Web: Skype’s Stefan Öberg @ Interop: Stealthing Skype Into Business, But Cover the Entire Skype Ecosystem
• Gartner: Consumerization: The IT Civil War.
• Ars Technica: Analysis: IT consumerization and the future of work(2008). "'IT consumerization' is one of the more unwieldy buzzwords to come down the pike in some time, which is a shame, because there's definitely something to it. Here's a look at three factors that contribute to the IT consumerization trend, and at what this trend may mean for the future of how we work."

tags: skype, interop, interop2009, interop09, vegas, lasvegas, skypeforbusiness, business, enterprise, stats, statistics, trends, consumerization

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Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.1 adds a landscape keyboard

Yahoo! announced an update to Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone. download on iTunes or update from the App Store. Some bug fixes, the landscape QWERTY keyboard, and a new feedback form.

There's still room to grow: no voice or video chat, no making or taking phone calls, no chat rooms or multichat, no gateway to Yahoo!'s IM partners (Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Lotus Sametime), no file transfer, no Yahoo! address book.

Yahoo!'s mobile messenger line also includes Y!IM for Sidekick, BlackBerry, and other phones.

screenshot credit: Yahoo!

tags: yahoo, yahoo!, y!messenger, messenger, iphone, download, mobile

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A few shots from the Skype party at CTIA Mobile 2009

Company parties at tradeshows have messages. Skype's Wednesday night party at last week's CTIA Mobile 2009 event had a few.

• Fruit: Celebrating the launch of Skype for the Apple iPhone and announcement of Skype Lite for the Blackberry. Without permission to use the logos, Skype had the two fruit (apples, blackberries) on murals, in staff wigs, inside furniture, in cocktails, in ice sculptures, and in deserts.
• Circus: Performers from Cirque du Soleil (or something similar) performed throughout the evening, on stage and intimately. Jugglers, strong men, gymnasts, acrobats, mimes. Buxom hostesses in dramatic wardrobe spent an hour learning how to demo Skype for iPhone and four hours in makeup. Message: excitement.
• Ice: Skype ice sculptures decorated a Bellagio ballroom. An ice tower at the entrance, an ice pool table (along with pool cues and billiard balls) on the terrace, and a large monument in a lounge area. Message: we're showing our money.

Everyone there had a great time. Good food, smart people, pleasant music quiet enough that you could talk them, warm weather, and elbow room amid garishly over the top decoration and eye candy.

This was the first year Skype showed up in force at CTIA Mobile. The party was spoils of Skype's war as the company moves into mobile telecom in a big way, with high margins, high growth, increased share, and sustained profits.

After the circus acts, Scott Durchlag introduced Skype's first television commercial. 

A six foot tall ice tower in the Bellagio hallway.

 

A full size pool table cast in ice. Folks played for hours, even as it melted. The far right pocket was a sure thing as it warmed up first.

This large ice statue overlooking the courtyard was filled little apples, symbolic of the iPhone.

After the party, the ice crew dismantled the Skype sculptures.

Heavy, massive ice blocks.

Skype carted off in pieces.

I asked several CTIA Mobile alumni if the event was overkill. They all said it was a shout out to the mobile carriers that Skype was here in a big way and here to stay.

My take: Old school B2B industry marketing. Just one deal with any of dozen heavyweights there will pay for Skype's party, press conference, Showstoppers press event, and sponsorship of the VIP Lounge at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

tags: skype, party, ctia09, ctia, citamobile09, bellagio, lasvegas, vegas, marketing, promotion, april, blackberry, apple, circus, iphone, tv, commercial, advertising, ice, fruit

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Skype Mobile Battle: iPhone vs. PSP

Guest Post by Andy Yang of The Mobile Experience Blog

Skype, one of the most used IM/Chat/VOIP/Video-Conferencing application for PC and Mac is slowly working its dominance up the mobile alley and we love it! I've always known it's support for Windows Mobile, Nokia devices and Wi-Fi Phones (Skype Phones) but it was the recent integration with Sony's Playstation Portable firmware upgrade as well as the hot-off-the-press Skype for iPhone/iPod Touch that is really cooking up some serious mobile progress. With Skype application for BlackBerry phones coming soon, Skype is in a very good position to become one of the leaders in mobile application. Having Skype on the go across multiple platform is definitely going to enhance our mobile experience, this is very exciting indeed.

In this article, I will attempt to compare Skype for iPhone vs. Skype for Playstation Portable. I'll update this entry when the BlackBerry version becomes available.

The iPhone (iPod Touch) and Playstation Portable is arguably two of the most popular gadgets for travelers on the go. When I review communication gadgets or software, I always like to imagine myself traveling abroad where I would not have access to a local cell phone and would like to keep in touch with friends or family at the luxury of my own mobile gadget. The appeal of Skype has always been there for me for that reason, that is why a laptop has been essential for all my travels until smartphones started to feature applications to support various communication needs such as Fring. That said, I think iPhone or Playstation Portable (PSP) are two of the most carried devices for travelers. I can just see myself in an airport lounge dialing international long distance over Wi-Fi to keep in touch with loved ones via either device.

Skype for iPhone

The iPhone and iPod Touch needs very little introduction. With a large touch screen display and portrait layout, it makes a very good UI candidate for Skype (much like its desktop counterpart).

Everything is integrated so well together on this handy little app. For example, your contacts from your iPhone is automatically hooked up with Skype in addition to its default contact list. To see who is online, you can easily toggle the software button towards the top of the screen.

One of the big advantage of iPhone is it's integrated microphone that Skype can take advantage of without the need of additional headset. The VOIP function will only work in a Wi-Fi environment (at home, coffee house, airport lounges, etc...) whereas the text Chats can work over your phone's standard data plan.

I love the fact that this little app does everything its desktop counter part can do, including editing one's profile or add more Skype-out funds over the handset. Overall, its an amazing application that has been done right, I love it and its free to download!

Pros: Excellent UI and layout, very easy to use and intuitive. Perfect integration to leverage iPhone's hardware (buttons, camera, etc...) Everything your desktop Skype can do can be done here!

Cons: No VOIP over 3G data, no web-cam video conference, app must be installed separately (only mentioning this because PSP is part of firmware OS)

Skype for Playstation Portable (PSP)

I love the convenience of having my beloved PSP-3000 as a gaming device and knowing it can also surf the web with Flash while keeping up with the communications needs via Skype.

No application to install here, its part of the firmware 3.90+ upgrade. While the PSP doesn't have a touchscreen UI and the horizontal layout is not taking advantage of the screen real estate as much, it does offer a full suite of Skype features. The SkypeOut and VOIP PC calls are there along with text chat.

Because the onscreen keyboard is driven by the directional keys and based on the 12-button numeric pad, it can be frustrating when compared to the overall iPhone experience.

The one part I have to gripe about is the need of an external microphone. My Griffin Tune Buds Mobile with integrated mic works great but if I forgot my headphones at home then I am stuck with only text chats capabilities. While Sony and Skype recommend you buy their official headset/mic kit, the iPhone OEM headset with mic should work as well. Sony should have integrated a mic solution, after all, this is their 3rd revision to the PSP franchise.

Lets hope Skype will be available for the DS or DSi someday. Overall, I still enjoy having the option of running Skype on my PSP. While its unlikely I'll be traveling only the PSP, I can see myself using the PSP for Skype to conserve the battery life for my iPhone while traveling abroad. Due to the nature of not having any data connection, the entire operation is rendered useless if I am not nearby a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Pros: Fully integrated as part of PSP firmware, no application install required. PSP's large display is great for Skype.

Cons: Lack of integrated Mic (and Camera for profile picture, etc...) Wi-Fi is required all the time for any communications (including text chat)

Winner: Skype for iPhone! With voice call quality being relatively the same, I have to go with iPhone because you just can't beat the convenience of having your iPhone with Skype with you at all times. The integrated mic makes the entire package there and ready to go 24/7. The touchscreen plays well with the UI and it has instantly become one of those default applications I must have on my iPhone.

tags: skype, psp, sony, playstation, apple, iphone, iskype

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Slides from the Skype iPhone press conference

Scott Durschlag presenting at CTIA Mobile 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. A nice mix of

• Skype rhetoric (enabling conversation, Skype everywhere, person centric vs. network or device centric),
• dazzling numbers (kabillions of minutes served, a million new users every three days, the next 100 million users are in China),
• some product stuff (Skype for iPhone number one download in markets around the world, Skype Lite for Blackberry coming in May)
• ended with a pitch to carriers. Dear Mobile Carriers, we're here, we're staying, we're growing, partner with us.

Friday reading

me

I'm in the New York Times coverage of Google Voice. Quoted correctly (yay!) but before my own column on the subject came out (d'oh!). Google has some truly delightful advantages in the race to become the world's largest communications company. 

under

Australia's Telestra keeps Nokia N85 inside the walled garden, keeps Skype out. A year without growth leaves them cautious, even when Skype offers to pay.

New Zealand's Yellow partners with Skype. Search through the Skype Directory and call most nz companies for free until June 10. 

the future

Foresight Institute gets a new president. Skype me (evanwolf) if you want to come to Dr. Hall's Sunday reception in Palo Alto. We'll all be talking molecular manufacturing, nanotechnology and the singularity.

Nokia shares its vision. Smartphones rising. Death of patience. Rewarding engagement. Personal expression. New learning economy. Clickable world. Personal relevance. A good summary of forces driving the interplay between mobile technology, industry dynamics, and human behavior.

the present

One in four drop landlines in some states according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. Turning to mobiles, an act of belt-tightening. Q. Of those who switch to mobile, how many have unlimited flat-rate data plans, favorable to Skype?

CRM Over Voice: Using Voice in New Ways for Service Providers to Retain Subscribers and Strengthen Brand. White paper by analyst Jon Arnold for Mobivox. The cool stuff starts on page 4. Speech recognition + VoIP + SaaS = Contextual CRM, creating touch points that add value to the customer journey. Jon explains why it's good and how to build it, using Mobivox as an example.

VoSKY sells Skype trunking to Majorcan hotel chain. Attach a box to your PBX and your staff doesn't even know they are calling through the Skype network at lower rates. 

Larry Dignan shows why mobile developers migrate from Symbian to RIM and Mac OS X. Growth and share favor the Bold. And iPhone.

the past

Transcript of Skype's Jonathan Christensen's talk about speech quality at the Emerging Communications Conference last week. History as prelude to something new?

gig

Benjamin Leviton seeks VoIP help: "I have a Brekeke SIP proxy server. I am looking for someone to remote on to my desktop, log into its interface and config my carriers with the proxy server. Also check the interface of Polycom phone and make sure it is working properly with the SIP proxy server." Contact:  +1-917-273-5808, ben@capitalfinanceusa.com, yahoo IM gcc644@yahoo.com, or skype:levtop.

tags: google, googlevoice, australia, telestra, nokia, N85, New Zealand, nz, yellow, skype, directory, search, foresight, smartphones, landlines, cdc, mobile, crm, mobivox, vosky, majorca, spain, pbx, symbian, rim, apple, blackberry, iphone, jonathanchristensen, ecomm, brekeke, sip, polycom

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