How could Skype become *less* open than it is now? :) <div><br></div><div>WRT Skype/Asterisk, I'm curious what kind of revenue that means. If I had to guess, the revenue is insignificant. Microsoft probably got rid of Skype's payroll department, but that didn't make the news.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Skype has two things to offer:</div><div><br></div><div>1. The technology</div><div>2. The user base (which by extension, includes the revenue stream)</div><div><br></div><div>For $8B Microsoft could have easily built their own. So it must be about the users and/or revenue. But Skype's revenue ($1B/yr est) pales compared to Microsoft's ($65B/yr). The business division (which I think is where the VoIP stuff is) has about $21B of revenue attached. Skype would be a fraction of that. And Skype users don't necessarily overlap with the corporate users. I really don't know what Microsoft gets out of this.<br>
<div><br></div><div>The other possible reason for Microsoft's purchase of Skype could have been to prevent someone else from buying it.</div><div><br></div><div>Sean<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 12:23 PM, John Lange <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john@johnlange.ca">john@johnlange.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">In my opinion Skype will be replaced in a heartbeat by whatever the<br>
next big thing is and MS will be left holding an empty bag where<br>
$8Billion dollars used to be.<br>
<br>
Once cell providers are finally pushed (kicking and screaming) into<br>
offering data-only "phones" and one of my "apps" is something that<br>
lets me "phone" anywhere any time for free, why do I need Skype? You<br>
might argue that Skype will end up being "the app" in question, but<br>
with Microsoft at the helm it surely will not be.<br>
<br>
Microsoft did not buy Skype to get into the "Skype business", it<br>
bought Skype to help push it's traditional software products. That, by<br>
definition means Skype will become less open. Already they've yanked<br>
Skype for Asterisk. Will Microsoft continue to push Skype for<br>
iPad/iPhone/Android ? I can't think of any reason why they would.<br>
<br>
So the app that unites all "phone" users will have to be something else.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
John<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Bill Reid <<a href="mailto:billreid@shaw.ca">billreid@shaw.ca</a>> wrote:<br>
> I generally agree with what you are saying John but in reality Sean is correct.<br>
> Skype just works.<br>
><br>
> The big problem with non-Skype VoIP solutions is still the lack of a global<br>
> directory. I was hoping that your email address would be the VoIP UID for<br>
> contacting people but that has not happened. All the infrastructure is there to<br>
> allow this but it is just not implemented. Once you get the PSTN part up we seem<br>
> to stop at that point. My impression is that almost all corporate VoIP systems<br>
> do not allow contact from the Internet. You have to go through a PSTN gateway.<br>
> Like IM if you have to know the system that a person is on before making contact<br>
> then it is basically broken. So far I think the PSTN and email are the only<br>
> systems that do not have this requirement.<br>
><br>
> Skype of course is not a solution to this problem but like Facebook it wins by<br>
> having the most members.<br>
><br>
> -- Bill<br>
><br>
> On 26/05/11 09:29, John Lange wrote:<br>
>> Personally I've always failed to see the appeal of skype since it's<br>
>> something that could be replicated using other voip related tools with<br>
>> the added benefit of being tied to a larger database of potential<br>
>> users that you could reach.<br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
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><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div></div><div class="im">--<br>
John Lange<br>
<a href="http://www.johnlange.ca" target="_blank">www.johnlange.ca</a><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Sean Walberg <<a href="mailto:sean@ertw.com" target="_blank">sean@ertw.com</a>> <a href="http://ertw.com/" target="_blank">http://ertw.com/</a><br>
</div></div>