In partnership with SpinVox, this morning Skype has announced another service added to their suite of offerings. The new VoiceMail to Text service automatically converts voicemail messages to text messages (after a short wait) and sends them to subscribers as text messages. Cost? $.25/message.
I’m not sure I would ever use this service, but I know plenty of people who will. My preference would be to see the message dropped via iMap, or equivalent, into my Exchange mailbox.
Whether you’re a believer in the utility of these systems or not, this announcement is interesting for two reasons:
- It shows Skype partnering to deliver new services under the Skype brand, but sourced from ecosystem partners. As Skype moves further up the value chain, they will need to do this more often. And what better way to monetize their ecosystem relationships than to partner to earn revenue?
- It demonstrates quite clearly how Skype has adopted the unmetered Voice 2.0 mentality. Skype’s free service is very good. Their challenge is to deliver compelling and interesting add-on services, and thus cause free subscribers to upgrade.
So what do you think? Would you pay $.25 per voice mail to have them sent via text to your mobile phone?
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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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