Picked up the three Toronto newspapers Monday morning; each had the front page headline about the executive changes at Research in Motion that were made public late Sunday night, (I was caught up watching the 49’ers – Giants NFC Conference overtime final that ran rather late and had taken time off from the Internet.)

It’s been some time since I wrote a post about RIM and Blackberry. In fact, the last one was about the announcement of the appointment of long-time acquaintance Alec Saunders as Vice President, Developer Relations. Alec has certainly made an impression with developers as shown on Twitter; the comment on the right showed up yesterday morning.

Yes, I caught up with Alec at CES where I was not only able to check out the Playbook OS 2.0 but also got to have a look at the Porsche equipped with QNX firmware and three Playbooks. But more importantly was how attending CES – not at the booth but in discussions as I walked around the show – reinforced my conclusions after watching RIM’s quarterly report last fall, when they announced delays of the launch of the new OS 2.0 for Playbook. At the same time I was reading the Steve Jobs bio and how he made sure that product showed up on time. I also have had a chance to check out the current Playbook – great hardware but lacking in applications that make it a “must have” to carry around. And there’s my own experience over the years not only observing technology business restructurings but also participating at a senior management level in a NASDAQ-listed company restructuring with all the associated performance pressures. The technology may change but the business management issues don’t. The bottom line was that RIM had significant internal operations problems showing up publicly as an inability to execute. It only got further reinforced by the December announcement of delays in the launch of a QNX-based Blackberry.

Here’s my viewpoint:

1. As became really obvious after announcing the delays not only of OS 2.0 for Playbook but also Blackberry phones , the number one priority for RIM is to fix the internal processes for managing execution to deadlines. Reading the Steve Jobs bio at the time of this announcement (and having had my own experience working under a “driven” CEO) brought this point home. Steve simply would not let a deadline be changed; he may have been a bit off the deep end and erratic at times but he ensured that Apple had the execution leadership and team required to meet deadlines.  The first benchmark for the “new” RIM will be the launch of OS 2.0 for Playbook in February; certainly the demos at CES looked promising. And the recent price reduction on Playbook simply became a way to seed 800,000 units in preparation for the upgrade (aside from getting this hardware off the inventory line of RIM’s balance sheet). Those 800,000 users are now positioned to provide their own feedback.
2. The second benchmark was reinforced by the new CEO’s comment made in 2005 while at Siemens about the future of smartphones: “The end user is not concerned with the technology behind the service, they’re concerned with the applications they can get.”  About the same time over six years ago Alec Saunders wrote his “Voice 2.0 Manifesto” where he emphasized that “applications are the value creators”. And I have to say that my experience with the Playbook 1.0 was underwhelming. While it possesses great hardware and there have been some interesting applications, it lacks not only the number of applications but, even more importantly, some critical applications. So my second benchmark relates to application development:
   1. We need to see some critical common applications, starting with Skype which badly needs a mobile platform that supports true multitasking and battery management. Dropbox and Kindle for the Playbook are two others that should easily be able to take full advantage of QNX’s inherent multitasking and multiprocessor functionality. Yes, you can access some of these, such as Dropbox, via a web browser but it’s not the simplest user experience. Skype would make it possible to converse with any of their over 200 million active users on any platform. In today’s communications and social networking world Skype is critical to any communications platform.
   2. We need to see an evolving base of third party applications. As Alec pointed out in his presentation at RIM’s North America developer conference last fall, RIM’s developer program for Blackberry phones has been actually the second most successful smartphone in terms of revenue generated for developers. Other developer conferences in Singapore last fall and Amsterdam next month are indicators of developer enthusiasm; certainly attendance at Singapore demonstrated significant attention in the southeast Asia market – and the Amsterdam developer conference is sold out. But there are several issues that need to be addressed to facilitate developer interest including legal ones (make the agreement short and simple) and having a sufficient tool set in a decent time frame that encourages developers to participate in new product launches. (Alec did acknowledge some of these issues at his presentation last fall.)
   3. BlackBerry App World needs significant improvements. Yes new versions have been coming out but… Having to reboot the device when installing certain new programs or upgrades does not cut the mustard. It must also be able to handle multiple upgrades on a single action. iOS certainly sets the benchmark here in terms of the user experience.
3. Thirdly  there is the expectation that there is some “Messianic” Steve Jobs out there who can solve RIM’s problems as CEO. It ain’t goin’ to happen; there was only one Steve Jobs. Recently we have seen examples at, say, Yahoo and HP, where bringing in “experienced” CEO’s has been a failure. Appointing someone with internal experience also brings along an exposure to RIM’s processes and personnel that allows more rapid implementation of internally required changes (such as execution). Tony Bates at Skype has also demonstrated that it helps to bring along a combination of both technology expertise and running high tech business operations to make things happen; again his focus has been on execution. A priority on appointing the right Chief Marketing Officer will hopefully bring in significant outside experience beyond simply marketing to a key vacuum currently existing at RIM. At the same time, let’s hope the board can recruit a couple of significant “technology company” directors from, say, Silicon Valley to contribute to the experience spectrum and strategic executive networking.
4. Then there’s one other key role for a CEO: Establishing and rebuilding key business relationships is one additional benchmark for measuring the new CEO’s success. One responsibility for any CEO is to build and maintain credibility, especially when it comes to dealing with key business partners, not only major software vendors, carriers and suppliers but also with business customers – all at a CxO level.  While they certainly built a major player in the wireless industry, with all the recent turmoil it became apparent that Mike and Jim had burned themselves out. As shown at Microsoft with Bill Gates becoming Chief Software Architect (in the years prior to his retirement), it is necessary to keep on board the founding visionary in a consultative role for at least a couple of years. Mike Lazaradis can continue to bring technology experience and vision that can benefit the company as long as he remains a reference resource and not an impact on operations.
5. Finally on the issue of break-up. It’s not an option; a breakup would destroy the company. As mentioned when the Playbook was first launched, RIM has a significant portfolio of wireless and handheld device assets. It also has services such as its network operations centres that ensure both security and minimum wireless spectrum overhead. But history shows that one needs to control the entire ecosystem to have a successful product line – need I mention Apple? On the other hand RIM’s technology, especially with QNX and its user base, opens doors for unique applications (as shown with the Porsche demonstration). It’s the integrated options available that can create the true value. The challenge here is to find the “killer” apps or set of apps that can uniquely distinguish Playbook and BlackBerry as real time communications devices and not simply a content delivery device. Thorsten explains it quite well in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cQyZKukGQ8

Bottom LIne: RIM is turning out to be an interesting business case study. Here’s a company that has over $20B in annual sales, $1.5B in cash, 75,000,000 users, no debt and so far has remained profitable. It has a major patent portfolio and unparalled wireless expertise in areas such as security and efficient data delivery. Without QNX we would not even be having this discussion and RIM would really be struggling – their old OS had outgrown its viability. In  some ways RIM is in a position most “startups” would be envious to be in.

Yet there’s the declining market share in its major market where it can only offer its current product line for another six to nine months; however, it’s still a major market leader in many other markets (U.K., Indonesia, etc.) Yet, by its new CEO’s admission it’s still got “traces of a startup”. RIM is certainly in a reboot stage but … can it re-establish itself with the combination of new market positioning, internal restructuring and a culture change to more disciplined operations? The real focus needs to be on fixing the internal operations as much as on external marketing. Unfortunately this was only buried in one CEO video from RIM whereas the media and analysts wanted to feed on sound bites about “no need to change the overall strategy”.

The only way to really measure performance of a new CEO is to set benchmarks. Presented here are five major ones that must be addressed in the next six to nine months if RIM is to succeed. As mentioned in this interview with a local Kitchener-Waterloo radio station, Thorsten needs time to demonstrate he can provide the team leadership required to pull this off.

Here’s a Financial Post story about a change that’s been in play for the past few months: Ottawa taking centre stage in RIM’s future.

(The Tweet above appeared as i was writing this paragraph. “Porter terminal” is the downtown Toronto airport; Bay St. is the Canadian equivalent of Wall Street.)

Full disclosure: My first interest is in seeing over 8,000 Canadian jobs (not to overlook all those in other countries) preserved but while meeting a market need. But this video also demonstrates the impact of RIM on the Kitchener-Waterloo community.

I have an iPad (and had an iPhone until it was lost recently – yes, I’ll replace it), a BlackBerry Torch 9800 and a Playbook. Having them all is necessary to fully understand the dynamics of the market. (I’ve had some exposure to Android devices and many acquaintances with them.) Apple’s record quarterly performance results announced yesterday certainly reinforce the need for RIM to find a unique market niche; even Tim Cook at Apple recognized that the Amazon Fire is first and foremost an e-reader and not a tablet competitor to iPad.

While in the past I have held RIM shares (since 1998) at the moment my holding is minimal.  I have never worked at RIM nor had RIM as a client. I have frequently visited Waterloo and its university for over thirty years and have attended most of their annual meetings during that time.

My only other bias probably arises from the fact that I also hold advanced degrees in Physics and Business; the combination of a physicist and experienced technology business person can be brutal when it comes to seeking success. You learn to pay attention to details, delegate, set goals and yet understand where opportunities can arise. (And I once worked for 18 months in Germany as a physicist in a business environment.)

Related articles

• Interview with Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development (blogs.blackberry.com)
• QNX: RIM’s last hope? (business.financialpost.com)
• RIM CEO: QNX to Be BlackBerry’s Foundation for a Decade (phonescoop.com)
• CES 2012: RIM Pins Hopes on PlayBook 2 Software (forbes.com)

When I received a “Mention” on a Tweet earlier this week:

my curiosity was piqued. Obviously Marcus had read one of my previous posts about CounterPath’s Bria on the iPad and iPhone and had encountered the CounterPath name in association with a new Rogers service. Over the years CounterPath has become associated with providing IP-based communications clients for enterprise, carrier and consumer use on PC’s, smartphones and tablets.

After some investigation it turns out that this past Monday Rogers sent an email to many of its consumer wireless customers asking them to take part in a beta program for a forthcoming service called Rogers One Number.

The concept basically is to provide a PC softphone that is associated with a wireless account such that conversations can be mirrored onto your PC through a web browser plugin on a Windows or Mac PC. Exchange SMS text messages, place and receive voice calls, there’s even a hint of a video call option in call management menu.

So what does this service deliver? From a web browser you can:

• synchronize contacts with your wireless device address book
• receive and place voice calls
• send and receive SMS messages

Going forward it appears Rogers One Number will also offer:

• links to Rogers Yahoo Mail and GMail
• receive and place video calls

All conversation activity, initiated or received on the softphone, is also reflected on the wireless phone(s)associated with the account. For instance, at this time, a call to my BlackBerry not only rings on my BlackBerry but also results in a call notification on my desktop PC. If I have missed a call a small “missed call” notification appears near the system tray on Windows PC’s. Text messages sent from the softphone also show up under text messages on the BlackBerry. And the service also applies for iPhone or Android phones.

So how does CounterPath come into the picture? When setting up the service there is a CounterPath End User License agreement to be accepted; also Norton Utilities identifies the plugin software as coming from CounterPath. CounterPath’s business model, in their OEM activities, involves providing the chat messaging along with voice and video calling infrastructure behind a user interface designed to an enterprise or carrier  customer’s specifications. In this case Rogers Wireless is the CounterPath customer who is responsible for the final user interface.

From a start-up page a wireless customer can register for the service; once confirmed via SMS messaging of a PIN number you are taken to a setup wizard where you need to enter key information, including a physical location for associating with e911 services. At that point you are asked to download a browser plugin for either Windows or Mac. Once you relaunch the browser you can open up the portal at the user interface and start using the service.

Once set up I made a few test calls with good quality voice. On placing a voice call (green phone icon in the Header bar above) a small call management client appears with options to escalate to video, place a call on hold and end a call. The upper icon bar includes a call log, a dial pad and a settings menu associated with the audio and video hardware. The lower icon bar covers mic mute,switch between multiple calls, switch between “headphones” and “speakerphone” and add a third party for a conference call. The program automatically had designated my FREETALK Everyman Headset as the headphone and Yamaha SoundGadget speakerphone as the speakerphone.

The main question re the video is who can you have a video conversation with? At the moment it would appear to only work with calls where both parties were using the Rogers One Number portal where you can set up video. On a voice call to my Skype client (calling my Skype Online number), the client appears to support the G729 codec; however, given that CounterPath is now incorporating Skype’s SILK into other products, there may be a future opportunity to wider audio bandwidth calling – at least between Rogers One Number web portals, if not to the wireless device itself.

Also of interest is the line “My web phone Emergency Address”. This is the initial setting that one enters when working through the setup wizard addressing a CRTC requirement for support of emergency services.

The images below show the dial pad and audio/video settings. Of significant interest is the potential for support of HD video should a webcam support it. However, until I can find a party who can receive a video call, we won’t know the full answer.

Bottom line: The Rogers One Number client is a recognition that many users have only a wireless phone and a PC; landlines are losing customers, especially with the “under 35” demographic. It’s a convenience that allows their consumer customers to make and receive calls on a PC in parallel with calling activity on the wireless phone. As analyst Jon Arnold mentions in his post, Rogers Wireless “One Number” Launch – Upping the Stakes:

The twist with One Number is that it’s built around the mobile phone, which is pretty much where consumers live, breath and sleep these days….

Anyhow, it’s very much a Web 2.0-meets mobility-meets VoIP mashup, and I think consumers will love it. Most people under 30 have long moved on from a landline, and with One Number, their PC simply becomes an extension of their smartphone – you just don’t need anything else.

To go back to the original Tweet that triggered this post, is it flaky? No, but it’s still in beta. There are a few issues that need to be addressed; however, it certainly addresses the basic requirements of providing PC access to conversation activity associated with a wireless device. Its feature set is not at the level of Skype for both functionality and ease of navigation but it will certainly provide the basic text messaging along with voice and video calling features. (And text messaging will generate SMS revenues for Rogers.)

If there is one major disappointment, it’s that Rogers elected to use a web browser plugin instead of an independent client; that makes it somewhat clumsy to access along with the requirement for always having a browser open. And the browser plugin needs a fair bit of desktop real estate in order to be fully seen; not a client you can put to one side such as Skype or Trillian.

One other question: will this service also incorporate some aspect of social networking where it can follow Facebook and Twitter activity? Given it was subtitled, by default, “My Social Hub” I would expect it to include these features also.

With respect to that most important feature called price – other than to realize there can be associated SMS revenues, we still have not heard what the pricing model is for using Rogers One Number voice and video calls. Most likely it will follow the Rogers Home Phone long distance model where calls from a Rogers Home Phone customer to other Rogers Home Phone customers or Rogers Wireless customers within Canada have no associated long distance charges.

From a wireless carrier business perspective Rogers One Number is a feature that introduces unique competitive positioning into a Canadian market where six carriers are now looking for customers. For that reason I cannot see any other charges beyond what is currently charged for wireless services.

Check out Jon Arnold’s complete post for another perspective.

Yesterday long time acquaintance Andy Abramson put up a post Skype on Three-Me Too, Me Also, No Longer Me Different where he states “Now 3 no longer has the same Skype service in the UK…” and concludes with “…. now Skype is back to being just a IM based calling service online with a few hooks to the PSTN”. I beg to differ.

Andy is talking about 3’s Skype service that was launched in late 2007 using a hybrid solution that allowed IM and call signalling data to be handled over the data channel while the actual voice call went over the carrier’s GSM voice channel. It provided a way to make free calls to Skype contacts worldwide while using SkypeOut for calls to the PSTN outside the home country. In fact I was on a 40 minute call with a 3 user on the INQ phone earlier today; however it’s lifetime as a service appears to be coming to an end.

Skype on 3 also was significant in building a customer base for 3 who was a fledgling 3G service trying to enter a U.K. market dominated by somewhat larger players. At the time all the reviews were positive; it was well received by a younger demographic keen to expand their social networking circles. Initially the service was offered on “brew”-based 3 Skypephones; later it also became available on the “brew”-based INQ phone with its social networking features. However, for infrastructure It did require “gateway” servers using iSkoot’s software that had developed this protocol. And, as pointed out in an iSkoot presentation at the initial eComm 2008 there were royalties paid to both Skype and iSkoot associated with the monthly subscriptions involved. From the carrier perspective, the economic key to providing this unlimited calling service was that Skype-to-Skype calls had no termination charges as they go direct to the end user contact without any requirement for termination by another carrier.

In the spring of 2010, Verizon launched its Skype mobile service using a similar protocol to much fanfare. Skype’s carrier-specific arrangement with Telus was very different with respect to the services offered, especially the Skype client and the associated Android phone.

But times are changing; the key for addressing these changes is how 3, working with Skype, can make a transition that keeps their customer base while offering Skype calling through alternative arrangements:

• Brew-based phones have been outsmarted by smartphones from Apple, Android and RIM. I would imagine today’s demand for an INQ or 3 Skypephone has diminished to a level that does not encourage further manufacturing.
• Skype has since launched full Skype clients on iPhone and Android phones, offering not only chat and voice but also video calling.
• Not only do these clients  use the data channel of wireless carriers for voice and video but they also support Skype’s SILK codec for optimum voice quality.
• Data plan rates have come down by orders of magnitude from charges four years ago; the launch of iPhone helped drive these down.
• There is carrier and Skype overhead in running the iSkoot servers at 3.
• I would imagine, partly based on some anecdotal information, that many of 3’s customers who had 3 Skypephone and INQ phones have migrated to other phones. While both iPhone and Android phones are market players in the U.K. that same youth demographic actually has been strongly attracted to BlackBerry and its BlackBerry Messenger feature.

The bottom line is that the entire mobile market has evolved and 3’s initial Skype calling service has been left in the dust. Skype says these services are still operating in U.K., Australia and Ireland, probably due to the current size of the user base yet they will go away in the near future.  However, at some point I would imagine 3 would have to be working on a strategy to phase out its initial Skype service and transition their customers to newer platforms.

As for “No Longer Me Different” it is too simplistic to say Skype only offers IM and voice services duplicated by others. From both Tony Bates’ post, Tony Bates Weighs in on Microsoft’s Acquisition of Skype, and the accompanying infographic, expect to see a heavy emphasis on Skype’s video calling where there has been no duplication that combines the available resolutions (VGA, HD), frame rates (30 fps, 22 fps) and minimum network upload speed requirements by any other service provider. Of course there is also the other strength of having over 170 million active users that remains a key differentiator.

While 3 has definitely demonstrated the demand for Skype services on mobile platforms, both the market players and underlying wireless carrier infrastructure have changed over the past four years. The questions that arise include:

• How long will Verizon continue with its Skype mobile offering? We have already seen Verizon’s plans for offering Skype over its LTE network using Android phones where the focus was on video calling.
• While Verizon’s service could be replaced with Skype for Android on its Android phones, what would happen to its BlackBerry customers who would not have a native Skype for BlackBerry client?
• Can Skype address the battery drain issue on both Skype for iPhone and Skype for Android to provide users with the same user experience as Skype mobile in terms of recharging frequency?

It’s easy to want to position a perception that other players can be competitors of Skype; however, the real challenge for MicroSkype is how to build a business that justifies a $8.5B purchase price, not how to skirmish over services whose usefulness and viability has been overtaken by the evolution of the market participants and carrier infrastructure.

Full disclosure: the author has made the only 3 Skypephone call on the Rogers network back in early 2008. Ten minutes cost me about $100 as Rogers did not have an iSkoot server available.

Today Skype announced the release of Skype for Android 2.5 with support for 14 additional phones, taking the total of supported phones to 41. Notably, Skype for Android is now supporting five Motorola phones, the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG Optimus models, including the LG Optimus Black that has a Skype edition for TELUS customers. A complete list of supported phones can be found on the Android Market (click on the “more” button).

Update Dec. 16, 2011: Skype released Skype for Android 2.6 which provides hotfixes for several issues reported by users.

Other notable features include:

• Enhanced video on several models: including switching between landscape and portrait mode and zooming in through a simple double tap on the screen; video calling enabled by default on more devices
• Improved support for Bluetooth headsets
• Revised user interface for message history
• Support for joining a (multi-party?) call
• Support for editing and deleting messages
• Advertising for non-paying subscribers, continuing a program previously announced for Skype for Mac 5.4, and Skype for iPhone/iPad 3.5.

In the direction towards a more common user interface across all Skype clients Skype’s Garage Blog elaborates on the “Revised user interface for message history”:

The main notable changes to the message history views are that we are now grouping the instant messages, calls, etc. all together. Skype 2.5 for Android works now exactly the same as your Skype on Windows or Mac already.

The Skype Garage Blog post also provides more details on the new features as well as a list of known issues. The one issue not mentioned is whether Skype is taking any initiative to improve the impact on battery life.

One caveat: for several of the models make sure you have the latest version of Android (2.2 or 2.3, as appropriate).

This release continues the recent stream of Skype upgrades where we are seeing enhanced video calling support and a move towards more consistency in the user interface across platforms, such as support for editing and removing messages.  But one cannot overlook the move towards more revenue generation through either advertising or encouraging purchase of Skype credit or a Skype calling plan subscription. Certainly the latter is helping to build value for the post-Microsoft acquisition days.

(Note there is a hotfilx upgrade for this version; more information here.)

Yesterday afternoon, for the first time, I was able to make a Skype-to-Skype call from my car using Skype for iPhone over a 3G/HSPA+ wireless service and the Bluetooth connection to my car audio system. I held a (legal) hands-free conversation with a contact in the U.K.; in fact at one point, while waiting to make a turn, I was able to use the rear-facing video camera for a few seconds where he saw, referring to the video quality, a “very fit” lady running down the sidewalk and across the intersection.

Yesterday Skype released new versions of Skype for iOS devices, namely Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad. The main features promoted by Skype include anti-shake technology and the Bluetooth connectivity mentioned above. However, I also found a couple of additional changes:

• restoration of the ability to access the dial pad during a Skype-to-Skype call; this is necessary to work with PBX’s that can be called via a Skype for business SkypeID using Skype Connect.
• a new call management bar on Skype for iPhone that is more consistent with the call management bar on Skype for iPad and Skype for Mac.

While most of these are self-explanatory, the anti-shake technology probably is best explained through this video; basically it compensates for small movements of your hand while showing a video via the rear camera on the device.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLKE58eA-S8

As mentioned above I made a Skype-to-Skype call from my car to a U.K.-based contact where:

• the Bluetooth connection using my car’s audio system for the speaker/mic worked quite well
• there was crystal clear audio due to the use of Skype’s SILK codec technology
• the other party confirmed that the anti-shake technology appeared to be working for the ~30 seconds when I could use the rear webcam while managing hands-free driving (that’s the law in Ontario)
• one could access the dial pad

Three screen shots to show how the new call management bar works:

• Clicking on the blue “+” icon, second from the right, provides access to the dialpad and chat session
• Selecting the dial pad brings up the dial pad shown
• Clicking on the video camera icon allows selection of the front- or rear-facing camera on the device.
• Clicking on the center icon, initial image above, allows selection of the device’s internal speaker/mic or an external earpiece/mic connected via the 3.5mm audio jack

Four other points to note:

• The new version delivers advertising if you don’t have Skype credit or a Skype Calling Plan subscription; this expands a policy launched with the release of Skype for Mac 5.4 two weeks ago.
• A security issue on Skype for iPhone has been addressed; probably the one reported last week.
• This upgrade supports iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, 2nd and 3rd Generation iPod Touch, and both iPad and iPad 2, running iOS 4.
• During an earlier call to the same Contact between his iPhone and my Skype for Windows, the video transmitted from my PC started out at VGA resolution but dropped down to 160 x 120 resolution, probably to match more closely the 192 x 144 resolution that the iPhone delivers for video calling.

Bottom line: Skype for iPhone 3.5 addresses some user feedback issues, especially when it comes to the Bluetooth connectivity as well as a couple of housekeeping issues that had arisen with previous versions. The new Call Management bar also provides more consistency although it would also be useful if one could see call connection quality information, such as has appeared in previous versions.

It’s not quite at the point where I could say “Call James B. on Skype” whereas, using my BlackBerry, I can say “Call James B. mobile” in a totally hands free way. I had to park the car to launch the call via the
Skype client; for most of the call the front-facing camera showed the retracted windshield shades. It would also certainly be useful to have a mounting bracket above the dashboard to hold the iPhone such that the rear camera can show where you are going during a video call; otherwise one needs a passenger to hold the phone safely.

Note: A few hours after the release was announced Skype came out with a notification that there were a couple of issues with respect to loading Skype contacts – which I’ve noticed – and showing Skype credit. While Skype has provided a work around involving uninstalling and reinstalling the application, we should be expecting a hotfix release in the next couple of days to address these issues. Update – 28/9 evening – the hotfix update that resolves the contact sync issue is now available.

Alec checks out the original iPad while attending eComm 2010

About 20 years ago I was managing the Canadian operation of Quarterdeck, publisher of the very popular QEMM-386 memory manager for DOS. During that period Microsoft decided they needed to upgrade DOS to include some memory management features in DOS 5 and later DOS 6. Somehow the genius developer team at Quarterdeck always managed to stay a couple of versions ahead of the DOS feature set. But the experience also led me to meet Microsoft’s Canadian Product Manager for DOS, Alec Saunders. We jousted about our products but I also came to appreciate Alec as a respected player at Microsoft.

When I went to Los Angeles a year or two later to work with Quarterdeck on a corporate restructuring I needed to have meetings at Microsoft Redmond (don’t ask about the business reason – cause I forgot). I learned that Alec had moved to Redmond. One call to him ensured that I had the meetings I needed; we continued to cross paths as he moved on to become the first product manager for Internet Explorer (yes, Quarterdeck had a great browser – with tabs – but did not understand the Internet culture of beta testing), and we would always meet up at Comdex, amongst other shows.

Alec returned to Canada in 2000 where he worked with a successful Real Time Operating System company, called QNX – a company about which I had learned in the mid-80’s during my frequent trips to Ottawa. A year later he took up a business development position with a telecom equipment vendor. About four years later we met up again as he was considering the launch of a start-up that eventually became known as iotum with a conferencing product called CalliFlower. You will find many posts here about the evolution of CalliFlower. For about a year Alec hosted his daily SquawkBox conference call when a crowd of up to 20 to 30 enthusiasts would talk about IP-communications industry issues, meet several of the players as featured guests and contribute to the development of Calliflower’s feature set. During this time Alec gained experience developing applications for Facebook and the iPhone.

What I really came to appreciate is not only how well Alec understood the technology behind today’s IP-based communications and wireless technology but also about how well he understood the business and personal communications issues related to building a strong developer program for a platform. The combination of his Microsoft, QNX, Versatel and iotum start-up experience made him a frequent reference point for not only obtaining background on issues but also, often, my posts.

A few months ago I learned that Alec had commenced some consulting with RIM covering business development activities involving developer relations. I also was certainly having my own questions about how RIM was proceeding not only with their BlackBerry partners but also with the Playbook. It was pretty obvious that RIM was struggling on that front, especially when it came to developer relations. Alec could bring a lot to the table for RIM.

Towards the end of July I made a Skype call to Alec only to learn that he was on his first day on the job as Vice-President, Developer Relations for RIM. His initial focus is on the PlayBook, working with the QNX team in his home city of Ottawa (but probably now a frequent commuter to RIM Headquarters in Waterloo). Andy’s post yesterday made this public; the only previous external clues that something had changed were his occasional inquiries on Twitter and Facebook about how to use a MacBook Pro; it can now be disclosed why these queries were arising.

If RIM continues to hire experienced professionals of Alec’s caliber, it only improves RIM’s chances for success built around the QNX platform. Having been aware of QNX for over 25 years I learned that they have the most robust, crash-free operating system available – you can fly an airplane with it. It has several features that support true multitasking on multi-core processor platforms. QNX has a most compelling customer base as exemplified here. The challenge here is to leverage QNX’s key features and RIM’s historical enterprise pedigree to bring about a Playbook that takes off in directions that the iPad cannot touch. Suffice it to say there is a path to follow and it does not rely on being a direct competitor to the iPad. Is this a hint?.

Gizmodo defines Alec’s challenge here:

BlackBerry App World is like the sad broken-down amusement park your dad takes you to because when he was a kid it was the only place that had a log flume. You got behind with devs. You got beat. Get them back. Microsoft’s doing it—slowly, surely—with Windows Phone, and you can too. It’s going to take money, sure, but considering how many wasted investments you’ve been willing to make recently you might as well splurge on something useful.

You’ve got time before QNX makes its phone debut. Use that time to line up as many major devs as you can. Don’t just make BlackBerry a QWERTY storefront for Android apps. We have that already. It’s called Droid.

Bottom line: A strong developer relations program is only one critical component to RIM’s success. While Alec brings a lot to the table, RIM’s biggest challenge is to quickly build a disruptive platform that can become a market leader in its own niche.

Three months ago Skype and TELUS announced an agreement whereby TELUS Mobility, a Canadian carrier, would become proactive in supporting Skype through several initiatives:

• Providing full platform and customer support for the use of Skype on iPhones and Android phones
• Offering a Skype edition LG Optimus Black phone powered by Android with a pre-installed Skype client, support for Bluetooth connectivity and 60 minutes of SkypeOut calling
• Purchase of Skype credit in $5, $10 and $20 amounts charged to the customer’s TELUS account
• Offering Skype with TELUS’ Data Flex Plan whereby data charges are automatically incremented with increased usage. For instance, using <500MB in one month will cost $35 but using 1MB to 2MB in the subsequent month would cost $55.

Late last week I received promotional emails from Skype (in fact, one email for every Skype account registered in my name) that would appear to be going to Skype’s Canadian users. This is the first indication that TELUS is now executing on their agreement with Skype.

On scanning the TELUS Mobility website:

• Skype is proactively being promoted on any iPhone with iOS 4.0 and any Android phone with at least Android 2.1
• Skype credit can be purchased either from a telusmobility.com web page or via a text message that delivers the link for purchase.
• Skype effectively becomes the recommended international long distance service for any of the supported phones
• TELUS is deploying Skype on their 4G network with 21Mbps speeds, being upgraded in many locations to 42Mbps and LTE over the next few months. However, they expect users to see download speeds of 4-6 Mbps in practice.
• Skype is also being heavily promoted on their recently released Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G running under Android 2.3. A $29.99 purchase price requires a minimum $50/month voice and data plan.

The one cautionary note is battery life. As mentioned in a previous post covering Skype for Android,  when running Skype, battery life can be shortened to as little as 3 to 4 hours. This is reinforced on some otherwise very favourable TELUS user comments on the Samsung Galaxy S phone (click on the Reviews tab):

It does have a good battery life, as long as you are closing your apps and other programs properly. Leave stuff open, watch too much video, use the camera, and other battery-draining apps, and yes you will run your battery dry in 1/2 a day. Use it in moderation, along with your casual texting and communication tasks and you will be fine for a day’s worth.

The combination of a 4G Samsung Galaxy S Android phone with Android 2.3 should be sufficient for making Skype video calls on the Fascinate 4G. However, as TELUS is effectively pre-installing a Skype client on these phones, they need to complete some testing and Android software upgrades before confirming that video calling works. In the meantime, if you are able to have a video call experience with either of these phones, please enter a Comment below. TELUS did inform me that video calling will work with the forthcoming 4G Samsung Galaxy S II X .

Skype’s support by TELUS is different from its previous offerings with Verizon in that TELUS is supporting a full Skype for Android peer-to-peer Skype client delivering Instant Messaging, participation in Skype multi-party calls and mood message – and it works over an LTE network. Based on other Skype for Android features it should include native address book integration; as discussed above it certainly has the potential to work with Skype video calling.

The initial Verizon service is a voice and Instant messaging service over a 3G network with no potential for video calling due to its underlying calling architecture which also requires gateway server overhead. On the other hand Verizon did announce plans, at CES, for offering new Android phones that would run Skype, including video calling, on their forthcoming LTE network. (But Andy Abramson seems to be having difficulty with video calling of any kind specifically on Verizon.)

Bottom line: TELUS is now offering full support of Skype on iOS devices and designated Android phones, where the latter is providing customers with a seamless path to both acquiring and sustaining Skype services. Provided they have an appropriate data plan users can make free voice (and video?) calls worldwide to their Skype contacts and low cost international calls to landlines and mobile phones worldwide.

For Skype it becomes another contribution to SkypeOut revenues; there is no mention of any royalty arrangements when it comes to revenues generated associated with the purchase of Skype-enabled Android phones. TELUS, as Canada’s third wireless carrier in subscriber base, demonstrates its aggressiveness once again through a unique offering in the Canadian market. While making it available to their existing customer base, time will tell if Skype support becomes a primary reason for adopting Skype; I have yet to see any TELUS advertising promoting  Skype.

Related articles

• Skype joins forces with TELUS to bring affordable international calling rates to customers in Canada (blogs.skype.com)
• Skype 2.1 for Android enables video on majority of Android devices (blogs.skype.com)

Today I came across a post by Tom Keating at TMCnet advising of a security vulnerability in Skype for iPhone 3.0.1 and possibly Skype for iPad if it is a full iOS issue. Dan York has subsequently written about it, including a statement from Skype:

We are working hard to fix this reported issue in our next planned release which we hope to roll out imminently. In the meantime, we always recommend people exercise caution in only accepting friend requests from people they know and practice common sense Internet security as always. [Author’s bold]

Both posts include a video demonstrating the vulnerability posted by the initial reporter of the vulnerability at the SUPEREVR Security Blog .

Bottom line is “know your contacts”. As Dan states:

Skype’s mitigation recommendation is a good one as the default privacy setting is typically that you can only receive chat messages from people on your Contact list. Therefore, the attacker would have to be someone who you have authorized and added to your contact list.

Hopefully we will see a new release of Skype for iPhone any day now and, if also affected, Skype for iPad. In the meantime “practice safe Skype” by knowing your contacts.

On Friday PamConsult released PamFax for iPad, providing access to PamFax services from the most natural platform format for replacing a fax machine (or the fax feature of an All-in-One Printer).

In practice PamConsult, publisher of PamFax, actually released a new version of PamFax for iOS 4 with sensitivity to whether on an iPhone or iPad when displaying the user interface. The iPad version, which displays most completely in landscape mode, takes advantage of the iPad display size to present extra user guidance information on launching the application:

PamFax for iPad follows the usual five or six steps inherent to the PamFax sending process:

• selecting files (from the iPad – including photos, Dropbox, Google Docs or Box.net),
• entering a destination fax number (manual entry or from iPad Contacts),
• optionally selecting a cover page
• selecting fax progress and delivery notifications (via email, Skype Chat and/or SMS)
• checking for PamFax credits and
• submitting a fax for delivery.

In lieu of accessing the PamFax user portal, the Folders, Buy PamFax Credit and Settings buttons shown above take over the primary functions of the PamFax portal. For instance the Folders tab offers a menu for access to an Inbox, Outbox, Sent and Trash-bin folders.

Each of the folders provides almost instantaneous access to individual faxes and the ability to easily view them. In fact, I find this process easier than accessing them via the web-based PamFax user portal (although they are also available there).

It’s fast on delivery: On my test fax – with all steps handled on the iPad — (selected a file from a Dropbox folder, added a cover page, sent the file to my PamFax Inbound number and viewed the resulting file in PamFax Inbox – another Dropbox folder), the time between Sending the fax and Receiving it in the Inbox was somewhat less than a minute. This reflects recent “Summer Release 2011” to the PamFax “Back office” infrastructure that has significantly improved fax delivery speed. As is normal with any PamFax transmission, notifications can be sent via email, Skype chat and/or SMS messages.

Bottom Line: at this point I am cancelling my Bell Canada fax line and using my iPad as my primary fax “machine”. The only feature for which I need a PC are the scanner on my All-in-One multifunction scanner/printer for importing original document scans; in that case I can use PamFax on my PC or MacBook Pro for sending these faxes.

I am replacing a $15/month phone line with an all-inclusive $8.70 per month Professional Plan service, including 20 free faxes per month and ongoing archival fax storage, and low “per page” charges for sending additional fax pages (in lieu of using Bell Canada long distance for sending faxes internationally). A Basic Plan and Pay-As-You-Go On Demand service are also available.

Now if PamFax could just add a SkypeOut link to the “Remove this number from our Fax list” number at the bottom of every “spam” fax.

Voice On The Web’s Skype Reference Guide, under Hosted Services, provides a complete overview of PamFax: Obligation-Free Fax Worldwide On Demand.

Full disclosure: while the author has purchased a PamFax subscription (and cancelled a phone line for fax use), some links on this page lead to participation in the PamFax affiliate program.

Related articles

• Whither Skype Extras Today? Withered? (voiceontheweb.biz)

Yesterday came the first firm indications of the imminent arrival of Skype for iPad. It’s been hotly sought out in Google searches and Skype users have long regarded Skype for iPhone as somewhat pathetic when running on an iPad, especially in 2x mode.  With the iPad’s much larger display and, with iPad 2, its video features a dedicated Skype for iPad offers interesting possibilities, especially for turning an iPad into a unique video phone. The first indication of its appearance was this video on MacRumors where someone had captured a temporary YouTube placement by Skype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5G_CkPfDOU

Then came the review on CNET; this post on TUAW provides comments from an interview with Rick Osterloh, Skype Head of Consumer Product Management. But I had my first interview about Skype for iPad with Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President and General Manager for Consumer at CES last January. The main takeaway from that interview: Skype has hired a user interface expert to design the UI for Skype for iPad. Skype wanted to get a fresh approach to the user experience.

Some comments re Skype for iPad:

• Initial response to the video have been positive about the user experience; however, we all need to try it out ourselves.
• With Skype Everywhere – on PC’s, iPhone, Android, TV sets and BluRay players – and the ability to call the PSTN worlwide – it’s not really competition for FaceTime but rather establishes the standards benchmark for cross platform video and voice calling.
• Having had an iPad for six months, it has become, as predicted at the time of the initial iPad announcement, my electronic briefcase. I rarely take a briefcase or even my Macbook when out of my home office, just the iPad. Applications such as Skype for iPad (and even Facetime) are an extension of the iPad’s functionality “beyond the briefcase” into user engagement. (Although I do seem to recall often carrying my mobile phone in my briefcase.)
• The tablet provides an ideal form factor and display size for a video call on a mobile device; easily carried about; no squinting to see the video (unless in direct sunlight). With its much larger battery, it will be interesting to see Skype for iPad’s impact on battery life. Once experienced by consumers Skype for iPad could help accelerate iPad 2’s sales growth.
• The cnet review, linked above, covered Skype for iPad’s performance over WiFi (excellent) and 3G (good enough). However, recently I dropped my iPad 3G subscription with Rogers when iOS4 became available on my iPhone. When I want to connect my iPad over a 3G connection, I simply turn on the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot and use the iPad’s WiFi via the Personal Hotspot as my only Internet connection. It will be interesting to test reception of a video call on my “original” iPad over this connection.
• While obviously the audio can be handled over the iPad’s 3.5mm audio jack, it should also work with USB headsets via the iPad’s Camera Connection kit as the USB adapter.
• One key assumption: given the support on Skype for iPhone, Skype for iPad should be expected to supports Skype’s SILK codec on Skype-to-Skype calls.

Finally, if I had an iPad 2 I could see making the iPad as my primary Skype device. It won’t be hindered by having multiple applications running as on a PC and it’s a very convenient overall form factor. And it’s easily portable with no cables attached. In fact it becomes closer to a large desktop phone (for the same reasons Bria for iPad can become a business desktop phone replacement). Let’s come to that decision once we’ve had actual experience with Skype for iPad.

Hopefully, as rumored, we’ll see Skype for iPad become available about the same time as Skype’s Jonathan Christensen speaks on Tuesday at eComm America 2011.

Final question: is there a hint there of having the same call bar as Skype 5.5 beta for Windows? That would be a contributor to consistency in the user interface.

Related articles

• Skype for iPad coming next week? (intomobile.com)
• Bria for iPad: Putting an IP Phone on the iPad (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Using Skype on iPad – Helping Navigate Canada’s Newest Air Travel Service (voiceontheweb.pmlo.org)
• Skype is coming to the iPad (gigaom.com)

Last week Skype and TELUS Mobility announced an agreement, where Canada’s third largest national wireless carrier will be closely working with Skype for free Skype-to-Skype and low cost SkypeOut international calling. While Canadians can use Skype for iPhone and Skype for Android on any Canadian carrier offering iPhone and Android phones, this agreement represents the first formal agreement between Skype and a Canadian wireless carrier with value-added services.

To give some background, both TELUS Mobility and Bell Mobility were spinoffs of legacy landline carriers where TELUS covers British Columbia and Alberta while Bell covers Ontario and Quebec. Since their respective cellular networks commenced operations back in the mid-1980’s , both have expanded to cover the entire county for wireless services; in TELUS’ case they acquired a major Bell/Rogers competitor who covered Ontario and Quebec.

However, whereas Rogers, the leading national carrier has always supported GSM protocols, TELUS and Bell both launched their services using the CDMA protocols (a la Verizon and Sprint in the U.S.). The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, where Bell Canada was the “official carrier”, was the stimulus for Bell Canada to upgrade their network to GSM-compatible HSPA+ service in November 2009.

But this is a large country, 90% of the Canadian population lives within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the 6,000 km (4,000 mile) U.S.-Canada border. So the capital cost for a new network infrastructure, so long yet so narrow, runs up quickly. As a result Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility partnered to build one 4G/HSPA+ network infrastructure to support the two retail operations. One ironic twist is that, at the time of the network’s launch in the fall of 2009, Bell and TELUS both launched an offering for the iPhone 3G S (and later iPhone 4) which already had support for HSPA+.

Launch of this network broke not only the Rogers Canadian monopoly on the Canadian iPhone franchise but also its monopoly on international roaming for visitors to Canada (since most of the world’s carriers supported GSM). There also occurred some legal and regulatory battles (Bell/TELUS vs Rogers) over the promotion of each network’s speed ; effectively they ended up in a draw. (Note also that Canada’s two legacy CDMA carriers were offering iPhone a year before Verizon could launch a CDMA-compliant iPhone in the U.S. market.)

From its launch in late 2009, TELUS has called their network a 4G 21Mbps network, with a speed increase to 42Mbps this year and plans to go to 4G/LTE “coming soon”. So they certainly have the data speeds required to support Skype calls over a data network using a native carrier-agnostic Skype client.

Under the leadership of CEO Darren Entwistle TELUS has been noted for aggressive, “outside-the-box” marketing initiatives that appeal especially to a younger demographic . The most recent example occurred earlier this week when, following release of a OECD report pointing out that Canadian carriers had some of the highest international roaming charges anywhere, TELUS came back immediately announcing they would be reviewing their roaming plans with a view to lowering roaming costs.

Upon reviewing the Skype/TELUS press release, along with responses to some questions I posed to Skype’s PR agency, here is how I see the positioning of the service:

• TELUS customers will be using Skype for iPhone and Skype for Android installed on the relevant devices via downloads from the respective application stores or via the web at skype.com/m.
• TELUS will be reinforcing the customer experience by providing enhanced customer support for TELUS customers using Skype on their smartphones
• Skype Credit can be purchased directly from the TELUS customer’s mobile phone with the transaction billed to his/her TELUS account
• A Skype edition LG Optimus Black phone will be launched in July by TELUS to give customers easy access to Skype through a pre-installed icon on the home screen, a detailed “getting started” guide, and Skype Credit to begin making calls to landline and mobile phones immediately
• TELUS customers will be able to make free Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide as well as use Skype’s Instant Messaging presence and chat features.
• TELUS  customers will be able to make calls to landlines outside Canada (and mobile phones in countries where phone owner pays for inbound calls) using either Skype Calling Plan subscriptions or Skype Credit on a pay-as-you-go basis.
• Carrier data charges will apply when used over the 4 G network. TELUS recommends a Data Flex plan or Wi-Fi connection when making Skype calls (according to the TELUS website)
• The Android-based LG phone will support Bluetooth connectivity (not available with Skype for iPhone currently)

Here’s my take on the announcement:

• This is Skype’s first carrier arrangement involving carrier-endorsed support of the native Skype client on a mobile smartphone as compared to the carrier-specific “Skype mobile” arrangements with Verizon and 3.
• It’s a major marketing move by TELUS to associate itself with leading edge services without the need for any major capital equipment costs (such as “Skype mobile” gateway servers) other than those already planned for their 4G evolution.
  • There are ongoing operations costs for TELUS involving marketing and customer support.
  • Skype does not have to develop a carrier-specific application for these services
• Skype’s significant data requirements will drive demand for TELUS data plan subscriptions and ARPU when the customer is making calls, including Skype-to-Skype calls, from within Canada.
• For the supported smartphones Skype basically takes over TELUS’s responsibility for managing TELUS Mobility’s international calling with Skype revenues coming from Skype Calling Plan subscriptions and Skype Credits required to make international calls to the PSTN.
• One would have to assume the above two revenue drivers would incorporate revenue sharing between TELUS and Skype.
  • Question: are there any Skype software royalties involved based on customer revenues?
• Will the LG Skypephone support Skype mobile Video that was announced for Verizon at CES 2011 or an equivalent service?
• When roaming internationally, it would be wise to turn off 3G/4G and only make Skype calls from WiFi connections in hotels, airports, restaurants, offices and other WiFi hotspots – which are quite prevalent in Europe from my own experience over the past two years.
  • Is WiFi growing as a Stealth Carrier? Can it be a viable alternative to roaming charges?
• Skype-to-Skype messaging will certainly impact TELUS revenues for SMS text messaging services but Apple’s recent iMessage announcement will probably have an even larger impact on carrier SMS messaging revenues
• With no native Skype for BlackBerry application, TELUS’s Skype service will not be available to their BlackBerry customers.

One final but very important concern: will the supported phones have enough battery life to support this initiative? I have covered this issue previously with some suggestions.

And one irony: While there are no Canadian Skype Online numbers available due to a conflict between a regulatory issue and Skype’s past policies re e911 services, TELUS Mobility customers can now set up as many as ten Skype Online numbers in any of the 26 countries (U.S., U.K. included) where Skype Online numbers are available. Calling a “local” Skype Online number in those countries, an “expat” relative or overseas customer can reach a TELUS Mobility customer via Skype on a call that would have no termination charge revenue for TELUS.

Bottom line: Skype is once again being endorsed for its ability to be a marketing tool that attracts a younger “always-on” demographic seeking lower cost communications and new communications services. Skype is a service that has a low implementation cost for TELUS while taking advantage of their higher speed network, yet expands TELUS’s appeal to a country where international communications plays a significant role not only for business but also for the various ethnic communities that want to keep in touch with relatives and friends in their country of ethnic origin.

We look forward to following its actual implementation, especially the launch of the LG Skypephone and its feature set, over the next couple of months.

With today’s announcement of Microsoft’s intention to acquire Skype, subject to regulatory approvals, Skype has received the endorsement required to be considered a long term, viable and stable service addressing both consumer and enterprise markets.

From the press conference and press release:

• Skype will continue as a brand and an independent business unit within Microsoft. There is significant value when your brand name has become a verb in the English language (and one that translates readily to all other languages).
• Skype will continue to support “Skype Everywhere” on Mac’s, Linux, iPhones/iPads, Android phones, TV and other devices – a key requirement to maintaining and growing its current base of over 170 million active users. (This was one condition of closing the deal but execution is key; the first test will be the revamp of the Skype for Mac 5 user interface.)
• Skype has a strong basic revenue generating business; at this point it should be profitable but certainly has had good EBIDTA.
• Skype now has 170 million active users (in the past quarter), as many as 30 million online concurrently at its daily peak and growing the accounts at a rate of over 600,000 per day.
• Outlook is a key initial application for integration into current Microsoft products; Microsoft Lync will be taking advantage of Skype’s underlying technology where appropriate and feasible.

My initial thoughts:

• Keep in mind that Microsoft has bought a communications software company; one of the biggest challenges will be the integration of the software development activities across what has to be at least two different product management and software development cultures.
• Microsoft brings to the table a new level of business process and product management expertise from which Skype will benefit significantly.
• Only Microsoft has the resources – technical, product and business – that can be leveraged to justify an $8.5B buyout price (and give the current investors ~150% return on their investment over 18 months). With opportunities to enhance Office products, add technology to Microsoft Lync and complement other collaboration product such as the Sharepoint platform, they can readily get their investment back within a few years.
• Skype has found a permanent home.
• Skype can now focus totally on product and service development without the distraction of seeking financing (and the associated endorsement).

Some questions:

• How will the two companies’ instant messaging services be brought together? Skype chat offers a richer chat experience, especially given the ability to rapidly escalate to a superior voice and video conversation and to provide complements such as file transfer.
• What will happen to the Skype Store and associated hardware? While Skype has supported and sold products from several hardware vendors, Microsoft’s limited hardware offering (of mice and keyboards) is sold via traditional PC hardware retail distribution channels. Yet much of the hardware has been designed, with assistance from the Skype-certified program, to take full advantage of Skype’s inherent technology.
• Skype has been attempting  to address the large enterprise market with its Skype Connect program; yet we have heard of no successes. Microsoft Lync is a large enterprise product that can probably take advantage of Skype’s inherent technology while delivering an offering that meets the concerns of enterprise communications managers. However, what will Skype be doing to support the small to medium business market – where over 35% of its users say they are using Skype in business?
• What impact will the time required to deal with regulatory issues be on the development and launch of upgrades and new products ? We were told at the press conference no road map will become available until these regulatory issues have been addressed such that the acquisition can be completed. Yet innovation, business development and product releases must continue during this period.
• What direction will the developer program take? Will Skykit survive its rather long birthing process or can Microsoft bring in developer program expertise that would finally get Skype an active developer program from which we can see results? (and from which third party developers can benefit.)
• Can we still expect to see evolution of the Facebook relationship in some way that supports real time conversations via Facebook?
• Since Steve Ballmer showed up on stage at RIM’s BlackBerry World event last week and is now deeply associated with Skype, can we expect to see a carrier-agnostic Skype client on BlackBerry devices? Or would that be too much conflict with Windows Phone?

Bottom line: while there have been overlapping products (such as Live Messenger and Skype Chat) there is so much synergy here that it’s going to be interesting to see what product evolution occurs over the next year and how Microsoft integrates an acquisition with what has become a brand onto itself. Steve Ballmer can be thankful that there was no Yahoo acquisition and that the Skype opportunity has come about with so many more obvious benefits.

One other benefit for Canadians: the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board cleared about $500MM on the deal above their initial $300MM investment 18 months ago.

Other thoughts:

• Dan York: The End of the “Skype as Bandit” Era where Dan provides an interesting  commentary on the barriers Skype has overcome, the Skype experience and the people behind Skype. Dan has blogged more about Skype than any other topic; his employer, Voxeo, lives and dies by Skype, especially the Skype chat.
• Alec Saunders: Does Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype change anything? where he talks about the impact on carrier relationships, video calling and handset manufacturers.
• Alec Saunders: Why is Steve Ballmer excited about Skype? where he provides an excellent overview of today’s Microsoft-Skype press conference and his conclusions as to why this is an excellent deal. (Recall Alec worked for several years at Microsoft.)
• Tidbits, Apple News for the Rest of Us: Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion “… Microsoft says it will continue to invest in and support Skype clients for non-Microsoft platforms. If Microsoft really loves us, they’ll throw out the Skype 5 interface as an initial gesture of goodwill.”
• Phil Wolff, Skype Journal: What Skype’s partners can expect from the deal and Why did Microsoft buy Skype?
• GigaOm: Steve Ballmer & Tony Bates Talk About Skype-Microsoft …

Related articles

• Done Deal: Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion in Cash (kara.allthingsd.com)
• Microsoft to Acquire Skype (online.wsj.com)
• Microsoft targets video-calling with Skype (theglobeandmail.com)
• Microsoft’s Plans for an Office-Flavored Skype (blogs.wsj.com)
• It’s official: Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion (seattlepi.com)
• Why Microsoft Plus Skype Is An Enterprising Idea (informationweek.com)
• Microsoft Brings Skype from Living Room to Board Room (pcworld.com)

Following up on last week’s two posts that coincided with the launch of the BlackBerry Playbook, iPad Competitor? and Infrastructure for New User Experiences, along with learnings from a recent Mobile Monday presentation on developer opportunities, this post will attempt to anticipate an example of the new user experiences that could result from the the technology behind the platform.

The primary question: Given that RIM wants PlayBook to become positioned as the tablet of consumer choice, can its technology foundation lead to the development of unique user experiences? Only if they bring unique benefits to the end user. But one can always speculate…

As background to this discussion, three comments:

1. With my current BlackBerry Torch I have two applications that are triggered immediately, via the Bluetooth connection, when I get into my car:
   • Make phone calls in a totally handsfree mode using the Voice Calling and Address Book applications on the BlackBerry
   • Commence logging my driving activity for tax purposes.
2. The PlayBook ads on local radio stations have highlighted three unique features:
   • Complete web browsing experience
   • Powerful applications
   • True multi-tasking
3. The BlackBerry Bridge feature, and a BlackBerry, are required to manage BlackBerry email, contacts and calendar – applications around which RIM built BlackBerry’s primary reputation. Great for enterprises that support secure BlackBerry communications but an inhibitor to broader consumer adoption until these native applications are available on the PlayBook. (Note also that Canada has carriers who do not charge additional for tethering.)

Certainly the three claims of their advertising ring true when it comes to the existence of the features. But what is the reality in terms of the user experience?

1. The Browser: combining its Torch Mobile webkit-based browser roots with its support of Flash, it appears that PlayBook would certainly be ideal as a complete, fully-featured browsing platform. In fact, it would even allow access to the web-based versions of popular email programs, including GMail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe and the many web versions of popular client based email programs such as Outlook Web App (formerly Outlook Web Access).
2. Powerful applications: yes, there are some “powerful” applications (1700 according to this Mobile Gadgeteer report) that take advantage of the combination of QNX and a dual core processer. However, when I start using a new mobile device I initially look for clients that support cloud based services such as Twitter, Facebook, DropBox, Evernote, Four Square and the Google Mobile Apps suite of applications (Search, News, Mail, Maps, Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc.). Again all these services can be accessed via a web browser but they each have platform-specific clients to simplify the user experience and encourage adoption of the various services. However, they are lacking on PlayBook at launch time.
3. True multi-tasking: yes, this has been a feature of BlackBerry from day one; the QNX O/S certainly provides an even more robust multi-tasking environment. But until we see applications that take full advantage of the potential horsepower, users will not be driven to adopt PlayBook, especially as a consumer device.

Doing the BlackBerry “Thing”

Rim built its reputation on email and the associated personal information management applications. However, this feature only becomes available if you have a BlackBerry. The good news is that, given my experience with other Bluetooth-associated applications, these applications should become accessible on the PlayBook whenever the two devices are within Bluetooth range; also the BlackBerry Bridge incorporates BlackBerry’s industry leading security features. The bad news is that you need to have a BlackBerry to be able to use the number one application that drove the original adoption of the BlackBerry.

The Video Experience

PlayBook, in spite of its support of both front- and rear-facing webcams, does not support any video calling application at this time. Yet again the demonstrations of video content running in background and the underlying Playbook horsepower certainly would portend to seeing a video calling application. PlayBook needs to be participating in the mobile video calling space currently served by Facetime, Skype and Qik. While PlayBook certainly has its attractions as a top-of-the-line media player device, its underlying technology would seem to support its evolution into supporting real time video conversations.

But, in addition to the user experience its technology could deliver, PlayBook needs to find a way to access a large enough contact base that would drive immediate adoption. The real issue becomes one of interoperability; whom can you readily call with the launch of a video calling service? And across what platforms?  Certainly Apple, Google and Skype already have the large contact bases, well beyond the size of BlackBerry Messenger contact bases, that would be required to make a worldwide video calling application viable in the consumer market.

The Real Time Communications Experience

Which brings me to an application that would provide a significant boost to driving consumer adoption. Since the early 1980’s I have sold multi-tasking computers (yes, even mini-computers) and multi-tasking user experiences (DESQview). I have often commented on the value of BlackBerry’s multi-tasking. Most interesting is PlayBook’s lack of RIM’s heavily promoted BlackBerry Messenger application – one which I often use for private messaging to invited contacts; it could certainly take advantage of multi-tasking in some unique ways.

But there is one application lacking on BlackBerry devices that could demonstrate better than any other the benefits of multi-tasking on a QNX platform while driving consumer adoption. But there’s more! It also addresses the need for a video calling application that can immediately deliver an appropriate contact base.

With its support of voice, chat and video calling and its presence on a wide range of platforms, smartphones and other devices, Skype would be the ideal application to both demonstrate the power of PlayBooks’s technology infrastructure while driving accelerated consumer and prosumer adoption. Skype’s voice and video calls set the benchmark for voice quality and video resolution. Running chat in background as an interrupt-driven service, supporting desktop sharing and file transfer during voice and video calls are some of the Skype features that would perform best on a multi-tasking QNX platform with multiple webcams. And it would potentially become a benchmark mobile device for serving as a host for Skype’s Group Video Calling.

PlayBook Bottom Line:

At this time, PlayBook is a platform that demonstrates amazing potential for new user experiences. Its most immediate challenge is to bring into its applications library what many product managers would call the “hygienics” – the basic applications and services that users expect from any smart mobile device, whether smartphone or tablet. Google Mobile apps, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote and Skype certainly fall into this requirement.

Skype serves as the most demanding example. With over 145 million active users across PC’s, smartphones (iPhone, Android, Symbian), TV’s and other devices), Skype has become one of those “hygienic” cloud managed services that consumers look for when making purchase decisions about smartphones and tablets. The business case is not about Skype-generated revenue; it’s not about competition with other services such as BlackBerry Messenger. Skype has become a “must have” application and makes the business case one about driving basic user purchase of the device. PlayBook provides all the technology infrastructure required, especially the video horsepower, to make Skype perform at its best on a mobile device.

As for introducing Skype on BlackBerry. Yes, Verizon and 3 customers can make calls to Skype contacts; however, only with a carrier-specific application. As demonstrated on iPhone, Android and Nokia smartphones, a carrier-agnostic Skype client would overcome a major barrier to consumer and prosumer adoption of not only PlayBook but also BlackBerry itself.

In conclusion Skype would not only provide a powerful demonstration of PlayBook’s underlying technology but also could be configured to provide one of the those “killer” applications that would establish user experience benchmarks for real time video calling, including conference calling.

Note: the image of a Skype icon on PlayBook shown above was reported by several bloggers when RIM first demonstrated PlayBook to the public at CES 2011; turns out this was an error. During March there came out reports that RIM may be developing a video calling app for PlayBook; this was vaguely confirmed in response to a question I asked at the Mobile Monday Toronto event. One primary issue is where would a large enough contact base come from? Certainly not BlackBerry Messenger with only 20+ million active accounts.

A month ago I wrote about the launch of Qik Video Connect, a video streaming and video mail service, on any iOS platform with a camera (iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and 4, later iPod touches with a camera).

Yesterday Skype announced that Qik Video Connect not only has an upgrade for the iOS versions but also is now supported on Android (2.1 – 2.3.3) smartphones.  Totally interoperable so that live video chat can occur between iPhones and Android phones.

One more point buried near the end of the blog post. Normally the premium service Qik Video Connect Plus is $2.99 on the iPhone and Android app store, but for the remainder of this week, it is free. However, Qik will provide a new revenue stream for Skype effective June 1, 2011 for the video mail service. Charges have not been stated.

As Andy Abramson stated, “At some point I expect the Skype platform and Qik platform to converge as the overlap in video is becoming more and more obvious.”

Related articles

• Qik Bridges the Android/iPhone Gap With Cross-Platform Video Chat (wired.com)
• Qik Video Connect Finally Lets Android And iOS Users Video Chat With Each Other (androidpolice.com)
• Qik Opens Its Video Chat to (Almost) All Android Users (gigaom.com)

Yesterday I wrote about coverage of the BlackBerry PlayBook launch, partially inspired by three pages of coverage in last weekend’s Globe and Mail Report on Business. But I left with the question of whether competitive comparisons with the iPad are valid or can the PlayBook provide new market directions for tablets.

Certainly on content and applications, at the moment iPad has built up a significant following. But RIM has brought together a variety of technologies that could prove to be the infrastructure for a range of tablet-size intelligent devices. As Alec Saunders, who has experience with platform launches as the initial Product Manager for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, says in Playbook: Maybe just right on target:

No product team has ever produced a fully realized product on version 1.  It’s simply not possible.  Case in point: Apple’s version 1 iPhone was roundly panned as underpowered, with terrible battery life, poor reception, and no applications.  Recall that in the early days, Apple insisted that the only applications that you would ever need on iPhone could be written as web applications.  How wrong Apple was.  To its credit, Apple recognized the flaw, and pivoted quickly.

Alec went on to corroborate my statement about the user experience:

In general the media are having difficulty separating the  technology from the user experience. We have yet to see real user experiences that evolve from the technology behind the platform.

with his statement:

It’s not until a product meets the market that a product team can begin to listen to customers and work on delivering the feature set that customers really want to buy.

So let’s take a look from the technology perspective and RIM’s recent strategic acquisitions:

• Security: in early 2009 RIM acquired Certicom,  the company behind RIM’s robust security that has lead to BlackBerry’s acceptance by government agencies in Canada, U.S. and Europe.
• Robust OS and Multi-tasking¹: The QNX acquisition last year gave RIM a very robust multi-tasking real time operating system (RTOS) that is the answer to “Would you trust this to run an airplane? (or at least your spacecraft)” QNX, with its multi-processor support, is embedded in devices and software worldwide with customers such as Cisco and all the major automobile manufacturers. This is perhaps the most important acquisition RIM has made (I have been aware of the Ottawa-based company and its unique feature set since its founding in the mid-1980’s.)
• Well behaved browser: RIM acquired Torch Mobile in the summer of 2009 and built their webkit-based browser into BlackBerry OS 6. All I can say here is that, with my BlackBerry Torch experience, browsing to websites is no longer a time consuming gamble.
• Last September RIM acquired Dataviz, publisher of the Documents To Go utilities that allow you to easily read and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents as well as read PDF files on BlackBerry, iPad/iPhone, Android and even Maemo devices. Ironically I have purchased their Premium product for not only BlackBerry but also iPad.
• The recent acquisition of Swedish “The Astonishing Tribe” has brought significant mobile device user interface technology and experience into the fold.

Combining these acquisitions technology with the technology behind their legacy wireless and messaging experience, RIM’s challenge is to build devices that can deliver unique user experiences. But that only comes from the combination of developer innovation and user feedback – one reason for a launch today without a complete set of applications (including a native email application). The developers have had their chance to get some experience but now the users can talk back.

In my next post I’ll outline some of my expectations combining my own mobile experiences (BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad) with what I can see these technologies bringing into the picture in the future.

Update, April 27, 2011: RIM continues to buy additional technology. Today it was announced that RIM is acquiring Tungle, the meeting accelerator offering that makes for easy scheduling across multiple time zones and calendar applications.

Other posts:

• Voice On The Web: BlackBerry Playbook: iPad Competitor or Another New Category of Appliance?
• Alec Saunders SquawkBox: Playbook: Maybe just right on target.
• Globe and Mail Report on Business: BlackBerry PlayBook tries to chart a path between work and fun.
• Globe and Mail Report on Business: RIM’s edge: an operating system that ‘kicks ass’

¹RIM has long been a leader in true multi-tasking on wireless devices. Their original BlackBerry was powered by the Intel 386 chip, the same virtual machine processor that gave me an employment opportunity selling a multi-tasking environment for use with MS-DOS. RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaradis reminds me of this every time we discuss our multi-tasking experiences.

Related articles

• BlackBerry Playbook launches quietly in Toronto (thestar.com)
• BlackBerry PlayBook gets real today; AT&T blocking updates already (zdnet.com)

Over the past few months there has been lots of coverage of RIM’s forthcoming BlackBerry Playbook and its potential for acceptance in the quickly emerging tablet market. The media frenzy generally perceives it as a competitor to the iPad; the initial reviews of the past week have been mixed, to say the least.

The issue with these new launches are “expectations” versus the “reality”. Even at the initial iPad launch a year ago, many disappointed reviewers were looking for a device that effectively would be a “tablet” version of a full personal computer. Some reviewers were disappointed that it had no native voice calling application; Truphone and Skype have taken care of that aspect. My own perspective at the time, after watching the announcement presentation, was that it was more an electronic briefcase, providing mobile and portable access to a user’s documents, email, photos and videos as well as to the web (sans Flash support, however).

At Christmas I received an iPad and have found it’s been a replacement for most of my newspaper reading, an alternative for watching NHL hockey games on my NHL Center Ice subscription (cable TV, PC, iPhone and iPad) and instant access to the my documents stored on the cloud through services such as Dropbox. There are many other applications that are handy to have accessible. It provides access to all my social networking services: Twitter, Facebook, foursquare and YouTube. And, of course, I can make Skype calls; however, with only the iPhone form factor, one can readily visualize there is opportunity for Skype to make better use of the tablet-size display format. Bottom line: I take it wherever I go and have ready access to all my cloud content as well as handy applications, such as the Toronto Transit app, that can assist with my road warrior activities.

Since its announcement back in October I have followed the PlayBook, starting with the announcement last October and providing some commentary at the time.

BlackBerry Playbook: Leveraging All of RIM’s Strengths into a Tablet

Later I saw the demonstration at CES 2011, recently attended a Mobile Monday Toronto presentation discussing the developer opportunities for applications and this weekend read some of the initial reviews of the past few days.

All these activities have established certain expectations. The most obvious one is that it is a competitor to the iPad. Certainly it is an alternative tablet platform and satisfies the media’s thirst for comparisons, whether valid or not. But any tablet platform that cannot distinguish itself from the iPad does not support a sustainable business model. While there is certainly some overlap, it also has its significant differentiators. In general the media are having difficulty separating the  technology from the user experience. We have yet to see real user experiences that evolve from the technology behind the platform.

Yesterday, above the fold, the Globe and Mail’s front page very visibly directs readers to the Report on Business three page spread reporting on the Playbook’s launch.

Frankly I have never seen the Globe and Mail or its Report on Business do such extended coverage of a product launch. However, as Canada’s “National” newspaper they have recognized the importance of the PlayBook’s launch as not only significant for Research in Motion but also for its potential value to Canada’s economy and high tech indutry. RIM has become Canada’s technology darling and counts over 12,000 Canadians amongst it 18,000 employees worldwide; it’s an important player in these times of a challenging economy.

The primary article: “RIM makes a play for its future” where technology reporter Omar El Akkad writes:

This is one of the most important moments in the history of Canada’s most important technology company – not because RIM needs to sell millions of PlayBooks or beat the iPad to survive (it doesn’t), but because it must prove that it has a second act.

A lot more is riding on the PlayBook’s success or failure than the trajectory of a single company. Since the slow death of Nortel Networks, RIM has moved to the centre of the Canadian technology sector. It spawns new startups or acquires them, spends a healthy proportion of its $1.3-billion research and development budget in Canada and is the largest employer of co-op students in the country. No other Canadian-controlled business offers as much opportunity for bright Canadian engineers and mathematicians to find meaningful work at home.

Coming out of the launch coverage are several significant questions:

• While BlackBerry Playbook is an obvious complement to the BlackBerry smartphones, can it serve, in its current offering, as a stand alone device for the consumer market?
• Is BlackBerry’s traditional security sufficient to maintain its significant presence in the business and government markets?
• Will WiFi as the only wireless mode on the launch version be a limitation?
• When “content is king” for the tablet market how will RIM appeal to developers to ramp up applications rapidly?
• Are there any “killer” apps coming out initially? Does it have any totally disruptive features?
• How will it leverage the dual cameras not simply for photographs and video recording but rather will we soon see any video calling applications?
• Is it really an iPad competitor or are we seeing the launch of new type of tablet-size appliance?

Media thrives on having competitive comparisons. They especially want to find the “killer” device for a product that has been an obvious hit. (Look at how many “competitors” there are to Skype in the real time communications space but none has achieved nine figure numbers of active users.)

In a follow up post I’ll address these issues and point out key strengths and weaknesses that make the PlayBook an interesting tablet market play and where I see potential new directions for this type of device.

Related articles

• BlackBerry PlayBook reviews say that it’s not an iPad killer (tuaw.com)
• Everyone’s Right: The BlackBerry Playbook Doesn’t Stand A Chance (RIMM) (businessinsider.com)
• Review: BlackBerry PlayBook strong, well-priced (sfgate.com)
• RIM CEO defends BlackBerry PlayBook tablet against meany critics (venturebeat.com)
• RIM CEO Defends BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Against Meany Critics (nytimes.com)
• RIM: claims BlackBerry PlayBook rushed out aren’t ‘fair’ (electronista.com)
• “BlackBerry PlayBook Better Than Apple iPad at Multitasking Says Experts” and related posts (phonesreview.co.uk)
• Playbook: Maybe just right on target (calliflower.com)

In a press release associated with its participation at Mobile World Congress Skype has announced an expansion of its Skype Access service to include eight additional hotspot operators. According to the press release:

With one click, Skype users can connect to the Internet through a WiFi operator partner in over 500,000 hotspots around the globe including 500 airports, 30,000 hotels and numerous cafes, trains, planes, offices buildings, and convention centers.

Rather than paying costly per day or per hour Internet access fees, Skype Access allows you to pay per minute using Skype Credit to control your costs at rates starting at £.04 /€.05/$.06per minute [including VAT]. All you need is a connection to a Skype Access compatible hotspot and the latest version of Skype for Mac or Windows.

Skype has arranged for free use of Skype Access across Spain (including at this week’s Mobile World Congress) for the week of Feb. 14 to 18, 2010 (using CET time zone). It would be interesting to know how many iPhone users are making Skype video calls to/from their colleagues attending the conference and the resulting load on the WiFi network.

At rates as low as £.04 /€.05/$.06 per minute Skype Access over these operators appear to be offering significantly lower than the $0.19 cents per minute charged for using Skype Access over Boingo with its over 200,000 WiFi hotspots worldwide (Boingo’s continued participation as a Skype Access partner has been confirmed).

The new Skype Access provider partners include:

• BT Openzone – The UK’s largest WiFi hotspot provider with a network of two million hotspots
• Fon – The world’s largest WiFi network with over 3.35 million Fon Spots across the globe
• M3 Connect – WiFi provider in Germany with hotspots in many hotels, fairgrounds, airports and places like the German Stock Exchange
• Row 44 – Provides the world’s leading in-flight broadband platform to commercial airlines around the world
• Skyrove – WiFi hotspot solutions for Guesthouses, Hotels and Coffee Shops throughout South Africa.
• Spectrum Interactive – Specializes in offering WiFi for the travel and media sector including airports and hotels across the UK
• Tomizone – WiFi provider in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific
• Vex – Offers WiFi services in thousands of locations around the world including South America

Bottom Line: Whereas the rates for using Skype Access over Boingo tended to make it a “last resort” WiFi access service (while avoiding costly carrier roaming charges), Skype Access has become a more accessible and reasonable cost alternative to travelers worldwide. On the other hand, when at a specific location, you usually have only one choice for WiFi carrier. At hotels and airports it represents an alternative to “daily” charges for short term access sessions during a stopover or brief hotel stay. Most importantly the WiFi “Unregulated Stealth Carrier” experience is now available to Skype users at over 700,000 locations worldwide.

Related articles

• Skype Can Now Get You Access to 500,000+ Wi-Fi Hotspots (mashable.com)
• Skype buys a week of Wi-Fi for Spain (skypejournal.com)
• Skype launches global WiFi hotspot program (gizmag.com)

The opening day of CES 2011 was a banner day for Skype announcements and activity. It started with a morning press conference where new Skype CEO Tony Bates built his message around the themes of “Universal, Useful. Wonderful”:

He covered recent Skype activity and accomplishments:

• From the recent Skype outage, they learned much about Skype’s pervasiveness and users’ reliance on Skype as a critical real time communications service in addition to addressing the technical issues that led to the outage.
• In its annual report on international long distance minutes by service provider, Telegeography had reported earlier in the day that, in 2010, Skype had increased its market share of international calling minutes from 12% in 2009 to 24.7% in 2010. This represents an average of 520 million minutes per day and over 190 billion minutes for the year.
• Video calling has increased to 40% of all calls in 2010.
• When Skype for iPhone 3.0 launched last week, it triggered over 4 million downloads on the Apple app store and over 1 million Skype mobile video calls on the first day.

Tony then went on to make some announcements:

• Completion of an agreement earlier in the day to acquire Qik, a popular live video streaming service, to complement its video technology resources; from Tony’s blog post linked above:
  

  Skype and Qik share a common purpose of enriching communications with video, and the acquisition of Qik will help to accelerate our leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to our product portfolio.

  Through this acquisition, we’ll also be able to take advantage of the engineering expertise that is behind Qik’s Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks.

• Launch of Group Calling on Skype. Group calling on Skype for Windows 5.1 has gone “Gold”. It’s being offered as part of a Skype Premium offering that includes Live Chat Support for a monthly $8.99 subscription fee (with discounts for 3 and 12 month subscriptions). While group video calling supports up to ten participants on a call, only the call host requires a subscription.
• More Skype access from the living room involving Skype for TV becoming available later this year on newly introduced Skype-enabled Sony BRAVIA and VIZIO VIA TV’s; Skype has also announced a partnership with Panasonic and Sony to introduce Skype-enabled Blu-ray Players in the near future.
• Opening up SkypeKit beta to any legitimate developer for building third party applications embedding Skype.

Early Thursday afternoon Skype CEO Tony Bates appeared at the Verizon 4GLTE press conference to announce Skype mobile Video that will be appearing within the main feature set of four Android smartphones that will be amongst the initial featured devices supporting Verizon’s new 4G/LTE network. Whereas the current Skype mobile on Verizon uses Skype’s thin-client architecture, the Skype mobile Video will use a true Skype IP client.

For the first time in several years, Skype has a small booth at the rear of the Upper South Hall featuring video calling on iPhones as well as group video calling. But it’s been drawing crowds for the presentations.

Bottom line: speculation can abound as to what new services the Qik acquisition will bring and how they can complement existing Skype services. While the Skype’s user base continues to grow, usage has accelerated significantly when it comes to Skype’s key feature: free international calling. The introduction of a Skype Premium service  with a fee encompassing group video calling and live chat support adds the first potentially significant new revenue stream since the launch of Skype Out and Skype Online numbers many years ago. (Coincidental that it comes at the time of filings for a new IPO?)

Note that coincidental with the Group Video calling announcement Skype released Skype for Windows 5.1 that also address a couple of related issues.

Here’s the full morning press conference video:

Related articles

• TNW Interview with Skype at CES: The next generation of video and why the Kinect is so cool (thenextweb.com)
• Skype Buys Qik Mobile Video Streaming Service (pcworld.com)
• Skype Soon To Be On Sony BRAVIA and VIZIO VIA TVs (socialtimes.com)
• Skype buys Qik mobile video streaming service (macworld.com)
• WATCH: Skype To Acquire Qik (huffingtonpost.com)
• At CES, Skype gets serious about video with Qik buyout (e27.sg)

With the launch of a limited multi-tasking capability in iOS4, many applications can be suspended in background or even triggered back into operating if they receive a “push” notification. One common complaint from many Skype for iPhone users has been the excessive battery drain caused when it is running in background. In fact, I have seen statements to the effect that there is no way to “exit” Skype for iPhone – but read on ….

A recent visit to my local Apple Store, where the manager happened to be serving me, and an interview earlier this week about Skype for iPhone 3.0 with Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice-President and General Manager, Consumer Products, have combined to provide considerations for optimizing battery life.

From an overall iPhone perspective the Apple Store Manager recommended two steps:

• Shut down any unnecessary applications suspended or running in background; if not required at the moment, they are unnecessarily draining the battery. This step provides a path to exiting these applications smoothly.
• Turn your iPhone fully Off and then On once a day to remove any lingering, but non-essential, background services that cannot be accessed via an application icon.

For the former, access the “open” applications by hitting the Home button twice; across the bottom of the screen you’ll find a ribbon of “open” application icons. Press down and hold one of those applications until the icons start to jiggle and have a red “-“ circle in the upper left hand corner – as shown in the image on the right. Press on the red “-“ circle and the application is closed. Now you have a way to “exit” Skype completely but, of course, you will not receive Skype Chat notification messages or receive any Skype calls. (This does not delete the application itself; it simply closes or exits its operation.)

With respect to the latter, apparently some applications can leave traces of background services, such as location-based information, running with the result that they put a drain on the battery even though, for whatever reason, they are no longer required. Simply turn the iPhone Off once a day and then turn it back On to ensure you are only using services required for your “current” iPhone activity.

I tested these steps and did find I would have longer battery life by up to a couple of hours, especially if Skype for iPhone was not running.

When I interviewed Skype’s Neil Stevens about Skype for iPhone 3 in preparation for yesterday’s post, I asked about the impact of video calling on battery life. Neil responded to the effect that video calling itself would not be a significant drain on the battery but rather the most important factor impacting battery life when using Skype for iPhone is the ongoing background presence detection and chat notification services that are needed to keep a user’s Skype activity current.

Neil mentioned that, while most users probably have 20 to 30 Skype Contacts, users with a large number of contacts, such as the author with ~400 contacts, would experience a significant impact on battery life. If a user has multiple chat sessions running, this accelerates the battery drain further. As a result my battery life while operating Skype for iPhone in background is less than four hours.

The only cures for this situation are:

• cull your Skype Contacts to ensure you only have “active” Contacts,
• use a separate Skype account for iPhone calls (with call forwarding from your original Skype account) but this then gets into issues of keeping two contact lists up-to-date as well as buying an additional subscription or
• hope that Skype would develop into the next release of Skype for iPhone the ability to select a Category of Contacts called, say, “iPhone”, such that these would be the only Contacts loaded into Skype for iPhone from an existing Skype account. Frankly since I only have about 30 to 40 regular contacts on iPhone I could live with the latter.

Bottom Line: it’s great to be able to call over 125 million potential Skype contacts on PC’s and mobile devices from virtually anywhere worldwide with 3G or WiFi access. This morning I was given an amusing tour of Salisbury, UK via a Skype video call from an acquaintance’s iPhone 4 as he drove around town (his wife held the iPhone); we even confirmed that mobile Skype video calling works at up to 90 km/h (55 mph).

However, the main outage for mobile Skype video calling is not the availability of the Skype service itself (independently calculated to have had over 99.88% uptime over the past three years) but rather the lifetime of my iPhone battery.

(Note that an acquaintance has purchased the fastmac iV for iPhone Battery charger with an extra light spirce and USB port to obtain longer battery life but they don’t make it easy to purchase if you are outside the U.S. Ensure you get the model appropriate to your iPhone model.)

Related articles

• Skype for iPhone – Full of Win (chris.pirillo.com)
• Skype Gains iPhone Video Calls, Loses China (escapistmagazine.com)
• Skype 3.0 for iPhone: New Dimensions in Smartphone Video Calling (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Facetime vs Skype on iPhone (ashimmy.com)

Following the Mood Messages of a Skype employee in my Skype Conversations window I came across this last Friday: “brand new version of Skype To Go available. Dead simple to use, nothing to download, call directly from your contact list !” Curious, I went to my Skype To Go subscription where I found all six of my Skype To Go contacts had suddenly, and spontaneously, sprouted individual 647 numbers (647 being the overlay area code for Toronto’s legacy 416 area code).

Previously I had a single Toronto-based Skype To Go number which I would call to access one of my six contacts by selecting a number between “1” and “6” when I called the number. This process, using a Bluetooth connection between my BlackBerry and car audio system,  meant my “hands free” calling to this number in my car required that I actually use the keypad on my car’s “phone” panel. The new Skype To Go resolves this issue and more.

Here’s what’s new:

• Up to nine Skype To Go contacts can be designated; each with an individual Skype To Go number
• Up to five of your mobile or landline phones can be registered as valid phones to use these numbers
• When calling from a registered phone to one of the nine contacts, there is no need to wait for any voice prompts; the connection is now immediately made.
• Validated with a PIN and entering one of the registered phones’ numbers, one can call these numbers from any other phone.
• You register also the Country and Area Code you are calling from. When you move to another Country you can change the registered Country and get new local phones numbers for each of your Skype To Go contacts. But when you return to your “home” country you will get back your original Skype To Go numbers.
• The listing also shows what your charges are to these numbers below the destination number.
• You can select which of the registered numbers you want to display as your callerID when making these calls.
• What’s not changed? Your old Skype To Go number which you can still use for calling numbers not included in your Skype To Go contact list.

Skype To Go numbers can be obtained in 23 countries (note that Canada was added earlier this year):

So what’s the cost?

• If the number called is on one of your Skype subscription plans, there is no charge to landlines and mobiles in the eight countries with totally unlimited calling; for the 33 countries with unlimited calling to landlines only you pay the going Skype calling rate for calls to mobile phones (for instance, $0.317 per minute to mobile numbers in Spain). Note that Skype’s fair usage policy applies.
  
• If not on a subscription you pay, via Skype credits, the normal SkypeOut charges plus a connection fee.

Bottom line: I can now make totally hands free calls to these nine “most frequent” contacts using Skype To Go from my car via my BlackBerry or iPhone simply by pressing the “Enter” button on my steering wheel and saying “Call [Name] Other”. To simplify this process I have recorded these Skype To Go numbers under “Other” in my smartphone and Outlook address books. Back to total compliance with Ontario law regarding use of mobile phones while driving.

The bonus: I added my wife’s BlackBerry as a registered phone and she gets to call three relatives in another Canadian city at no cost when calling from Toronto’s rather large local calling area, encompassing four area codes. (With 90% of  its population spread out across a belt 100 miles wide and 4,000 miles long, Canada still has long distance charges, although they are gradually evaporating into carrier calling plans at low or no cost.)