I’ve gone on about Skype before, but more than ever, I’m really convinced Skype, or similar IP solutions are almost primetime. Now, remember that I’m in the UK, so Vonage isn’t available to me. I’ve used SIP based products before, and VoIP is hardly new, but it’s never been this easy before. And now that Skype has launched the beta of Dial Out – that lets you buy prepay vouchers and call any number in the world *really* cheap, it’s within a week become my main phone line.
It’s the simplicity – I install it, it works over DSL, through my software firewall, my NAT dsl router – it just *works*. It’s missing some key features – phonebook, voicemail, no one can call me from a telephone, but some of these will obviously be resolved. And the conferencing is brilliant.
It’s obviously old hat to the telco bods, but the future of cellular telcos is as an IP platform, of which voice will be just another product. BT, the fixed-line monolith in the UK gets this. But as cellular companies handle data as a platform, even if voice looks (sounds?) and feels the same through a Nokia etc., won’t they become less and less relevant? I mean, data is just data – and floating compelling services on top of that, when the whole internet is a click away will become harder and harder. Will this push the cellular telcos into a commodity space, where they exist simply as a platform? When that happens, they lose any loyalty, differentiation and suffer the price wars that commoditisation brings – maybe those 18billion quid 3G licences were too expensive after all?
I think I use my treo as much as a data (email & web) device as i use it for voice.
I’m using Skype like I used to use Instant Messenger – for quick, informal updates and notes to colleagues. It may be the novelty of free, and I’ll settle down into the IM (informal, fast, small info), email (personal/formal, targeted) and blog (pontificating, broadcast, reflective), but at the moment, I’m really impressed.
Of course, I’m a mac user, and Skype is the only reason I turn on my PC. It’s coming to OSX soon, I think, which makes me very happy. I have to say ichat absolutely blows away anything else I’ve used, from a quality and user experience POV. And if you want a real insight into how well an app can be done, see the Jobs demo , it’s about 5 minutes from the end.
UPDATE: I just caught a couple of things that outline Skype’s disruptive capability and Voice being just another software app floating on a (commodity) internet, mobile or otherwise: An Economist article, which gives a good overview of Skype and it’s potential, but is a bit lightweight and a knock-out transcript of Skype’s CEO detailing how Skype/VoiP will transform the telco industry.