Aswath also points out that the feature set Skype is implementing looks suspiciously like Pulver’s FWD features from a few years ago. Two points:
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Skype has already implemented a micropayment system. When you buy Skype credit, and you can spend it on minutes, DIDs, voicemail, or downloadable goodies to go with your Skype client. With this announcement, they are just extending that system to include third parties. I don’t necessarily think this is artificial, since they are the gatekeeper to their customers. It’s simply an old fashioned channel distribution model.
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Skype is already more than a softclient. They’ve become a VNO as they’ve implement Skype-In/Skype-Out and voicemail. The burning question is how open they will become. Will they be like AOL? Who can play in their walled garden? What will be the cost?
For the time being, the Skype Voice Services model is very expensive. Hopefully we will see this come down dramatically. If not, then they are creating the circumstances under which a more open, more cost effective competitor can arise.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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