Skype

As I covered yesterday, the native Skype client for the iPhone was released today.

Being both a Skype and iPhone user I grab the new Skype client this morning. Before making any test calls or messages, I decided to give the Skype client a quick “feature spin.”

Skype for iPhone feature overview

After a quick download from the app store I found that the Skype for iPhone client allows Skype users to:

• Call other Skype users
• Call out via SkypeOut
• Manage your contacts
• View chats and calling history
• View and edit your account information

Missing from Skype’s native desktop functionality is:

• Ability to purchase SkypeOut credit directly
• SMS messaging
• Conference calling
• Voicemail retrieval
• Video
• File transfers

There are likely a few others, but those were the major missing features. Once I had an opportunity to familiarize myself with the Skype for iPhone client, I spent some time putting the client through it’s paces.
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I’ve said it before. There are a lot of smart people reading this blog.

What started as a thought about how Skype can get a market presence in the business sector has segwayed into some sound thinking about the relevance of Skype’s new wide band voice codec SILK.

Here’s a sampling from the comments section:

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It’s funny that Skype continues to try and angle its way into the lucrative business communications space when all they need to do is improve the business user experience.

Today Skype is still a consumer experience. AIM on steriods.

At least that’s how it’s viewed by many a business user and IT administrator. Coming from a business user and someone who’s worked with thousands of business VoIP users I’d have to agree.

Just look at the hardware made for Skype. Cools toys and gadgets.

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I don’t typically comment on hirings and firings. I always found it a bit “arm chair” to do so because unless you have worked for or with the person in question, it is difficult to truly comment on their ability to perform their job duties. I am making an exception, however with eBay’s appointment of Josh Silverman as the new CEO of Skype.

Here’s why…

Although Silverman brings a vast amount of experience running consumer internet companies, he has no experience in voice, IM, video or telecommunications. Since eBay bought Skype they have had trouble finding the right leadership to take the company to the next level, primarily because they have had eBay folks (who know little about communications) running the ship. Given their lackluster performance and the fact that many (privately) have stated that many within eBay have no clue about what to do with Skype, it is interesting to see that they elected to go with another insider, rather than bringing in a experienced communications executive.

I wish Mr. Silverman luck, but I see history repeating itself here. Look for another new CEO within a year.

Is Google’s Rumored Interest in Skype All About Ad Dollars?

There is a lot of chatter around the industry about the Google potentially acquiring Skype, but what no one has mentioned is that this deal is really all about the ad dollars Skype could bring into Google. Many point to Google’s telco ambitions as a driver for the acquisition of Skype, but to date Google nothing that Google has done outside of search and advertising has been a hit, or even moderately successful. What Google is great at is selling ads and they should stick to it.

By acquiring Skype, Google would gain the ability to display ads on the Skype client (which gets them “on the desktop”), play audio ads before calls, and not to mention get them onto the cellular handset through Skype Mobile. Google could also make non-Skype-to-Skype calls absolutely FREE, favoring an ad-support model rather than the current pay-per-minute model. Google likes to offer free services supported by ads (after all that is what their search engine is) and telephony has long wanted a player to come and make it completely free, supported of course, by ads.

But what if you do not buy the telco angle or the advertising angle? Well, try this one on for size. How about Google buying Skype for their user data? It widely known that Google wants to know every single detail about you and your life in order to catalog it all in an index and deliver more targeted ads to you. They recently launched Open Social to “get to know you better” and have even provided funding to a company that wants to be the world’s trusted source of personal genetic information.

Buying Skype for the chance to learn more about 80 million people? That’s not so far fetched.

Call me a conspiracy theorist on this one, but I don’t buy the Google-Skype telco angle.

Skype Users Now Have A New Way to Fax Documents

This year’s winner of the SkypeMashup competition is PamFax, a Skype extension that allows users to send faxes from their desktop. The extension, created by PamConsult, is the first of it’s kind for Skype.

According to Skype Journal,
“The PamConsult team created PamFax to solve the problem of providing a very simple process (especially relative to the somewhat cumbersome WinFax) of using the Internet to easily fax an MS Office document anywhere worldwide. The primary Skype feature here has nothing to do with voice; they used the Skype Extras publishing platform not only to install the application but also as a transaction processor for collecting revenues for the service using Skype credits. Skype Chat is used to send notifications re a fax’s delivery. In addition they developed a web-based portal to manage and archive your use of the service. The application can be launched from the Skype Extras menu or from within MS Excel or MS Word. A link to Google Maps will also show roughly where the fax is being sent (to within an Area Code).”

I tried to install the extension this afternoon, but I was unable to complete the installation (it was my fault). For the first time in a few months, I am excited about something related to Skype. This extension will make my day (and thousands of others) a little easier and will serve as another tool for business users.