I’m doing a little catch-up on reading, and I’ve just come across the Skype For Business announcement that went out last week. It’s part re-positioning (yes, we’ve learned that 30% of our users are business users), and part partnering (with sales force, a couple of conferencing companies, and some hardware companies, including one that provides a Skype to PBX gateway). The technology announced (a system for grouping Skype-Out accounts to share minutes) was underwhelming. Net Net: the promise of a peer-to-peer business voice system is still being realized by Peerio, not Skype.
Ted Wallingford took the opportunity to have a jab at Skype over its proprietary protocols, while BusinessWeek published an extensive write-up about the size of the opportunity. It is a huge opportunity, no doubt. And it is true that Centrex is a rip-off.
The real question not being asked, in my opinion, is whether or not the Skype offering can be competitive. If 10% of small businesses today buy Centrex (as the Business Week article stated), then isn’t a premises solution like Asterisk, or the Epygi Quadro, more likely to dominate small business? Is the anemic adoption of Centrex a pricing issue, or is there some other reason why take-up is so poor?
What’s your opinion?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make 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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hi ,Alex I’ll take a stab at this
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The net net premise “the promise of a peer-to-peer business voice system is still being realized by Peerio, not Skype. ” holds true. Yet we should remember the Ebay has owneship of Skype. the question here should be why did they Pay$2.1B fo this transation ?? After all, where is the value added propoistion ? IMHO its the buyer/seller nexus which will be formed via skype. A long time ago Joi Ito cut Skype news and then I tracked and posted this. The Stat’s speak for themselves in terms of organic growth. Wil skype enter the Busines2Business Community ?? I don’t think that ebay has that under their folio -its more of the consumer market that they are after…
As for Skype vs Asterik vs Epygi.. I think that Quadro will be the one to penerate the VoIP markets for small businesses. –no factiods –just gut feeling
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Ok
Hi Peter! Your logic and mine agree
I still wonder if there’s something I’m missing though.