Hey people this is my first post, welcome and thanks for passing by.
I’m one of the most convinced persons that Skype is in the future going to rule most of the calls made in the world. It has about 100M users and recently has made free every call to the US. It has created partnerships with the biggest hardware producers and managed to get embedded in new mobile devices. If the WiFi or WiMAX (or whichever wireless technology gets to be the standard) get a good city coverage… mobile phones as GSM, UMTS etc.. will be gone forever, and a new era of cheap communication will start.
But not everything is a bed of roses for skype, it has turn on bright red lights in all the VoIP players and they are starting to react:
>>Net2phone has sued it for patent violation
>>Lots of players have lauched cheaper and look like services, within the most relevant – Russian Tel-me which user base is growing fast and promise more flexibility
>>Mr. Microsoft has launched its MSN Live in association with verizon to provide calls to land lines and videoconference. Now the largest instant messaging network in the world with almost three times the number of users of Skype offers all in one.
Eventhough Skype business model and P2P platform permits the lowest possible costs, it has to manage very carefully its “enemies” not to be kicked out of the way.
Skype’s reactions should be watched carefully, I’ll try to trace them and discuss them here.