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)

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.”

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• 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)

Over the past week we have been hearing rumors about a BlackBerry tablet offering; they came true yesterday – the only surprise being the tablet’s name – with RIM’s announcement, at their Devcon 2010, of BlackBerry Playbook. Having followed RIM for over twelve years and watched the “Sneak Preview” video, BlackBerry Playbook combines both their technology strengths and market strengths to launch a new era of the “professional” tablet [RIM’s term].

So you ask, what strengths are they leveraging?

• legacy multitasking smartphone experience, combined with multiprocessing on a dual core processor
• purchase last year of QNX for its robust operating system technology and expertise
• evolution of their “touch” technology expertise over the past two years
• superb graphics displays
• release of a WebKit-compliant web browser in BlackBerry OS 6
• robust security – approved by NATO and many governments internationally, yet now challenging the security investigation agencies of many countries
• wireless data transmission efficiency
• long time evolutionary experience with push technology (and its impact on battery management), email, Blackberry Messenger and document handling
• enterprise support, including BlackBerry Enterprise Server
• legacy Java support for application development, combined with support of both Adobe Flash and HTML5
• over 450 wireless carrier relationships worldwide

(Full disclosure: for the past ten days I have been experiencing a BlackBerry Torch – and an iPhone 4; an initial BlackBerry Torch review post will follow for the Canadian launch day, September 30. However, it have given me sufficient exposure to RIM’s most recent touch, display and web browser technology to support some of the statements above.)

As one who has been involved with the sale and marketing of multitasking on PC’s for 25 years, it would seem to be a “natural” that any new tablet devices should fully support multi-tasking. Recent BlackBerry smartphones have consistently demonstrated the value of true multi-tasking (and inherently the underlying virtual machine architecture); it becomes even more apparent when using the new web browser, message management and social networking infrastructure in BlackBerry OS6.

Over those 25 years one nagging complaint has been the robustness of both the Windows and Mac OS operating systems. While they have improved significantly over the past couple of years (I actually now run a Windows 7 quad-core desktop for several days without having to reboot and have occasional “total freezing” of my MacBook Pro), neither can boast a legacy of supporting nuclear power plant operations, running Europe’s high speed trains and manipulating the robotic space arm on space shuttle missions.

RIM’s most strategic acquisition, of the many they have made over the past few years, was its purchase of QNX last April. (Again a company which I first learned about 27 years ago as a supplier of robust embedded systems software.) Fellow blogger Alec Saunders, whose resume includes a year working for QNX, has more to say about RIM’s secret weapon. And watch this CrackBerry.com video for a more complete description of all the features that QNX brings not just to the end user but also to the developer community:

So what differentiates a “professional” tablet from iPad?

• dual core 1 GHz processor, incorporating true multitasking and multiprocessing
• dual 1080p HD video cameras (front facing and on back panel)
• enterprise ready – supports the installed base of BlackBerry Enterprise server installations
• the world’s most proven robust operating system – the secret sauce running Cisco routers and probably your automobile
• works as a complement to BlackBerry smartphones – bringing productivity well beyond simply tethering
• support for HDMI-out to larger displays
• government endorsed security
• BlackBerry Messenger, now elevated to a social platform for third party applications
• a “developer’s paradise” for porting and developing applications (watch the video)

And what are the unanswered questions?

• While the collateral talks about “video conferencing” and H.264 support, will we see a real time video calling capability? (The image on the right would certainly indicate a “Yes”.)
• Will RIM and Skype finally work out a way to support a carrier agnostic, true IP-based Skype for BlackBerry conversation client? An application that would benefit significantly from RIM’s multitasking and battery management features.
• Can RIM gain sufficient developer support to have an attractive array of mobile device applications?
• Can RIM find an appropriately attractive price point? (No pricing was announced.)
• How does it fend off Android-based and other (HP) tablets entering this market?

Bottom Line: BlackBerry Playbook has raised the bar on many technology fronts. It’s definitely a different approach to providing an electronic briefcase, especially for business users. But can RIM leverage its PlayBook feature set to attract customers beyond current BlackBerry owners to expand their market share? Don’t count RIM out of the game yet by any means; it brings more legacy mobile device experience than most attempts to enter this market. 2011 is going to become the “Year of the Tablet” with several players and market approaches.

Other RIM announcements yesterday:

• Press Release: RIM launches BlackBerry Advertising Service
• Press Release: RIM to launch free BlackBerry Analytics Service
• Amazon to launch Kindle App for new BlackBerry PlayBook
• Press Release: RIM Announces New BlackBerry Enterprise Application Development Platform

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• RIM officially enters the tablet market with the BlackBerry PlayBook (techvibes.com)

When I made those initial Skype for iPhone calls last weekend, not only did I gain a quick appreciation of the voice quality but I also realized that the forthcoming multi-tasking feature of iPhone OS4 could offer new possibilities. Yes, multi-tasking would facilitate Skype’s Instant Messaging in an “always-on” mode but there could also be an even richer experience for business users.  Having attended eComm 2010 a couple of months ago, I recalled that Ringio, who introduced their offering at that event, may have that business-savvy application.

Basically think of Ringio as providing a “lite” customer relationship manager for businesses relying heavily on mobile communications. When you either call a contact or receive a call from a “known” contact, Ringio can bring up contextual information that provides background information that may assist both your conversation and team productivity. In fact, they recently demonstrated this concept with their announcement of Ringio Mobile PBX for Android. Fellow Voyces.com blogger Larry Lisser positions Ringio in All hail the Mobile PBX. Ringio calls it like it is:

To be clear, Ringio’s not expecting you to have desk phone. The focus of their innovation is to drive context into phone conversations, leveraging the information we already store about a given inbound caller (ie. when they called last, who they spoke to, what they bought last, when they were last served, and so on). Ringio is one amongst many moving quickly to bring far more context, than simply Caller ID, to a phone call.

With its aggregation of background notes, conversation outcomes, voice mail messages, online presence status and call logs, Ringio appears to bring elements of enterprise level computer-telephone integration to the small business entrepreneur. While only launched six weeks ago, according to a recent interview with Ringio CEO Sam Aparicio, they are already gaining traction with consultants as well as small business sales and tech support teams. Joining Google Market Place, with integration into Google Contacts and GMail, certainly assists in building awareness.

Sam went on to explain that Ringio can bring a unique form of team building and collaboration for a small business. When job descriptions and responsibilities can have a lot of gray areas as the business builds its revenues and customer base and any team member could be answering the phones, with Ringio any member answering a contact’s call can readily be aware of previous conversations with other team members.

While they have delivered an application for Android, Ringio needs to consider offering not only an iPhone application, potentially supporting Skype for iPhone (and iPad?), but also a BlackBerry Super App to support the largest North American business smartphone vendor today.

Here’s the other challenge for these applications – whether it’s the iPhone, BlackBerry or one of many Android offerings, holding the phone up to the ear of course makes it impossible to see this information during a voice conversation. Aside from using the speakerphone mode, would this be an ideal application for having a full headset (mic plus speakers) for the various smartphones?

Bottom line: Ringio should provide a good gage on how readily the Voice 2.0 Manifesto, with its focus on “applications as the value creators”, will be implemented into the mobile smartphone market space. Where generating awareness can be a larger challenge than delivering the appropriate technology, users in the broad small business market space need to see user interfaces and to have user experiences that encourage adoption. Calling a product a mobile PBX and actually delivering with a broadly accepted solution is the execution challenge for Ringio.

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Ok so I’m the last to write about Google’s announcement this morning on its acquisition of Global IP Solutions, a major provider of IP-based communications infrastructure with not only its voice and video codecs but also voice and video engines that mean simply “supply me with an Internet connection, a microphone and a set of speakers” and we’ll handle the conversation on your PC or smartphone.

Combine this acquisition with Google’s experience with Google Talk and Google Video Chat, its acquisition of Grand Central to become Google Voice, of On2 for its video codec (used by Skype amongst others) and of Gizmo, Google now has a full set of the underlying tools required to bring out some interesting communications offerings. Can Google integrate these tools, and overcome the inherent management and organization integration issues, to deliver a coherent and effective communications offering? What will we see as end user offerings? And how will Google work with the competition?

After all four weeks ago I had a demonstration at GIPS of a video call received on an iPad (notice I only said “to”). And, as I reported at the time, they basically affirmed that we should be seeing video calling supported on mobile smartphones before year end. Perhaps with a GIPS mobile video engine. Will this now simply be an Android offering or will their offerings also involve smartphone video calling support for Apple’s iPhone/iPad and, say, RIM’s BlackBerry?

It’s interesting to note that I’m already observing the Skype – Google competition in my GMail window. Hover your cursor over the appropriate location at a sender’s name and I get one of two “click-to-call” options: to converse with a contact using Google Talk/Video or to converse directly with the same contact in Skype voice, chat or video:

Google has long been a customer of GIPS for its voice technology and more recently for its video technology on Android. As have Nortel, Cisco (Webex), Communigate (one of the world’s largest suppliers of enterprise email services), Yahoo, IBM/Lotus and many others for both its voice and video technology. It will make for an interesting world of co-opetition.

Other bloggers have made some interesting points:

Thomas Howe, Voyces.com in Tick, Tock, Core, Edge implies that, with the pendulum swinging from the core to the edge, IP-communications infrastructure is going to be supported primarily by two players, Skype and Google:

More important, though, is what these battle lines say about the other players. Which is to say, these guys aren’t even on the battlefield. If fellow Cape Codder David Isenberg is right, and we are in the era of the dumb network, then anyone not-Skype and not-Google is not in the running. Although I agree, appreciate and applaud Orange’s work with their core (in particular, the API program), where are they in this battle? Where is AT&T? Now, doesn’t Verizon’s deal with Skype seem much smarter? To me, it does.

Voxeo’s Dan York, in Google buys GIPS for $68 million – to take on Skype? Apple? Microsoft? gives a short course in IP Communications 101 to explain Google’s motives for this acquisition by pointing out where the real battleground lies:

The issue is that while the control channel is increasingly around the open standard of SIP, which anyone can implement, the “codecs” used in sending media from one endpoint to another have long been a proprietary battleground, particularly with regard to wideband (or “HD audio” as some call it). Yes, there have been and are standards, but usually there have been intellectual property or licensing issues. Now, there is work within the IETF to create a standard wideband codec (and as I wrote earlier, Skype is involved with this effort) but that may take some time and the outcome is not known right now.

But there’s one aspect to this acquisition that can tend to get overlooked – cross licensing. When I worked in the NMR spectroscopy industry during its early evolution in the 1970’s, the two major players (Varian and Bruker) would be filing and acquiring patents and then suing each other. But the final outcome was that both players set up cross licensing arrangements such that the entire NMR spectrometer market benefited by always being able to benefit from the best of both companies’ innovation. And it all subsequently contributed to the rise of Magnetic Resonance imaging that plays such an important role in today’s medical imaging space across six or seven vendors. Will we see Google and Skype cross-licensing their technologies so that overall IP-based communications offerings can ultimately provide best-of-breed services to both their customer bases?

Bottom line: What I see emerging is a communications market where each of Google and Skype will continue to bring forth unique communications offerings that may appear somewhat competitive to their respective customers. Recall the final value add is in the customer benefits exposed by the user interface, not the underlying technology. As a result we can expect a world of co-opetition and cross licensing such that customer offerings by either party are not held back by some intellectual property dispute that really relates to technology and infrastructure in which the customer has no interest. In the end its about growing a bigger market for the benefit of all.

Other posts:

• Alec Saunders on Voyces.com: Google Targets Skype
• Alec Saunders on Saunderslog: GIPS acquired by Google. How does Abramson pick them?
• Rich Tehrani on TMCNet: Google Buys GIPS – Here’s Why where he provides a short history of GIPS and then analyzes some interesting reasons behind what may have motivated Google.
• Garrett Smith on Smith on VoIP: Google the service provider

Update: Andy has written Congrats to The Great Team At GIPS – it’s his 18th client who has been acquired and the second acquisition by Google. He has also given me credit for the small role I played in introducing him to GIPS:

And with this acquisition, for me and my agency, Comunicano, the number of companies to “exit” or in this case “get bought” in the last 8 years now has hit 18. Alec Saunders referenced that feat in his very well written post yesterday. GIPS came to my agency and I in the same way the other 17 had. We were asked to work with them. In this case the door opener was trusted friend and colleague, Jim Courtney, who has known Emerick Woods for longer than most dating back to their days at Quarterdeck. Jim always said that Emerick is the consummate professional, and someone who knows how to win. Looks like Jim’s matchmaking ability came through.

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990’s who became a mentor to the author on several business development projects at Quarterdeck involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 14 years, Emerick, in his capacity as CEO of several startups, which have gone on to be sold, has hired the author at various times for his business development services. The author, however, has no business relationship with Global IP Sound.

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Ok, so the iPad does not have a camera of any type. But is its form factor not a “natural” format for video calling? When Global IP Solutions put out a press release yesterday I was a bit skeptical about who would take up on their “one way Video Conferencing/Chat capabilities for iPad developers, powered by GIPS VideoEngine™ Mobile”.

We’ve heard a lot of speculation about video calling on the next generation iPhone. Global IP Solutions has been offering their GIPS Video Engine Mobile to iPhone developers for the past several months. When the iPad came along they were able to port it quite readily to the iPad as announced in the press release linked above:

GIPS VideoEngine Mobile supplies iPad developers with a simple to integrate, high-level software API that contains the complex video conferencing/video chat capabilities [that can be embedded] into applications running on Apple’s iPad operating system.

Of course without a camera of any type on the iPad a video conversation involving the iPad would have to be one way (receive) video and two-way voice. One had to wonder why would there be interest in video calling using the iPad?

Yesterday the answer came home loud and clear. I had a demonstration of a video call received on an iPad over the GIPS internal WiFi network. Having experienced lots of video on the iPhone and BlackBerry Bolds (usually You Tube) and video calling using Skype, one aspect of this experience turned me from skeptic to advocate for using iPad for video calls.

The iPad form factor is an ideal format for receiving video calls. Its medium “family” picture frame size is very familiar to consumers. Propped up in a vertical position on a coffee table or physical desktop, it would be receiving video in a format and size that is quite suitable for family participation in a video call. With the accompanying (wideband and superwideband) HD voice, it delivered a perfectly natural conversation. Overall, the iPad is a natural size for video calling.

Where will we see this? Keep in mind that Global IP Solutions delivers engines that take voice and video input and transmit it efficiently over the Internet to a final destination. Their customers, who specify and provide the end user interface to the GIPS engines, include Yahoo, Lotus/IBM, Communigate, Nimbuzz (with an iPhone app), Citrix Online and many other vendors of IP-based voice and video services. And, again from the press release:

As video access becomes available from Apple, GIPS VideoEngine will support 2-way video chat/conferencing.

Bottom line: From this demonstration, and listening to the sessions at this past week’s eComm America 2010, by year end I expect low cost and mobile video calling and conferencing services will be breaking out in a big way:

• We’ll see mobile smartphone video calling not only on iPhone but also on Android devices, (RIM, BlackBerry?). Read through the GIPS blog to get more in-depth perspective on why I say this.
• Where feasible with the device display screen, the video calling standard will become HD over consumer broadband connections with the launch of the HD webcams for Skype in the next month or so.
• But the resolution standard for smartphones and tablets will actually be determined by the individual device’s screen properties; in general they will require less wireless data bandwidth than HD video calling over (cable, DSL) consumer broadband.
• We’ll be seeing low cost multi-party video conferencing solutions from a variety of vendors bringing onsite telepresence to small business.
• And there is reason to justify a built-in video camera on the next generation of iPad (but on the dipslay side a la MacBook Pro).

Update: San Francisco’s KRON-TV also visited Global IP Solutions last week and witnessed prototype video calls using mobile phones:

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A month ago at Mobile World Congress, Skype and Verizon stole the spotlight by announcing Verizon’s forthcoming Skype mobile service. This afternoon at CTIA in Las Vegas, Verizon and Skype announced that the service will launch in two days on Thursday, March 25 (think Christmas in March).

If there was one overriding theme that came out of the press conference today, it was “it’s about the user experience”. Skype’s Russ Shaw emphasized this during our CES interview in January; Josh Silverman, Skype CEO and John Stratton, Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer, reinforced this during the Mobile World Congress press conference.

So what is this “user experience” that “it’s all about”?

• Make it as easy to make a Skype call as to make a circuit switched wireless call.
  • Find a name in the address book and press a “Call” button.
• Provide free Skype-to-Skype voice and IM conversations to any Skype contact worldwide
  • Without any charge against voice minutes or data usage
• Provide an “always on” experience by allowing the application to run in background
  • Receive IM chat messages and Skype voice calls while running other applications
  • Provide ongoing “presence” status via Skype IM
• Merge the device address book with your Skype contacts to ensure ready availability for both making and receiving a call
  • whether a normal voice call, a Skype-to-Skype call or an international call via SkypeOut
• Run the voice conversation over a proven, scalable, reliable voice network
  • that also has maximum geographical coverage
  • receive calls anywhere, anytime – not tethered to a PC for Skype conversations
• Optimize for longer battery life
• Make the download and installation a default with minimal, if any, user intervention
• Make it available to all your existing customers who have bought either BlackBerry or Android smartphones in the past
  • going back to the original 8830 BlackBerry World Edition and the Curve 8330
  • also available on the BlackBerry Storm, Storm 2, Curve 8530, Tour 9630 and three Android models
• Two other points made: the service is CALEA-compliant and E911 access remains available via the Verizon voice channel.

Customers will be able to access and install Skype mobile in one of four ways:

• For existing BlackBerry customers the application will be pushed to their BlackBerry’s home screen over the next few days after launch
  • New BlackBerry customers will find the application on their home screen
• Android users will be able to install the application from the Google App store
• The application can also be downloaded by going to www.skype.com/go/mobile
• Text “SKYPE” to 2255 to receive a download link

While there is no universal Skype for BlackBerry yet, the Verizon offering demonstrates how Skype can take advantage of the BlackBerry’s feature set:

• optimize for battery usage
• “always on” Skype connection by running the Skype mobile client in background
• using BlackBerry’s “push” technology to push the Skype application to all (existing) Verizon customers on BlackBerry

There are some limitations:

• No WiFi; must be in a location where Verizon signal is available
  • not deep in an underground location
• No roaming with Skype;
  • Skype calls can only be made while on the “Home” Verizon network in the U.S.
• Limited audio bandwidth using the inherent Verizon voice network
  • No SILK codecs involved; probably G.729

One final note: When asked about exclusivity, Skype’s Russ Shaw, GM for Mobile replied to the effect that “the Skype mobile experience is exclusive to Verizon” and that “features and functionality won’t be elsewhere”. Leaves a lot open to interpreation; we’ll see as Skype for Symbian and Skype for iPhone evolve.

Bottom line: While it will be a great service for Verizon’s customers wherever they are in the U.S., there are limitations such that the service is not available for international travel. It’s a service that is not only available to new customers but to their entire legacy base of BlackBerry and Android users.

The service, however, provides an initial step for getting Skype onto a mobile service with revenue generation for both Verizon and Skype. The big question is “Will it drive new users for Verizon?”

Yes, this post only covers the basics; more commentary to follow.

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Announcement of the Skype – Verizon agreement certainly has generated buzz around both the Mobile World Congress and the blogosphere. Last Wednesday morning, one day after the announcement, several bloggers and mobile ecosystem players came together on a CalliFlower-hosted SquawkBox conference call to discuss both the triggers for the agreement and the implementations.

Co-hosted by Carl Ford and myself, participants on the call were Andy Abramson (who had been listening to the jungle drums on-site at MWC), Hudson Barton, James Body, William Volk, Alec Saunders, Thomas Howe and Moishe Maier.

Topics covered included:

• Verizon’s history of invoking VoIP; the “game” for Verizon (Carl Ford 00:30)
• Why Verizon finally had no choice but to do the deal. (Andy Abramson 02:15)
• What were the competitive drivers? (Andy Abramson 03:20)
• How does Verizon benefit from this agreement? (Andy Abramson 04:20)
• Who are the real winners (and losers) from this agreement? (Andy Abramson 05:00)
• How does this differ from what 3 is doing with Skype in nine countries (Andy Abramson 06:50)
• Lost in the announcement: final release of Skype for Symbian (Andy Abramson 07:50)
• Applications implications I: initial thoughts from Thomas Howe (08:15)
• Is Verizon missing a market segment through their smartphone offerings (James Body 09:05)
• Is this net neutral and no risk for Verizon? (Alec Saunders 11:00)
• How this agreement is a win for RIM (Andy Abramson 12:50)
• Dumb pipe or embedded intelligence: (Andy Abramson, Alec Saunders 13:50_ [Note that my last question to Russ Shaw was meant to be quoted as “When can I say ’Call Russ Shaw on Skype’?”, not “on mobile” as stated in this conversation; all four carrier friendly points referenced in this discussion can be found here.)
• Perhaps the most informative commentary: Applications implications II: a very interesting perspective on the mobile application store market from William Volk who has several of the top selling games on the iPhone. Backed up with comments by Mr. Mashup, Thomas Howe  (17:25) Terminology: ECPM – effective CPM. Bill makes some very poignant points about the uniqueness of Apple’s app store and why Verizon’s Get-It-Now app store that has no appeal to developers.

Download

Posts referenced during the call or subsequently relevant:

• Carl Ford: Jim Courtney & Carl Ford Converse about Skype & VZW
• Om Malik, GigaOm: Skype & Verizon’s Fear of the iPhone
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype, Verizon (and Andy) In the News
• Om Malik, GigaOm: Skype CEO: Skype Over 3G on iPhone Soon
• Om Malik, GigaOm: Skype-Verizon Deal: More Details
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Todd Carothers Point of View on Skype-Defining The Battleground

Thanks to Angelo Mandato at RawVoice for his assistance with getting my first “podcast” up and running using the BluBrry PowerPress WordPress plug-in. And, of course, our thanks to all who participated in the call.

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Yesterday’s announcement that Skype will become available as a supported service on Verizon Wireless has to have sent a tsunami through the wireless operator world. To review the offering:

• A Skype client will be included on nine models of BlackBerry and Android smartphones in late March; current customers with these devices will be able to download the application
• Free Skype-to-Skype voice calling, both inbound and outbound, worldwide
• send and receive instant messaging (chat and presence) worldwide at no charge
• International SkypeOut calling; domestic calls come out of the customer’s voice plan
• Requires a Verizon voice and data plan
• Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls as well as Skype IM activity will not impact a customer’s voice plan minutes and data plan usage.

The Background. Yesterday I wrote about the market environment and technology infrastructure that led to the ability to make this announcement

• It’s Verizon’s answer to AT&T’s forthcoming Skype for iPhone over 3G; however, given that planning and development activity have been ongoing for the past year, it’s a well thought out response with a focus on the user experience.
• The client will be a customized version of Skype Lite where the voice conversation is carried over the Verizon voice channel while presence indication, chat messages, mood messages and voice call signaling will be carried over the Verizon data channel.
• Launching a Skype voice call or chat session will be the same process as launching a traditional call.
• It’s integrated with the Address Book of the device such that all contacts can become Skype or SkypeOut contacts.
• Both the BlackBerry and Android smartphones can handle multi-tasking such that Skype “data” activity can continue to operate in the background while using other applications on the device.
• Client is optimized to take advantage of any battery life conservation features, certainly one of BlackBerry’s well known strengths.
• In response to one question at the press conference, Verizon stated they will not allow network quality to erode as a result of the additional load created by this service.
• Currently no video calling, file transfer, SMS messaging or WiFi access

Show me the money! Based on information provided by iSkoot at eComm 2008 and 3′s gradual expansion of Skype availability, it would appear at first glance that the business model involves:

• Verizon receiving a percentage of SkypeOut revenues (Skype has an affiliate program that provides referrers with 25% of SkypeOut revenues – an indicator of Skype’s margin for this service; 3 has offered SkypeOut since summer 2008)
• Skype receiving software licensing revenue associated with smartphone revenues (sales or lease) and Verizon voice/data plan revenues
• No termination charges for Skype-to-Skype calls (explains why Verizon can offer this as a free service to their data plan customers)

The implications:

• Has the potential to add 90 million Verizon customers to Skype’s user base
• Verizon customers can call over 500 million Skype accounts worldwide at no cost (probably about 100 million active accounts)
• SkypeOut becomes the de facto replacement for all Verizon’s other consumer international calling activity, especially for calls to those 44 countries on Skype’s Unlimited World Calling plans.
• Provides a subtle but significant carrier endorsement of BlackBerry and Android devices.
• Multi-tasking allows an “always on” user experience; the challenge will be when and how notifications are made of a Skype activity (presence status change, new chat message, etc.) when using other applications
• the underlying architecture takes advantage of the existing robust and scalable voice architecture while exchanging data over a wireless data service that is widely perceived as the best in the U.S due to the combination of its reliability and coverage.
• requires the installation of “Skype gateway” servers within Verizon’s infrastructure to terminate Skype calls under Verizon’s management and control, offset by the fact that there are no termination charges for Skype-to-Skype calls.

The downside: The architecture does not allow for WiFi access to Skype. As a result:

• one cannot readily make calls from WiFi access points outside the U.S. without paying roaming charges which can tend to be expensive. (Skype for iPhone on AT&T or T-Mobile’s @ Home service provide this capability.)
• calls cannot be made from locations without carrier network coverage (to a large extent Verizon’s U.S. geographical coverage addresses this issue but one can also be deep in a building with WiFi but no carrier).

The Questions:

• Will Skype Instant Messaging become a replacement for SMS messaging and cannibalize SMS revenues? Skype IM messages simply go out over the data channel as one application for the data plan.
• What happens when a Verizon customer is roaming in other countries?  Can visitors to Canada or Europe continue to use Skype at no additional cost while in Canada? or will a roaming charge apply?
• Verizon is currently offering these devices with a “Buy One Now, Get One Free” feature and a two year contract at prices ranging from $29.99 (Storm 1, 8530 Curve)to $179.99 (Storm 2). Will the lack of a low cost phone, such as 3’s Skypephone2, with Pay-As-You-Go impact adoption?
• What is the level of carrier exclusivity in the deal? Will we be seeing similar offers from T-Mobile US or AT&T any time soon? What portions of the embedded Skype software in the devices are  exclusive to Verizon?
• Who will be the first Canadian carrier to adopt the Verizon-Skype model? This will be interesting to follow given that:
  • there are no network quality issues with any of the three
  • the Bell Canada/Telus networks can not only support EVDO (same BlackBerries as offered by Verizon) but also GSM/LTE supported devices with their new HSPA+ network launched in time for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
  • all three carriers now offer the iPhone; in this case Rogers was the original carrier with it.
• What level of support will Verizon provide for BlackBerry’s app store and Android’s market? Will Verizon facilitate and promote them or even provide an aggregated app store?

Final question: Skype stealthed its way onto AT&T 3G through the combination of supporting calling over WiFi access points (worldwide) and FCC lobbying; Skype is certainly helping to drive iPhone sales at AT&T. Can the combination of carrier-supported “free international calling”, full multi-tasking, a more robust and reliable network and the currently top selling smartphone brand in the U.S. sustain and build Verizon’s user base?

Bottom line: carriers are recognizing that Skype needs to incorporated into their infrastructure as a key element providing both uninhibited access and the network resources to ensure a high quality, positive user conversation experience. Most importantly they are discovering that Skype can become a marketing tool that drives market differentiation and user adoption.

For further commentary Carl Ford and I recorded a podcast conversation yesterday: Jim Courtney & Carl Ford Converse about Skype & VZW.

Update: Andy Abramson has been on-site at MWC and picked up some feedback: Skype, Verizon (and Andy) In the News

Photo: John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, and Josh Silverman, Skype’s CEO, announcing their strategic relationship to bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones during a press conference at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain earlier today. (Via Business Wire, accreditat[on not provided)

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Full disclosure: This post was prepared prior to today’s press conference using information that was publicly available prior to the conference. In the second post I’ll discuss the service as announced at CES today.

When you can advertise “Free phone calling internationally”, they will come! In the CES interview with Skype CEO Josh Silverman, Josh makes the point about how Skype draws in customers by offering a free service that is easily adopted by consumers and then offering “premium” services, such as SkypeOut calling, to generate revenues. This model has led to:

• over 580MM registered Skype accounts (probably 100MM are currently active)
• over 12% of international long distance calling minutes are Skype-to-Skype calls
• and revenues approaching $1B per year.

As mentioned in the recent CES interview with Russ Shaw, Skype’s VP & GM for Mobile and EMEA, Skype’s partnership with Hutcheson Whampoa’s 3 service in nine countries has delivered interesting carrier-friendly results from 3’s customers who take advantage of its free Skype-to-Skype calling:

• 20% higher margin
• 17% additional traditional voice minutes
• lower churn rate
• high ARPU (average revenue per user)
• over 1 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes delivered in the UK since Nov. 2007

Results that should get all wireless carriers’ attention! And Russ did emphasize these results to reinforce where some of Skype for Mobile’s current activities and resources are being directed.

Setting the stage in the U.S. market for today’s Skype-Verizon announcement:

• Verizon has a reputation as offering the best high speed (3G and faster) wireless data services within the U.S. and nobody’s complaining about their voice quality.
• AT&T’s major strength appears to be its iPhone arrangements
• AT&T’s network performance issues, especially with their data service, are well documented (even their voice channel failed me on my last two trips to the U.S.)
• The major failing of the iPhone that impacts Skype for iPhone is its lack of multi-tasking capability
• Skype has announced they will be making available Skype for iPhone running over 3G – a service that will only be available on AT&T for the duration of the current Apple-AT&T agreement
• Verizon needs an offering and drawing card that will compete with AT&T’s forthcoming ability to offer a Skype-based service on the iPhone.

So it should come as no surprise that Verizon is announcing an agreement to offer Skype on several devices including the BlackBerry line and the Android phones they support.

The Service Architecture

Based on information that has come out over the weekend and content archived on this weblog, this service is modeled on an architecture similar to the iSkoot architecture used for 3’s service whereby data (Skype chat messages, presence and call signaling information) go over Verizon’s data channel but the actual voice calls are connected to the phone via Verizon’s (robust and readily scalable) voice channel. As a result:

• Call quality is limited by the (3.7KHz) audio bandwidth of the voice channel (in particular, no SILK superwideband quality calls)
• Verizon has no termination charges for calls to Skype contacts (or what amounts to being a Skype-to-Skype call – a key factor in making this service cost effective from the Verizon perspective)
• There is no loading of Verizon’s wireless data network (and the associated backhaul demands) with the heavy demand that would be placed on it via a true VoIP client.
• The resulting “Skype for Verizon” Skype Lite client on the BlackBerry and Android devices  has no support of calls via WiFi access points.

So the Verizon-Skype announcement certainly builds on previous Skype technology and business model experience; it will take advantage of proven and demonstrably reliable carrier voice and data services. I’ll have more in the follow-up post covering the actual announcement.

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When Martin Geddes started out his eComm Europe launch keynote talking about real customer pains and how they needed to be addressed from a user interaction viewpoint, I had hope that maybe we would be hearing more about real business cases in the emerging communications world. What we have learned from the subsequent presentations include:

• Carriers and operators are gradually figuring out they need to be in the “Internet pipes” business (as a channel simply for transporting IP packets) OR the service provider business (acting as a retailer providing specific services as basic as email or as complex as multi-currency transaction processing engines). Those that don’t get it will fade away.
• We’re a long way from having LTE accepted, let alone available, as an ultra high speed wireless protocol. The business case, from both a technology and financial perspective, has yet to be made.
• Value add is through “wow” user experiences; value your customer’s time when handling voice communications and the issue of cost goes away.
  • Calliflower detects callerID to eliminate need for PIN numbers
  • Time Warner will auto-confirm that a service person is coming.
  • Voxygen’s “revolutionary callerID” demonstrates a “rich callerID” experience for both the customer and the merchant in completing an online sales transaction.
• The most promising and innovative application: Layar – an “augmented reality” web browser that sets new levels of performance for location-based services; they won the eComm Application award. Available at the Android Market and the iPhone App Store. Watch for Layar to spawn a network of location-based services application developer partners such as Winvolve.
• Small but important facts that came out:
• GIPS Video engine is using the H.264 SVC codec to allow the viewing experience at the end points of a video conference call to reflect the quality of connection at the end points.
• Skype’s SILK codec is the first voice codec that has not evolved from a TDM codec which has implications from an engineering and development viewpoint (noted by Tim Panton of phonefromhere.com in his presentation on deploying the SILK codec in a yet-to-be-announced project).
• Skype’s Sten Tamkivi pointing out that, whereas most carriers will have, on average, 2,000 calling corridors for completing calls internationally, Skype has over 40,000 calling corridors. Very significant as Skype for Business launches its new services. (A calling corridor determines that actual routing of an inter-carrier call from the caller end-point to the terminating end point.)
• Perhaps the most interesting prototype demonstration was Tim Panton’s Google Wave – Skype – Asterisk prototype demonstration. Phil Wolff at Skype Journal calls it a “Cool  Demo”.

But, I’m with Alec Saunders on a key point: we heard lots about the technology, the carrier and financing issues, “neat” applications. But we heard little, if any, about business implementation cases. We need to hear more about:

• • Who is using these offerings?
  • Where have the new paradigms for telecom allowed small businesses to take advantage of what were previously enterprise level services, such as call centers and voice as a service?
  • Where are the business case studies of implementations?

Alec sums it up best in his post, eComm: Time to Change the Station,:

It is, however, time to stop talking about the death of the incumbent. Let’s instead change the conversation – acknowledge that the carrier network is a platform, and that the carrier has a need for an application community, and begin the dialog between network partners and developers about the ability for those operators to help us get to market.

While we’re at it, let’s also change the channel, dial away from the conversation about “mash-ups”, and focus instead on user needs, the user experience of communications, and the economics associated with that user experience.  By focusing on the business value of the services being developed instead of the technology platform, we can all become better able to reach the customer with game changing new communications services.

Make sense?  It’s an idea who’s time has come.

Full disclosure: Why do I have this viewpoint? I have recently completed managing a project that takes advantage of cloud computing and software-as-a-service to develop a website for a vacation home condominium project where the primary hotel renting our units went under and closed due to Mr. Madoff’s impact on the owner’s finances. As a result we, as the condominium owners, had to implement our own reservation management and booking website with services that would have cost over $500,000 fifteen years ago but had an initial cost this  summer under $20,000. We replaced a telephone switchboard, an onsite reservation system and guest registration system with much more flexibility in the entire guest experience from initial reservation to final check-out. We incorporated WordPress, OnState (with Skype as a calling option), InnRoad, YouTube, Google Maps and Twitter.The entire story will be in another post but you can check out the website here.

There must be many similar stories building up these days; eComm needs to find and tell these types of stories. (And, Lee, you have your first submission for eComm America 2010.)

However, to end on a positive note, eComm Europe 2009 was still the learning experience I was looking for. How important was eComm? My own home carrier, Rogers Communications, had two attendees – one of the few carrier companies at this most important industry-altering event.

Acknowledgment and disclosure: The author’s attendance at eComm Europe 2009 was supported by In Store Solutions, vendor of the FreeTalk Everyman Headset for Skype. In Store Solutions provided an Everyman headset to all eComm Europe 2009 attendees. The author provides business development services to In Store Solutions due to his previous experience with distribution channels and partner programs.

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Yesterday Rogers launched the first Android phones available in Canada with two devices: the HTC Magic (touch screen only) and HTC Dream (touchscreen and slide-out keyboard). Rogers is the first carrier worldwide offering both these devices and also the first North American carrier to offer the HTC Magic.

Over two years ago, in a post Precursor to GPhone? On My Blackberry?, I had predicted any Google-powered phone would include all the Google features found on the BlackBerry (or iPhone).  In this regard today’s demonstration and presentation did not disappoint. Search, Maps with Latitude, GTalk, GMail, News, Google Docs, Sync, Calendar, were all included in the demonstration with the same Google features as found on any BlackBerry or iPhone. However, there were some differentiating features:

• both phones run on Rogers recently launched 3.5G 7.2 Mbps HSPA network, which Rogers claims to approach broadband DSL speeds and to be 3x faster than any other Canadian wireless data network
• there are over 3,200 applications available in the Android Market. Currently these applications are free; however, Google is expected to add a payment system in a few months.
• both phones have a touchscreen with haptic keyboard which, on a brief trial, was definitely impressive (the Dream also has a physical slide-out keyboard)

A few comments:

• While the Skype Lite beta client was seen on the demonstration devices, it does not work at the moment on Rogers. See my upcoming post about Rogers’ position on supporting Skype for more details; suffice it to say it is a Skype issue that needs to be addressed at this point.
• They are currently targeting the consumer market. With a launch involving “Fringe” actor Joshua Jackson (a native Canadian), the entire presentation centered on drawing attention through his promotional tour of the past few days.
• Pricing for these devices are C$149 when purchased with a three year plan. The voice and data plans are the same pricing as for BlackBerry and iPhone but with an one month introductory offering of C$30 for 6GB data usage per month. Interestingly, according to a salesperson in the Rogers Retail Store at their headquarters, the same offer is being made for iPhone purchases during June.
• Rogers continues to demonstrate an ability to outperform AT&T in the U.S. when it comes to fully supporting 3G, and now 3.5G, networks.
• In Om Malik’s post today, With 2M Downloads, Where Is Right on Track, it appears that ”Where” is the most popular Android application. However, for Rogers’ customers the question would be the extent of the Canadian content in this application.
• Yesterday T-Mobile USA’s CTO reported that over 1 million G1 phones have been sold in the U.S. over the first six months in the market. According to mocoNews.net, it appears that T-Mobile USA is going ahead with new Android models and forsaking Nokia’s new N97 offering:
  

  [CTO] Brodman said they are not very interested in Nokia’s flagship N97 device, which hits the market this month. Brodman: “Some of the Nokia/Symbian devices have a lot of functionality, but they are quite expensive and Symbian does not have a lot of traction in the U.S. While Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is a strong partner, we haven’t had a lot of demand for N-series products to date.”

Bottom line: Android opens up new user choices in the Canadian consumer smartphone market. Frankly, the key attraction and differentiator will be the variety of applications available on Android Market along with the overall touchscreen user experience. As a representative application, at yesterday’s launch they mentioned Savvy Shopper that allows price comparisons, using the camera as a bar code reader, for any product in their database.

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During our conversations with Skype COO Scott Durchslag last week at CES, Scott outlined Skype’s criteria for its software development going forward.

First was the emphasis on “liquid communications” through statements such as “Skype Whenever, Wherever”. Just as today you can pick up any PC or mobile platform and find all the Google Tools (Search, Maps, News, Reader, etc.) Skype wants to be on virtually any platform or device.

Pick up a smartphone, find the Skype button. Turn on the TV, find a Skype button, have a conversation. Open a web browser; start a Skype session. All this to complement Skype on the desktop. Today, besides on the desktop, you can find Skype on over 200 mobile phone handsets, several (Sony) mobile devices, Skypephone and Apple TV. But Scott emphasized, this is only the beginning. It will only start to get real when we see Skype on higher profile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry or when we start to see Skype seriously back into the hardware device business with vendors such as Philips and iPevo.

Then Scott outlined four benchmark criteria that every implementation of a Skype on any platform or device must meet:

• High call quality
• Simple and easy user interface
• Consideration for battery life
• Security

Last week’s hotfix upgrade of Skype for Windows 4 beta 3 included the first implementation of Skype’s three year effort to develop the SILK codec, increasing the audio bandwidth to 12 KHz while effectively reducing the Internet bandwidth consumed during a Skype call.

A key reason for Skype’s rapid and widespread adoption has been associated with its ease-of-use. Yet Scott says the Skype conversation user experience needs to be even easier to encourage adoption by a broader user base. Developing a more effective user interface has certainly been a focus of the Skype for Windows 4 beta program. At the Skype CES press conference Scott reported that, in a recent survey of users, 88% preferred the new UI to the previous Skype for Windows 3.8. But I’m still wondering if the Skype for Windows team could take a look at Skype for Mac and implement a “drawer” type interface to manage and select the active conversation. For the longer term evolution of Skype clients hopefully Skype also has a look at Dan York’s post on Skype’s fragmented product strategy.

Battery life on smartphones was a key issue that prevented Truphone, who uses a native VoIP client for calls over WiFi, from launching a native VoIP smartphone client running over 3G networks. Instead they launched Truphone Anywhere that takes advantage of the underlying network 3G GSM voice channel and uses the data channel to set up a call via a server that, in turn, sets up a VoIP client. That voice channel tends to make much less use of the device battery than a constantly compressing/decompressing VoIP client that devours the underlying processor activity. Addressing the battery life issue is a major reason why we see Skype using a similar calling architecture when launching the Skype Lite Java client on over 100 Java-enabled cell phones, including those based on Google Android.

Security is an issue that I’ll leave to Dan York and others who are able to cover this issue more knowledgeably and effectively. Suffice it to say that we would expect security to continue to be a feature of all Skype products, including those that use the mobile voice channel for placing calls from mobile phones.

Two take-aways from these statements:

• Fundamentally we should expect Skype, going forward, to be a provider of real time conversation-enabling software on desktop, web, TV and mobile platforms. To use an old telegraphy term: Full Stop! For instance, rather than developing their own social network, we should expect Skype to seek out agreements with other social network service providers, such as the MySpace agreement. Skype is an enabler of real time conversations; it is not in the community building or social networking business. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, amongst others have already captured that space and done an excellent job at it.
• These benchmarks also provide a basis not only for deciding what product offerings Skype will develop but also when they are in a position to release a product.

The new Skype executive team is finally starting to set some benchmarks and guidelines against which we can not only measure executed performance but also have a better understanding of where Skype wants to go.

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At a Skype’s CES 2009 press conference today recently appointed COO Scott Durchslag provided the first hints of a vision statement for Skype under its new executive team along with some initial software offerings that hint at the direction Skype is taking towards “liquid communications” or “Skype Whenever, Wherever”.

In leading up to the new software announcements, Scott made a few points about Skype’s recent accomplishments and focus going forward:

• Skype now delivers 8% of the world’s telecom minutes through clients that now support 28 languages
• New software will drive a liquid experience on the desktop, web, TV and mobile devices
• A key goal is to liberate the Skype experience from a captive device (desktop) to more user aware devices (mobile, TV as well as embedded into appliances)
• 41% of Skype calls on Christmas day involved video, only to be surpassed at 47% on New Years day.
• New software offerings have to pass a bar of four basic criteria:
  • high call quality
  • super simple user interface
  • sensitivity to power management issues
  • security

He then went on to talk about new software offerings:

• New desktop clients: Skype for Mac 2.8 (launched as beta at Mac World Monday), Skype for Windows 4.0 (with a February release date)
• Release of Skype Lite, a thin client  for Java-enabled mobile phones with Skype for Android to be available within a few days on Android Market on T-Mobile’s G1^TM and Skype Lite general availability in the U.S. (in addition to several countries previously announced) resulting in Skype availability on over 100 mobile smartphones.
• Internally developed new Skype “SILK” audio codec which is twice as efficient with respect to bandwidth requirements for the audio and video experience.
• Skype for Mobile Internet Devices with a demonstration on a couple of MID platforms.
• Skype for Mac 3.0 to be available by year end with the feature set of Skype 4.0 for Windows.

This afternoon Phil and I spent an hour with Scott discussing the restructuring, support issues, the TOM Skype Breach and how Skype will work with its developer partners to provide a win-win direction for the development and marketing of partner applications. These topics will be the subject of future posts over the next week.

First impression: it’s the first event where a senior Skype executive has provided in a public forum an outline of its vision, guidelines for achieving that vision and how it wants to work in the real time communication and IP-based conversation space. The real challenge now lies in the execution.

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The new G-1 phone based on Google’s Android platform is slowing getting out to market this week through T-Mobile stores in U.S. locations where T-Mobile supports the 3G wireless protocol. At launch there appear to be about 50 third party applications available for download to the G-1 via Android Market.

One of those applications is iSkoot for Skype. From iSkoot’s description at Android Market:

iSkoot for Skype puts the features of Skype in your Android handset. Acess your Skype contacts, make & receive Skype calls, chat, and place SkypeOut calls to phone numbers all over the world. iSkoot delivers unsurpassed mobile Skype call quality and does not require a WiFi connection.

From the iSkoot press release:

iSkoot for Skype makes it easy and affordable for people to keep in touch with friends, family and contacts with an always-on-the-go lifestyle. iSkoot for Skype leverages the voice-optimized circuit-switched wireless networks of mobile carriers, allowing for full operation even without access to WiFi or 3G networks and ensuring the best possible call quality. Normal carrier voice and data charges always apply.

Make SkypeOut calls? Seems like T-Mobile is the first North America carrier to tolerate SkypeOut calling from a mobile handset over a 3G network. (3 recently added SkypeOut calling to the various Skype/iSkoot-enabled services they support, including Skypephone; Truphone for iPhone only works over a WiFi connection.) T-Mobile will make their revenue through the “local” minutes required to place a Skype call via iSkoot.

VoIP over 3G? Not really, recall that the iSkoot model is to use the data channel for chat messaging and call setup information. The voice call itself is handled over the much more robust and voice-friendly GSM voice channel.

And why iSkoot on the Android platform before on the iPhone? Seems that the Android platform fully supports the background multi-tasking requirement of any Skype-enabled product where you want to have Skype chat sessions running in background – while using any other Blackberry application – and only want to bring them forward when a new message appears. That’s my experience when using iSkoot on my Blackberry Bold.

• iSkoot for Skype on Android Market made Tech Crunch’s Top 10 Android Launch Apps.
• Android Developers Blog: Android Market: Now available for users.

Tags: iSkoot, Android, T-Moible, G-1, SkypeOut, Skype

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