Two years ago at CES 2010 Skype announced Skype for TV with two partners (Samsung and LG). It was only available on very high end Internet-enabled TV sets and required vendor-specific webcams. Effectively the cost of adoption was over $1,500. CES 2011 saw an expansion of the number of TV set vendors (Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Vizio) and the support of Skype for TV on BluRay DVD players from Panasonic and Sony, bringing the cost of adoption down to about $400 for the player and a supporting webcam.

One other complication was that all these offerings required a webcam that was specifically designed for the individual TV/player vendor. At a July 2011 panel discussion, Skype President Tony Bates mentioned that Skype for TV was installed into over 50 million TV sets; however, again these were mostly high end sets with a price point that did not encourage mass consumer adoption.

At CES 2012 there were some demonstrations and announcements that effectively make it possible to enable every television set to support a Skype for TV video or voice call at a much more reasonable cost:

• Tely Labs launched its TelyHD platform – an Android-based webcam that embeds HD video support of Skype for TV. Most significantly it is TV vendor-agnostic as it can work with any TV set that has an HDMI input. More on TelyHD to follow in an upcoming review. Total cost: $249.00 including webcam, available at the Skype Store.
• The newly announced Sony BDP-S790 BluRay player, available later this spring, is unique from a Skype perspective in that it will work with any webcam that supports Skype.

• Sony was also demonstrating a prototype of its forthcoming Android-based “Smart TV” set top box as its version of Google TV. It will deliver all the common Internet social networking applications such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Skype, amongst others, to any TV set and again work with any webcam.
• Samsung announced its inTouch Android-based webcam supporting Skype and other social networking applications; deliveries to commence later this spring.
• All of these devices support not only HDMI and 720p HD video resolution but also an embedded WiFi internet connection.

Samsung was demonstrating Skype for TV where, as shown on the right, the webcam was embedded into the top frame of the television set. While apparently still supporting Skype for TV, there were no demonstrations in the Toshiba or LG booths.

Panasonic and Sony had new versions of their BluRay player, as well as new firmware supporting Skype for TV on their Viera and Bravia lines respectively. As shown in the video below, Panasonic’s firmware allows you to watch TV during a Skype call where you can switch the audio between Skype and the TV channel audio within the context of the conversation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQhj7za2uNk

A couple of the booth personnel mentioned that the one feature missing in a world where all TV vendors are actively encouraging 3D TV was the ability to adopt Skype for TV to 3D; apparently many of their other “smart TV” social networking applications somehow have the ability to “upscale” 2D to 3D. Not something I’m holding my breath waiting for, especially given what the webcam requirements would be.

Bottom line: The launch of products lowering the adoption cost of Skype for TV, especially on existing TV sets, significantly expands the potential user base of Skype for TV, not only for consumers but also for business use. The number one advantage is the ability to hold video calls where the other end point can be a PC, smartphone (iPhone, Android phone) or tablet – or another TV set that supports Skype for TV.

On the other hand, at the time of writing this post Skype for TV does not support Group Video Calling; in fact, currently one cannot even be a participant on a Group Video Call with Skype for TV.

While the webcams for Skype for TV are currently vendor-specific, it appears that the ability to use a generic Skype-certified webcam should appear later this year on the Sony devices. On the other hand TelyHD offers a complete solution in one hardware package.

Related articles

• Google TV’s biggest competitor looks awfully familiar (gigaom.com)

Last week I provided a review of my experience with a recent production model of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone, initially available in the U.S. and Canada. To quickly recall its primary feature, the Connect•Me Adapter allows you to make PC-free Skype and SkypeOut calls and, optionally, landline calls from an existing home phone.

It turns out that adapting this product to other countries involves more than simply supporting another plug for the power connection. The landline telco industry backbones in each country also have variables that need to be addressed in order for the landline component of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone to work properly in an individual country.

Effective today U.K. residents can “Skype from your Home Phone” with the launch of the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone U.K. edition. It’s available at the U.K. Skype Store, with options that include three month subscriptions for:

• up to 300 minutes** of international calls to landlines and mobiles, or
• unlimited* calls to landlines in the UK and Ireland and up to 300 minutes of international** calls to landlines and mobiles, or
• unlimited* international calls to landlines and mobiles in 41 countries***

It’s also available at Amazon U.K. and the eBuyNow UK store with similar options for Skype calling plans.

Of course Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide continue to be free.

For those U.K. residents who want a new dual mode PC-free phone (Skype and PSTN landline) a Philips VoIP855 cordless phone has also become available. This option allows you to include up to 200 of your Skype contacts in a phone book (and 100 names for landline numbers) as well as to make use of Skype’s presence feature. The previous GE Digital Cordless Expandable Telephone and RTX Dualphone 3088 are other options available.

Aside from the power adapter and firmware to support the U.K. landine PSTN, the discussion points in my previous review apply.

In conjunction with these product announcements Skype has issued a press release covering a survey they recently sponsored:

• No job too far – 50% of Brits say accepting a job abroad is easier with advances in communication technology

Note re the calling plan offerings:

*A fair usage policy applies. Excludes service, special, premium and non-geographic numbers. UK landline calls are those made to area codes beginning 01 and 02.
** The actual number of minutes may vary depending on your calling destination and the number of calls you make. A connection fee applies.
***Unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles in Canada, China, Guam, Hong Kong S.A.R., China, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand, United States
Unlimited calls to landlines only in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg,Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia (Moscow and St.Petersburg only), Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom

While the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone became available in late August, I only received a production hardware version three weeks ago. I have now had a chance not only to verify the operation of all its features but also to observe some of the reviews.  But before talking about its operation I want to identify its market positioning as a result of my own experience and some of the review comments.

What is FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone?

It’s essentially an ATA adapter that allows you to use a conventional 12-key TouchTone analog phone¹ to make calls to Skype Contacts and SkypeOut numbers over an Internet connection. Optionally you can continue to make calls over a landline.

Who is it for?

Anyone who wants to make Skype and SkypeOut calls without the need for a PC and already has a 12-key TouchTone phone. It is especially convenient for use with today’s very common cordless home phone setup comprising a base station and multiple handsets distributed around the house.

It offers a worldwide long distance service that combines free Skype-to-Skype calling with low cost SkypeOut calling to the PSTN. When combined with a local landline service it provides a unique complementary long distance service, especially if you are making international calls outside U.S./Canada.

Initially it is only available for use in U.S. and Canada; versions for European and other countries are anticipated to follow early in 2012. Update, Nov. 15, 2011: FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone is now available in the U.K.

What is it not?

A complete replacement for a landline service. You still need a landline or alternative service for emergency e911 calling. Also the landline service will often include “free” local calling to a region identified by the carrier.

What are the requirements?

• A traditional 12-key TouchTone phone with its standard RJ-11 cable connection
• A broadband Internet connection (via a port on a router connected to your cable or DSL Internet service) accessed via a standard RJ-45 Ethernet cable connection
• An AC power connection (110-120 volt in US/Canada)
• For configuration and setup only: a Windows or Mac PC
• Optional: a traditional PSTN landline service with RJ-11 cable connection

Why would you buy it?

• To place free Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any destination worldwide from the world’s most familiar telephony user interface
  • the call can be received on any Skype-enabled platform: PC, smartphone, iPad, TV or even another Home Phone with Connect•Me.
• To take advantage of Skype’s low worldwide international calling rates and calling plan subscriptions for calls to the legacy PSTN or mobile phones in over 180 countries.

So what has been the experience?

While most of my calling involves using Skype on PC’s or a wireless service on a mobile smartphone I have maintained one line of a legacy PSTN service from Bell Canada, mostly for local calls and as a matter of convenience.  I also have a long time investment in this phone number as my primary business number. (My fax line has been replaced by PamFax; a second voice line became redundant a few years ago.)

A couple of years ago I reviewed this setup with Bell Canada where I wanted a minimal long distance capability while maintaining the ability to make local calls. Just having access to a reduced long distance charge was costing me $11.00 per month before making any calls. I seldom made long distance calls on that line but needed it for emergency circumstances such as when my smartphone batteries had died or my Internet connection was down. It was also a convenience when placing local calls from its physical location.

I have replaced the Bell Canada long distance service with the Connect•Me Adapter with the following consequences:

• I can make Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide at no cost
• I can make SkypeOut calls at 2.3 cents/minute vs Bell Canada’s charge of 10 cents/minute
  • I have the option to use a Skype Calling Plan subscription, if call volume suffices
• I have eliminated the $11.00 per month fixed charge from my Bell Canada bill.
• I make “local” calls over the landline at no additional charge beyond the monthly service charge.
• I continue to have access to Bell’s auxiliary services such as call forwarding, call waiting and basic voice mail.
• TouchTones (DTMF signals) are passed through successfully for services that require, say, dialing into a business extension or placing a prescription order with a drug store.

But here are the caveats:

• I need to start landline calls using the # key followed by the normal 10-digits for local calls.
• I can start SkypeOut calls by dialling ** followed by [country_code] [area_code] [local_number]
• I can access up to 100 speed dial numbers for both Skype and SkypeOut calls
• I have set up a separate Skype account with only 30 to 50 contacts. This becomes an essential consideration if you are using this service for personal or family calls and your normal Skype account is used heavily for business. Note that the Connect•Me Adapter can handle up to 200 contacts.
• Due to my low SkypeOut call volume on this phone line I am using Skype credit for SkypeOut calls; however, one can use a Skype Calling Plan to call U.S./Canada at $2.95 per month or over 40 countries worldwide at $13.95 per month subject to Skype’s fair usage policy.
• And to repeat (from the user portal):

• If you have a landline connected, dial #911 for e911 service.

And how is the voice quality?

Calls using the landline have the same quality as a normal narrowband landline call. (When placing a landline call you’ll hear some exotic noises while placing the call but the connected call allows me to carry on a normal phone conversation with no audible distractions.)

When making a SkypeOut call to the same number I have observed noticeably clearer voice quality compared to using the landline . And on Skype-to-Skype calls there is excellent voice quality.

By making a call to my primary Skype account on a Windows PC I was able to check the Call Technical information which reported a “NWC” codec with 16KHz sampling. This confirms that, where feasible, the Connect•Me Adapter supports wideband audio. I am told that NWC is actually a dynamic codec that will switch between narrow band audio G.729 and wideband audio G.722 codecs as appropriate to the connection conditions. But the bottom line has been a much crisper audio on a SkypeOut call than experienced on the landline.

How does the Connect•Me Adapter get set up?

The Connect•Me Adapter is accompanied by a user portal for setting up:

• Call Settings –
  • Do you want to have local calls default to the landline or SkypeOut?
  • Do you want international calls to default through SkypeOut?
• Call Forwarding and Voicemail –
  • calls to your Connect•Me-enabled home phone can be forwarded to, say, your mobile phone or any other landline number; the delay before forwarding can also be set.
  • if call forwarding is not set up you can set up and use Skype voicemail. If both are setup call forwarding takes priority.
• Contacts and Speed Dials –
  • Add Skype Contacts to your account, set up speed dials for making Skype-to-Skype calls and SkypeOut calls.
  • There is an option to print out your speed dial list.

Firmware Upgrades: From time-to-time FREETALK will issue upgrades to the firmware to offer new features and/or bug fixes. The first upgrade added support for Skype voicemail. These upgrades are provided automatically with no user intervention required. There is an option in System Settings to define a time-of-day for accepting upgrades, such that upgrades will not interfere will normal calling times.

Update: as I was finalizing this post I lost power at my office location. When power was restored about 30 minutes later, the Connect•Me Adapter came back up within a couple of minutes; I was able to make both Skype and landline calls with no user intervention.

Bottom line: The FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone provides an option for taking advantage of Skype’s services for voice calls using a standard 12-key TouchTone phone set. It can either be a stand alone service for long distance calling, with the caveat that it does not support e911 emergency calling, or an international long distance service complement to a “local” landline service.

When attached to a DECT cordless phone base station, it will Skype-enable all the handsets around the home.

Initially the FREETALK® Connect•Me Adapter for Home Phone is only available for use in U.S. and Canada via either the Skype Store or the Amazon U.S. and Canada stores (search for FREETALK under Electronics). There are three SkypeOut options:

• 60 minutes of SkypeOut calling as the starter package
• a one year North American (US/Canada only) Calling Plan subscription, or
• a 3 month worldwide Calling Plan subscription to over 40 countries

Individuals need to make their own assessments of the savings they will achieve by using the  Connect•Me Adapter. In particular “local” landline services and calling plans will vary by carrier. The information presented here is for one particular circumstance using the author’s landline carrier.

Should you wish to make PC free calling but require a phone handset, the GE Digital Cordless phone offers a more complete Skype experience as it can embed your Skype Contacts and provide presence information.

Full disclosure; the author was a participant in late beta testing for this product using a pre-production version of the device; however, he has received no compensation for his evaluation and feedback. There are no affiliate links in this post; if one clicks on the link to PamFax, there are affiliate links on that page.

¹ It will work with any single line phone, including cordless phones, except older cordless phones where the cordless connection works over the same 2.4GHz band as WiFi. Also, run legacy Nortel phones with a power adapter in its “backup” mode using power from the phone line – i.e. – without the power adapter.

Related articles

• Now you can use your home phone for Skype calls (gigaom.com)
• New Freetalk adapter makes Skype more like MagicJack (skypejournal.com)

Overnight Microsoft announced they had closed their acquisition of Skype, following the final EU Commission regulatory approval last week. Key points:

• Skype will remain as an independent business unit within Microsoft under the leadership of former Skype CEO Tony Bates who becomes President of Microsoft’s Skype Division. It’s a new tact for a Microsoft acquisition.
• Microsoft anticipates the integration of Skype into many of its current products – the most obvious being Skype for Windows Mobile and Outlook integration (as well as other Office products). But there are opportunities foreseen for Windows Live offerings as well as its Microsoft Lync enterprise offering.
• Whereas Skype had little enterprise presence other than small businesses and employees who would use it at work, it will be an interesting challenge to see how Skype becomes integrated into Microsoft Lync. There are challenges on the Microsoft side not simply from a technology perspective but also from a business perspective, for example, the costs and burdensome licensing associated with their server-based products.

Tony Bates has put out his vision statement, including a video and an supporting infographic, for Skype’s direction within Microsoft:

Microsoft is committed to the ubiquity of the Skype experience – communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus. And we’ve only scratched the surface. We’re at the starting line of integrating world-class talent, innovative technologies and products. By bringing together the best of Microsoft and the best of Skype, we’ll deliver amazing new experiences for consumers and business around the world.

Leading up to the closing we have seen some subtle activity on the Skype side:

• Most notably new releases of most Skype client software that incorporates advertising. Skype intends to place ads in a discrete manner during Skype-to-Skype calls made by users who are not generating revenue through Skype credit, a Skype Calling Plan subscription or a Skype Premium subscription. As mentioned by Skype CEO Tony Bates at a recent forum event, one of Skype’s goals is to generate major revenue through this advertising initiative.
• Skype has continued to offer upgrades for all its supported platforms over the past two months, not only supporting the claim that Skype’s brand would be damaged should they stop supporting platforms other than Windows but also supporting Skype’s initiative to provide more incremental upgrades every two to three months.
• A strong emphasis on Skype’s unique ability to drive video communications in a way that encourages easy adoption (more in a future post).
• Last night Skype released hotfix upgrades to Skype 5.6 for Windows that removed a Google Product Bundle offering, comprising the Google Toolbar and the Chrome browser, during installation. (Will we be seeing a Bing product bundle soon?)
• While Skype has made some top level management changes over the past few months, they appear, with a few minor exceptions, to have kept their operating staff, whether on the developer side or marketing side.This brings an experience base that is critical to meeting Tony’s goals in a timely manner.

And some questions:

• Will we see a Skype for BlackBerry? Can Microsoft leverage its relationship with RIM to resolve this issue? (This has been a most requested feature on one LinkedIn forum discussing what users want to see on the Playbook.)
• How will Skype now encourage third party application development? Will there be support for using web-based tools meeting the IETF’s RTCWeb initiative? What is the road map for SkypeKit?
• Will we see Skype Online numbers for Canada?
• And, in the longer term, will Skype pass the “AmberMac Test”?
• Can Microsoft become as ubiquitously associated with leadership in real time communications as they have been in the evolution of desktop operating systems?

About thirty years ago I worked for a company that had developed Magnetic Resonance technology that was evolving from chemical analysis applications into the medical imaging field. This company initially attempted a partnership with GE who were the leading medical imaging company of the day, especially with CT scanners but were just dipping their toes into learning magnetic resonance technology. However, my employer of the day did not have the financial or other resources required to jump from a business selling $100K to $500K systems to a research market into a business selling $3 million systems into a medical market (with all its regulatory implications). In the end GE simply acquired the company’s magnetic resonance division and has now become a leader in the MRI market. I see a similar opportunity here for the combination of Skype’s technology resources with Microsoft’s financial and business resources along with their market reach.

One final comment: over the past five and a half years I personally have come to meet many Skype employees. Their common thread and over riding motivation was their participation in an initiative that was revolutionizing real time communications on a world class scale. It has been a pleasure to work with them across several projects. Let’s hope they can continue to thrive under the Microsoft umbrella; they are a key resource to the success Tony envisions. Congratulations are due to all the members of the Skype team that made this transaction possible.

It will be an interesting ride. Can they execute? What will happen with the user experience? Will it drive a significant return on a $8.5 billion investment?

What’s your take? What are the opportunities and what are additional questions beyond the list above? Look forward to your comments.

Just as I finished writing this post, Dan York put up his views over at Disruptive Telephony:

My interest was not only in the “across all devices”, which has been a large part of Skype’s goal for some time… but also in the use of “real-time communications”. For a while that was a phrase that only the more technical-minded folks used, but now increasingly “real-time communications” seems to be the phrase of choice for many. I, for one, applaud the usage.

Read Dan’s post for another perspective on the acquisition.

Update: Phil Wolff at Skype Journal: Skype: New owners, new customers, new channels.

Full disclosure: The author is an involuntary participant in the Canada Pension Plan – a beneficiary of this acquisition. Now CPPIB is looking at investing in a retail chain called “99 cents” stores.

Today the Skype Store launched two new ways to place and receive Skype calls, including SkypeOut calls, from your home phone. Each also has an option to continue using your landline.

The options are:

• Make and receive Skype calls on an existing home phone using the FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter for Skype.
• Make and receive Skype calls from a new GE Skype-enabled Digital Cordless Phone.

One of the major limitations on using Skype at home is the requirement to have Skype installed on a PC (especially if it’s a desktop at fixed location), smartphone (iPhone, Android phone) with battery life limitations, iPad or, more recently, a Skype-enabled TV or BluRay player.

Yet the world’s most familiar phone interface has been the standard 12-key Touch Tone phone. And the most widely available touchtone phones today are DECT-supported cordless phones allowing one landline connection to be accessed from up to four or five rooms around the house.

• create a dual line operation (landline and Skype) around the house or apartment
• place and receive free Skype-to-Skype voice calls without a PC
• place long distance calls to landlines and mobile phones using a Skype Calling Plan or Skype Credit
• receive calls via a Skype Online number (as well as your landline number, if you configure that option)
• call forwarding (requires Calling Plan subscription or Skype Credit)
• support for up to 200 Skype contacts
• Skype-to-Skype voice calls can be made to/from any other Skype access point: Skype for Windows/Mac/Linux, Skype for iPhone/iPad/Android and Skype for TV
• Emergency e911 calls are directed automatically over the landline connection, if configured.
• participation in Skype multi-party calls, as an invited party only

Skype on a Home Phone

• FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter
• GE 31591 Digital Cordless Phone

FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter

According to Helen Blackburn, Skype’s Head of the Partner Product Management team:

Many people today continue to use their home phones as their primary means of communication. If you are one of these people, you will be pleased to learn that you can now have a true Skype experience on your existing handset with the release of the FREETALK Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter for Skype.

The FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter, initially available for U.S. and Canada, works with an existing home phone with a RJ-11 connection. Both an RJ-45 Ethernet cable and RJ-11 telephone cable are included with the device; it plugs into a standard 110 volt power source.

FREETALK Connect Me Configuration

The Home Phone Adapter does require access to a PC to configure settings:

• Call settings: use Skype or your landline as the default for domestic and/or international calls
• Contacts and Speed Dials: for making Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls
• Call Forwarding to another landline or mobile phone

To get started simply make the Ethernet and telephone cable connections, plug the adapter into a power source, navigate to the setup wizard (for either a Windows or Mac PC) and follow the set-up wizard instructions. Once configured calls can be placed and received via the phone, without any requirement for PC access. The Connect•Me portal’s home page gives an overview of the setup and options:

FREETALK Connect Me User Portal

Skype-to-Skype calls are made by setting up a Speed Dial associated with a Skype contact. A speed dial then requires you to dial * plus a speed dial number (1-99) to place a call to a Skype contact from the phone set. Speed dials can also be used for frequently called SkypeOut numbers to landlines and mobile phones.

You always have the option to dial a landline/mobile call normally (see Call Settings in the image above):

• # plus a number [1][area code][local number] uses your landline for calls to US/Canada numbers
• ** plus a number +[country code][area code][local number] uses SkypeOut to place calls internationally at SkypeOut charges.

Note that a landline connection is an option; the device could be used solely for Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calling from a home phone set. The adapter uses the wideband G722 codec for crisp voice quality on Skype-to-Skype calls.

The Skype Website provides additional information about the FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter, its use cases and requirements.

The FREETALK® Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter can be purchased via the U.S. and Canada Skype Stores; the actual transaction, including delivery, is managed by the eBuyNow (formerly InStoreShop) ecommerce store. Note that there are options that include Skype Calling Plan subscriptions.

GE 31591 Digital Cordless Phone

The GE 31591 Digital Cordless Phone is a new version of a PC-free Skype cordless phone that takes advantage of additional Skype features including:

• Uses Skype SILK superwideband technology for crystal clear Skype-to-Skype calls
• Log into Skype via username/password.
• Manage your presence status; see Skype contacts’ online status
• 200 Skype Contacts download; 100 name local phonebook
• Skype voicemail access; message waiting indication
• View Skype and landline calls history: 50 name/number call log
• CallerID (with Skype name if Skype-to-Skype)/Call Waiting
• configure via a Skype client on your PC
• Handset speakerphone
• Software upgradeable
• Expandable to 5 handsets

Note that the GE Digital Cordless Phone includes additional Skype features. such as SILK technology support, beyond what has been available in the legacy RTX Dualphone 3088.

The GE 31591 Digital Cordless Phone can be purchased via the U.S. and Canada Skype Stores; the actual transaction, including delivery, is managed by the eBuyNow (formerly InStoreShop) ecommerce store. Note that there are options that include Skype Calling Plan subscriptions.

What Skype account do you use?

One major consideration is what Skype account you use for either of these options; it depends on the context in which you want to use your phone. I have elected to use a separate account because:

• My primary Skype account has over 500 contacts; these devices can only support 200 contacts
• there are probably only 30 to 50 contacts that I would access regularly via a Connect•Me adapter.
• I want to separate the “business” calls on my primary Skype accounts from personal calls received around the home.

As a result I am using a separate account for the Connect•Me device I have been testing using a 20 year old Nortel home phone; a full review will follow in a separate post.

In a press release today, Neil Stevens, Skype’s vice president and general manager for product and marketing, stated:

“Our mission is to make Skype available everywhere so consumers can enjoy conversations whenever and wherever they are. We are delighted to have partners that help us deliver on this mission through the introduction of new products such as the Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter. Now, using Skype at home is as simple as picking up a handset and dialing.”

Bottom line: Skype has expanded on its Skype Everywhere theme by allowing Skype to become the “long distance” service associated with a landline phone service and a touch tone “home phone”. It also addresses the ability to make emergency calls via the landline service. In my case, by removing the long distance service associated with my Bell Canada line, I have removed an associated $11.00/month service charge just to have a long distance service – before making any calls. And I get the advantage of either free or low cost calling while I can maintain free calls via the landline for my local calling area around Toronto.

Related articles

• With new Skype adaptors, Grandma can now Skype you from her landline (thenextweb.com)
• New Freetalk adapter makes Skype more like MagicJack (skypejournal.com)
• Now you can use your home phone for Skype calls (gigaom.com)

Today marks the 8th anniversary of Skype’s launch as a free voice calling and instant messaging service running on Windows PC’s. Within the first month Skype had over 500,000 users; today Skype can boast of 170 million active users with as many as 30 million users online concurrently.

Skype’s Jennifer Caulkin, in her post, Celebrating Video Calling on Skype’s 8th Birthday, talks about the impact of Skype’s most unique feature: video calling. Having followed Skype since the launch of Skype video at 320 x240 resolution in 2006 followed by High Quality Video calling in the fall of 2007, one continues to be amazed at the various stories where Skype video has made a difference in people’s lives:

• Courtship: Skype’s initial low quality video (320 x 240) helped Eric and his wife carry on a long distance courtship five years ago at a time (before the launch of High Quality Video) when they were physically separated; today they are the proud parents of two children.
• Marriage: in times of geographical and cultural challenges, many Skype video calls have been used to assist and view marriages.
• Birth: Baritone Lawrence Brownlee was under a contract obligation to perform in Paris when his wife gave an early birth to their first son. Lawrence called Skype Video “an invention like the wheel”.

And the recent launch of Skype Group Video, combined with the voice quality of Skype’s SILK voice technology, is behind a very productive and interactive weekly meeting of an mentoring group in which I participate. I have also participated in other Group Video calls with participants across four continents for business meetings.

Aside from the “network effect” of Skype’s 170 million active users is the evolution of Skype well beyond the PC. With Skype’s cross-platform calling, video calls can be made between not only PC’s but also iPhones, iPad, Android phones and Internet-enabled TV sets. The recent launch of Skype for iPad is a perfect platform for video calls from the perspective of both portability and display size.

As Skype’s Jonathan Christensen pointed out at eComm 2008, Skype’s 2003 launch in success was not only due to Skype itself but also due to the confluence of PC market and Internet infrastructure conditions that made it possible to be easily installed and for adoption to take off:

Most Skype video calls on PC’s run at Skype’s High Quality Video standard of 640 x 480 (VGA) at up to 30 frames per second and require a minimum 384 Kbps upload speed on the Internet connection – easily achieved on most broadband Internet services. Recently Skype for Windows and Skype for Mac, combined with appropriate webcams, incorporated support for 720p HD video provided you also have sufficient Internet upload speed.

Today’s infrastructure challenge when it comes to Skype Video calling is the requirement for a 1.2Mbps upload connection to support HD video calling (720p @ 22 fps). Several webcams now support HD video calling; when it happens and your bring a video call to full screen display on a >20 inch monitor, it’s the closest Skype offering to telepresence. But most consumer broadband services cap out at 1 Mbps upload speed. Surely this will be addressed by broadband service providers over the next couple of years.

On the other hand, most users are simply happy with a good quality video call, whether at VGA or HD resolutions. It’s the call experience that matters most. It’s a bonus experience when you can take full advantage of High Quality Video or HD video.

Bottom line: Skype’s video calling has become the mass adoption of AT&T’s picture phone first demonstrated at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. With over 40% of Skype calls using video, it has become Skype’s most prominent defining technology; best of all, one-on-one Skype video calls are free and at a low cost for Group Video calls as one of three features of a Skype Premium subscription. It will be interesting to see how video calling evolves once Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype has been completed (later this fall?).

Update: Phil Wolff at Skype Journal reviews and speculates: Happy 8th Birthday, Skype! Many happy returns.

Note: webcams supporting HD video calling include FREETALK Everyman, FREETALK Conference HD Webcam, FaceVsion Touchcam N1 and V1, Logitech C310/C510 and C910 webcams as well as the webcams on the recently released MacBooks and iMac’s with Intel’s 2nd generation “SandyBridge” iCore processors.

Related articles

• How is it different from Skype? (skypejournal.com)
• Skype CEO Tony Bates talks about making Skype video calling ubiquitous (blogs.skype.com)
• 30 million people online on Skype (blogs.skype.com)

At the beginning of July, Skype released Skype for Android 2.0 with Video calling and support for four Android phones. Today Skype announced support for 17 additional Android phone models from Acer, HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. More details are at Mark Douglas’ post: Skype 2.1 for Android enables video on majority of Android devices. Mark also provides additional information on this release related to working with other Android phones and bug fixes.

Given all the publicity re Skype for iPad this week, it’s worth noting the following issue in the Release notes:

Video calling to the iPad 1 that is using the Skype for iPhone app is currently not working; the call automatically gets downgraded to an audio call.

One more reason to encourage iPad owners to replace Skype for iPhone with Skype for iPad.

As mentioned in the previous post linked above, battery drain probably remains a cautionary issue with Skype for Android. Once my contact who uses it on a Nexus S returns from a mini-vacation, I’ll look for more feedback.

The Skype Everywhere story continues to build.

Related articles

• Skype for iPad: Post-launch Reprise (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype with video calling comes to Android 2.2 devices (zdnet.com)

Skype for iPad launched two days ago and has become an instant hit at the Apple App Store. In fact, according to AppiAnnie, which tracks sales at online stores, Skype for iPad was #1 download on the Apple App Store in 86 countries on launch day. This lead continued into the next day.

This response is certainly a measure of the intensity of anticipation; “Skype for iPad” has been a popular search term on Google for that past several months.

And a few comments based on my experience over the past two days:

• Voice quality – definitely as good as the experience using the iPhone.
• Collaboration – as a participant but not as a host! While you can follow a Group Chat or be a participant in a multi-party voice call via Skype for iPad, you cannot create any form of multi-party conversation. There is no “Add to call” feature anywhere; you cannot add/remove participants to/from a chat session. You must create and host the multi-party conversation in Skype for Windows or Skype for Mac.
  

  3 Party Call

• Video calls – while you cannot send video on the original iPad you can receive video calls on it. Have had a couple of good call experiences with it. Of importance is that video calls be received from contacts using Skype for Windows, Skype for Mac, Skype for iPhone/Android or Skype for TV.
• Notifications: once I had installed Skype for iPad I started receiving an iPad notification every time someone put a message into a Chat session. When you have over 400 Contacts, this can quickly become annoying. Go to the iPad “Settings”, scroll down to Skype (and make sure you select Skype for iPad – showing as version 1.0.1273 until there is an update), select Notifications and turn Sounds and Alerts “Off”.
• Battery drain: more than 24 hours after my last recharge with Skype for iPad open throughout, my battery is down to 55%. Certainly more than acceptable than the iPhone experience if you charge your iPad overnight on a daily basis.
• USB Headset – No! while Dan reported success using a USB headset via the Camera Connector when using the original Skype for iPhone on the iPad, I encountered an unacceptable level of choppy audio when attempting to use a USB headset. If you need a headset for, say, privacy reasons, use the 3.5mm headset jack on the iPad.

Bottom line: With battery life more in the background as an issue, the challenge now is determining under what circumstances I would use it:

• when out of the house and have a WiFi connection, whether via a WiFi Access point or the Personal Hotspot feature of my iPhone¹
• in my office as a backup when my PC is not available (rebooting or running too many other programs such that call quality deteriorates)
• as a speakerphone where maybe 2 to 4 people are listening
• (with iPad 2) as the default video phone, provided the iPad 2 can be located appropriately for capturing the video image (probably using one of the “stand” type covers)

But only ongoing experience will demonstrate where I end up using Skype for iPad. Certainly it adds to the “attache case” content I discussed when iPad was first announced. After all we often carry a mobile phone in a brief case.

¹Using the Personal Hotspot feature of the iPhone helps to consume the 6GB monthly data plan available on my iPhone – which otherwise never gets over 1GB – and saves the monthly fee for an iPad data service – especially since I seem to use well over the minimum level Rogers offers in its iPad data plans.

Related articles

• Skype for iPad: Creating a Default Video Phone for Consumers? (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype Now Optimized for your iPad (blogs.skype.com)

Not without its launch hiccups, the much-anticipated Skype for iPad was apparently in the Apple App Store for a while last night and then disappeared accompanied by a Tweet from Skype that said: “To ensure your best Skype experience, we’ve temporarily removed Skype for iPad which went live prematurely today.” I went to the Apple App Store around 8:30 EDT this morning and found nothing. Fifteen minutes later I found an application identified as “skype software S.A.R.L.” and presto, I was able to download the Skype for iPad application. Shortly afterward Skype provided a blog post: Skype Now Optimized for your iPad.

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff, in  Skype for iPad is like Skype for iPhone, with elbow room, has gone through many of the installation steps and launch features. We did an iPad 2 to iPad 1 video call this morning while he was preparing breakfast and cracking some eggs; it confirmed that you can receive a video call on an original iPad but, of course,without a camera, you can only place a voice call (or chat).

This image also provides an overview of the user interface, in landscape mode, during a call: access to the user’s Skype profile, a Contacts button, the “Current” call and a “Recent” list of Contacts with whom you have had recent chat, voice or video conversations. You can click on any of those items during a call; the call will continue with the video freezing and you can then return to the Call screen by clicking on the “Current” item (and the video goes “live” again).

Contacts: When you initially launch the application you get a  4 x 5 matrix display of all your Skype account’s Contacts at the beginning of the alphabet. My first intuition was to scroll down the screen to find a contact I wanted to call but, with over 400 contacts, that gets tedious. I wondered if there was a Search capability – there is, but you need to pull down at the top of the Contacts screen to show the Search bar. Over on the left again are avatars for all the “Recent” Contacts. (Skype for iPhone at least shows the alphabet on the right side of the Contacts screen with a search icon before “A”, making it much easier to find the Search bar.)

Tags, Categories and Groups – there’s a bit of confusion! Especially if you have been using Skype on a Windows or Mac. When you first launch Skype for iPad you will see an embedded “Tags” arrow in the upper left of the ribbon bar. This takes you to a page where you will see icons for “All Contacts”, “Online Contacts” and each of the “Categories” of Contacts you have created in Skype for Windows. The confusion arises through the lack of a consistent term for what are called “Categories” in Skype for Windows, “Groups” in Skype for Mac and “Tags” in Skype for iPad. Someone has to take charge as Uber-Product Manager for Skype clients and get the terminology consistent.

One issue that was consistently noted by several who installed it was that, if you have a large number of Contacts, it would take some time for all the Contacts to be loaded. Also it would capture recent chat sessions that had originated on, say, Skype for Windows; I found some sessions that went back three or four days. Again this delays getting to a point where you can really start to use the application.

Profile: Clicking on the Profile icon in the upper left brings up the My Info screen from which you can select “My Profile” as shown on the left.

As Phil noted, there is no way to buy Skype Credit through the application, clicking on Skype Credit simply brings up an information screen. This is probably a result of Apple’s recent policy change about “in app” purchases that significantly impacted how various book stores operate on the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. (Does this mean we will see a new version of Skype for iPhone to replace the current one that allows you to “Add Credit”?)

The application inherited my Call Forwarding information, Skype Credit amount and Skype Online number.

Making Calls: from the Contacts screen, select a Contact, select the “Call” or “Chat” button and, if “Call”, select whether you want to make a Skype call or a SkypeOut call to one of the Contact’s listed phone numbers. Note that there is also an option to launch a chat session or send an SMS message. (The Video button is shaded as I am using an original iPad with no video camera.)

The dark call screen will appear (note its similarity to the call screen in Skype for Windows 5.5), When answered, as shown above, it includes a call control bar for showing the chat session, going to a full screen display, muting the mic, a dial pad (even in a Skype-to-Skype call) and ending the call. If you select one of the Recent contacts you will see the chat session screen with a “phone” icon in the upper right; tap the phone icon to launch a call. There is no option for make multi-party calls hosted on the iPad.

Voice quality during my calls today was indicative of using Skype’s SILK codec. By making a call to a Skype for Windows client I was able to confirm, via the Call Information screen in the Skype for Windows client, that Skype’s SILK codec was, in fact, deployed.

At this point there is not enough experience to comment on battery drain, a significant  issue with Skype for iPhone. I have also tried to make a call using a USB headset via the iPad Camera Connector; while you can hear something, it’s a very choppy audio that is not suitable for a call. On the other hand, using a 3.5mm plug headset, such as the FREETALK Handsfree, provides the crystal clear audio associated with SILK.

Initially I had an issue with my iPad mic not working; however, a search on Google provided the solution: sometimes it is necessary to fully power down the iPad and reboot it to make the mic work.

Bottom line: Skype for iPad takes advantage of the larger display format to manage Skype calling; however, there is a learning curve that could be enhanced through more consistency with making calls on a Windows or Mac PC (or even the iPhone). It offers outbound calling to landlines and mobile phones, it works over either 3G or WiFi, it delivers a new dimension in video calling on mobile devices (supporting both the front- and rear-facing iPad cameras), it supports instant messaging.

It’s certainly a more suitable platform for video calling than the iPhone. There still needs to be some longer term experience to see how battery life will impact using Skype for iPad as an every-day “phone” and whether it can become a “default” platform for Skype calling. The processor speed on the iPad 2 vs the original iPad may also become a consideration.

Related articles

• Hands-On With Skype’s Web Phone App for iPad (wired.com)
• Hands on with Skype for iPad, a killer video chat app (venturebeat.com)

Today Facebook announced three new changes that empower its users with significant real time communications features: Group Chat, a site redesign and Facebook Video Calling powered by Skype.

For Skype it’s a major awareness builder of the power of video calling. As suspected by the inclusion of new Facebook features in Skype 5.5 beta for Windows released last week, Skype is working on a long term partnership with Facebook to integrate Skype technology into the Facebook platform. Facebook chat support in Skype 5.5 beta for Windows followed by today’s Facebook Video Calling announcement is just the beginning to build a real time communications user base beyond the current Skype user base.

From the Facebook viewpoint Facebook Video Calling offers a new real time social networking application built around Facebook’s social networking architecture. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that this is the first of many “applications” where Facebook wants to partner with a provider who has a focus on the relevant area of expertise required to offer a quality service while not having to invest in the development of the particular expertise.

Here’s what I’m observing:

• Facebook Chat sessions are being mirrored on the Facebook Contacts tab in Skype 5.5 beta for Windows. Entries in either chat window will show up in the other one.
• There is no “setup” required to launch a video call beyond a one-time initial installation of a plugin (Windows, Mac). On Windows the plugin installs as a Program that can be uninstalled in the usual way. While there are options during the call to change the mic/speakers and webcam, there are no settings for volume or testing the audio/video hardware. And there is no way to see Call Technical Info. It’s a total focus on a simple user experience.
• A Facebook Video Chat is launched by going to a Friend’s page on Facebook and clicking on the Call button.
• If a Friend does not answer a video call you are offered the opportunity to leave a video message. (The first time you will have to approve the use of Adobe’s Flash Video.)
• If a Facebook user does not have a webcam a voice call is fully supported with your Facebook avatar/profile picture replacing the video image.
• There are significant issues with navigation and notification within Facebook:
  • While you hear a “ringing” sound when someone calls, it is not obvious where the “answer” window is. On the first call to me I had to minimize three or four other windows to find the “answer” window.
  • When a video message is sent (option if there is no answer to the video call), it is not obvious to the recipient that a new message has been received. To find the message one must go to the Message icon on the left side of the Facebook ribbon bar and select the “Friend” who has sent the message.
  • When someone started a Facebook chat session with me, the only way I knew that this session had started was to see a new message notification in my Skype 5.5 beta for Windows client. There was no notification on my Facebook site.
• The audio appears to use Skype’s SILK codec according to initial user reports. Also it has been confirmed that the audio and video channel use Skype’s p2p security features. (Chat security level is to be confirmed.)
• Video is 640 x 480; however, there is no frames-per-second information available.
• Picture quality, while certainly acceptable, is not up to the quality seen with Skype High Quality or HD Video. There tend to be reddish hues on faces and, in one case, white background walls had a definite bluish hue. (In the example below, Skype video calls using the same webcam and PC were of much higher color quality.)

Two other points that came out during the press conference:

• This Facebook-Skype partnership had been seeded prior to Tony Bates’ appointment as CEO last October; however, he has certainly endorsed it. Prior to the public announcement of Microsoft’s forthcoming acquisition of Skype, he went with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to inform Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of what would be announced later in the day.
• Both Facebook and Skype see this as an opportunity to build video calling experiences across the Facebook user base prior to launching paid services such as outbound calling to the PSTN and Group Video calling from Facebook.

Bottom line: Skype was readily adopted when it launched due to the relative simplicity of the setup and user experience. While Facebook Video Chat takes full advantage of Skype’s underlying p2p architecture (which places most of the capital equipment cost on the user in the form of requiring a PC), this is the first real experience where a “third party” user interface is built around Skype’s core audio and video communications engine. While one can launch video chat sessions on an ad hoc basis, there are some user interface issues, such as navigation and notification that require refining. (Maybe I’m not sufficiently into Facebook to understand where to find messages as a routine exercise … after all, Facebook is largely about social networking where real time communications plays a supporting role.)

I’ll continue to use Skype for its higher quality video and its auxiliary services such as group conversations and file transfer. However, if someone wants to communicate via Facebook, it’s a reasonable alternative – provided I get appropriate and timely notification of a conversation request.

The real target user for today’s announcement are all those multi-millions of Facebook users who have never experienced using Skype for their real time communications activity; an easy-to-install, ad hoc offering is more appropriate to them. In the end both Skype, as a service, and Facebook will find there relative niches.

Full disclosure: I received one of those Google+ invitations that Google could not fulfil on, so there is no Google+ experience reflected here.

Links:

• Skype Big Blog: Facebook video calling powered by Skype
• Skype Big Blog: Skype CEO Tony Bates talks about making Skype video calling ubiquitous
• Skype-Facebook Launch promo
• Facebook website: Facebook Video Calling
• Facebook Video Calling FAQ
• Facebook Help Center: Video Calling Basics

Great video quality on trial call; however, battery life issues continue to dog Skype on mobile smartphones.

Yesterday Skype announced the release of Skype for Android 2.0 introducing two-way video calling and SMS messaging into the Skype for Android feature set. It also introduces a new user interface running on phones with Android 2.3 or later and a front-facing camera,  including HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S.

Most importantly it allows video calling with Skype users on the iPhone (3.0 or later), Mac (5.0 or later), Windows PCs (4.2 or later), other Android phones and Skype-enabled TV’s and BluRay players. Calls can be made over WiFi or 3G connections. More details are in the Skype Garage Blog post here.

Not having an appropriate phone I went to two acquaintances with access to the Google Nexus 5 for their feedback. First I made a contact with an acquaintance at his office in London, UK from my MacBook using Skype for Mac 5.1 – over WiFi connections at both ends. Rather than a production quality interview it’s more of an exercise in testing out various features of the new version as he wanders about his office, especially when it comes to making a video call. Here’s an edited version of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zXsWZf9hos

Note that, aside from excellent video quality, the image, as observed from the Technical Call Info detail, was 320 x 240 running up to 17 fps, the camera was able to adapt to both focal range and ambient lighting conditions. Overall it was a more than acceptable quality call. While the demonstration includes switching between the front-facing and rear camera, it was not accelerometer sensitive, in that one could not invert the phone with an inversion of the image. While I did not check during the call, one would assume it uses Skype’s superwideband SILK codec; certainly the crisp audio was there.

Initially there was a question of whether Skype for Android 2.0 could support multi-party Group Chat. “Eventually” is the answer in that once you sign in, it can take 15 to 30 minutes to catch up with all the recent messages in a fairly active group chat. But this is the same experience as with Skype for iPhone.

Another acquaintance, the developer of this website, is a big fan of the Google Nexus S and ran a battery test with this result:

Greatly improved UI but battery issues persist. I started it at 2:00pm with a full charge, by 8:00pm the phone was dead. It was pretty much sitting idle the whole time. Android reports it taking up 16% of the battery usage when running in the background (second only to the display). Disappointing… I wish I could use it.

No great surprise, given the battery experience when running Skype for iPhone. Once again, Skype provides a Skype client on a mobile device where you need to open and close Skype only when you really need it. Certainly, if one could have a Contact group (Mac) or category (Windows) comprising only those contacts whom the user deems critical for mobile Skype calling, it may help to reduced battery draining presence activity for users with over 50 contacts.

Here’s the Skype video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o6TBezfSpU

Bottom line; While delivering a more than acceptable qualityvideo calling experience with higher resolution than Skype for iPhone (320 x 240 vs 160 x 120) along with the voice calling, chat, presence and mood message features of Skype, battery drain continues to be an issue. The solution: only have Skype for Android open when necessary, keep it near a charger or find an extended battery accessory for the phone (similar to what FastMac has for iPhone).

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)

While attending CES 2011 back in January, I spent an afternoon visiting the main television vendor floor where 3D TV was definitely the number one topic of interest; however, I found, and reported on, several vendors with display kiosks demonstrating Skype for TV.

Michael Wolf, at GigaOm’s NewTeeVee, recently brought renewed visibility to the Skype for TV initiative in his post: Could Skype Be Microsoft’s Smart TV Trojan Horse?.   Frankly, from my learnings that afternoon,  his view about a role for a Windows OS on TV’s is baseless; it pays to look at the hierarchy for enabling Internet services on the TV’s.

One common trend I observed in visiting these booths is that all the vendors have embedded as firmware a complete Internet-enabling smart platform that provides access to various “cloud” applications. Social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter are the most obvious. Amongst other applications are several involving movies, such as Netflix, and sports offerings, such as NHL and ESPN Sports Center.

Skype, of course, was on at least six vendor offerings, using its SkypeKit platform, initially available for the Linux OS. In fact, Panasonic includes a dedicated Skype button on the remote controller for their Skype-enabled TV’s and BluRay players.

Behind all this I learned how the TV vendors are embedding these platforms. It’s a case of having the platform software embedded into the TV’s firmware and hardware, then layering the applications on top of the platform. Given that SkypeKit is behind Skype for TV it appears that they are using a Linux-based operating system. Certainly there is no room, given the current state of these offerings and time frames involved, for an embedded Windows.

On the other hand Skype for TV will bring to Microsoft exposure to experience with integrating applications onto these platforms. Windows Live services would be an obvious candidate for integration into these TV platforms. After all we do have Windows Live Messenger access on various smartphone platforms such as BlackBerry and iOS4.

And one should never lose sight of the network effect. Skype for TV video calls can be made to over 170 million active users who may be on any of several platforms – PC’s, iPhones, Android phones. One of my first benchmarks for how Microsoft will deal with its Skype acquisition would be the introduction of a unique Skype for iPad. This would be an application that would allow video calling on the iPad 2 taking full advantage of the iPad 2’s display size. It has nothing to do with Windows or Office but rather providing new user experiences using resources at hand.

Bottom line: It’s not a case of will Microsoft attempt to displace other OS’s on TV platforms with a derivative of Windows – that opportunity has passed them by. But rather the strategic opportunity lies in merging Skype’s experience with introducing a real time communications application onto TV platforms with Microsoft’s existing Windows Live experience on other platforms.

Michael also questions whether Google TV will be a competitor. In the end consumers want as few boxes as possible combined with ease of operation. If all the services, broadcast TV and Internet applications can come via one “box” the market for add-on boxes on home entertainment systems will eventually evaporate. How many HDMI connections will be tolerated by the average consumer?

Related articles

• Microsoft Acquires Skype – The “Amber Mac Test” (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – A Most Interesting Marriage (voiceontheweb.biz)
• The End of the “Skype as Bandit” Era (disruptivetelephony.com)

When an acquisition occurs, it’s always a good sign to see that the acquiring CEO is getting around to meet all the employees of the acquired company. When major announcements were being made at my last employer, our first priority was to make sure the employees understood what was being announced, the reasoning behind the announcement and what the implications were for company staff. It’s important to have the team onside right from the beginning.

At Microsoft – Skype Press Conference last Tuesday it was announced that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates, who had already briefed Skype’s employees based in the Palo Alto area, would be touring Skype’s European offices in London, Tallinn (Estonia) and possibly Stockholm and Prague over the past weekend.

Seems like Steve got to check out the Skype phone booth at Tallinn airport on Friday or Saturday:

And that Steve participated in a Sunday morning brunch with some employees according to this Stockholm-based employee’s mood message:

More about the phone booth here. Phil Wolff at Skype Journal has opened a Caption Contest.

Bottom line: the introductions are over; now for the execution. Get ready for the ride.

Thanks to Brian O’Saughnessy, Skype’s Chief Marketing Officer, for the photos.

Related articles

• Steve Ballmer’s email to Microsoft employees about Skype deal (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Steve Ballmer & Tony Bates Talk About Skype-Microsoft Deal (gigaom.com)
• Ballmer’s latest acquisition (mondaynote.com)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – An Investor’s Perspective (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – The “Amber Mac Test” (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Microsoft Acquires Skype – A Most Interesting Marriage (voiceontheweb.biz)

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)

Ever wonder if Skype could replace your home phone line? Borderless Communicator publisher and independent Skype “statistician” Hudson Barton has outlined, with encouragement by Skype Journal‘s Phil Wolff, the complete details of how he has deployed Skype to become his home phone.

If you are considering this option here are some of the considerations:

• Skype Online should be offering numbers in your local calling area.
• Create a separate Skype account solely for the home phone configuration
  • There are no Contacts associated with the account (optionally you can create a separate set of contacts)
  • All inbound calls are concurrently forwarded to their two  iPhones (leaving one more PSTN call forwarding number available)
  • They still use their original Skype accounts for making and receiving Skype calls with their Skype Contacts

• Hudson and his wife answer ALL calls on their respective iPhones using the carrier’s voice channel
  • not on Skype for iPhone
• They also subscribed to a North American unlimited US and Canada Skype Calling Plan
  • $60 per year (vs $360 for a Time Warner home phone line)
  • Results in a 50% discount on the cost of their Skype Online number (net $30 per year)
  • Required since all inbound calls are forwarded to their iPhones on the PSTN
  • Provides outbound calling options (see below)
• Hudson has outlined the issues with respect to outbound calling.
  • Where a SkypeOut call would be the lowest cost, he uses Skype for iPhone logged into the same “home phone” Skype account.
  • However, due to battery issues he closes Skype for iPhone when not making Outbound calls. (recall that they answer inbound calls on their wireless carrier’s voice channel).
  • For outbound calls he can optionally set either his Skype Online number or a mobile number as the callerID for SkypeOut calls.
• There is no 911 service for the Skype Online number; however, it is provided by their iPhone carrier.
• Voice mails are left on the iPhones’ carrier accounts for ready access, not Skype voice mail.

With Hudson’s implementation, the Skype client is never open except when required on the iPhone for SkypeOut calls; Skype’s infrastructure works in the background to forward calls. No PC is required once the account is set up and call forwarding configured. Other than the mobile phones, no PC hardware is required for the ongoing use of the service.

Over the years I have experienced a couple of other situations where, while it may not be their only home phone service, users have taken advantage of Skype.

Use a PC-free Skype-enhanced phone. While there were once several offerings for this, the current offerings are the RTX Dualphone 3088 (cordless, landline and Skype) which can combine a landline service and Skype into one platform and the FREETALK Office Phone (Ethernet, Skype only) . Since the Dualphone works via a DECT-supported base station, you can have as many as four handsets around the home. Once again:

• create a separate Skype account for your “home phone” service
• ensure that you can obtain a Skype Online number that is toll-free to most of your callers
  • low cost unlimited calling US/Canada landline subscriptions are very common
• you have configured call forwarding options to send unanswered calls to a mobile phone
• obtain a Skype subscription appropriate to where you expect to place outbound calls
• 911 calls can be made via the landline or the user’s mobile phone.

In one instance the user is moving amongst several countries over a few months and they simply take their Dualphone with them and obtain a local landline service if needed.

My own home phone is a Dualphone equivalent; but our landline uses the Rogers Home Phone service where the plan includes 1,000 minutes of US/Canada calling and free calls to other Rogers Home Phone customers as well as any Rogers wireless phone in Canada. But a similar Skype configuration is not feasible in Canada as Skype Online numbers are not offered for Canada.

Bottom line: Yes, with the appropriate services available in your local calling area, you can replace your home phone with a Skype service. However, understand you will need a smartphone for 911 calling and you need to ensure your iPhone is kept charged to be able to receive calls.

Other posts:

• RTX Dualphone 3088: The Bloggers’ Have Their Say
• RTX 3088 Dualphone: An Ideal Home or Small Office Solution for Easy Worldwide Calling

Related articles

• Skype hits 145 million users monthly (voiceontheweb.biz)

Note: While eBuyNow (formerly In Store Solutions and producer of the FREETALK Office Phone) was a client of the author’s, this is no longer the case. The author currently has no interest in any product sales resulting from links within this post. He has been using the no longer available Phillips dual mode cordless phone for his Rogers Home Phone service.

Cross-published guest post by Phil Wolff, Editor and Publisher, Skype Journal.

Phil’s interview with Tony provides significant background about what Tony brings to Skype as both his technology expertise and business management experience, the four key values that are the foundation for his leadership focus during his first year as Skype CEO and where he sees Skype moving ahead at a high level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXddBMj1N8s

Skype Journal: How did you come by your geek cred?

I was part of the team, the very small team that ran the ARPANET gateways in the UK, I call it the right place at the right time. And my story about how I’m self-taught is that I’m from London and I lived at the end of the Tube line and it took roughly an hour and twenty minutes to come in every day and an hour and twenty minutes to go home. That’s a long time where you’re kinda sitting there and so I immersed myself in manuals and texts. Strange story about that, back in those days, manuals were a lot better then they are today. I self-taught UNIX through basically DEC manuals.

And I really got involved in the infrastructure side of the Internet and so when people say a bit about being a geek, you’re seeing a bunch of RFCs around things like route reflection. Route reflection is an esoteric thing but it’s one of the things along the way that kept the Internet going.

There were some other jobs after that. I helped start RIPE which is the main name registry similar to the Internic and so on. I wasn’t the first guy there but I was like number four and I worked on a thing called a route server. But I always knew I wanted to build product. And so after that I did Internet MCI which is how we transitioned the NSFnet which was a lot of fun and it was all different then. It was when in those days the nexus of the Internet was actually in Virginia, So PSI was there, UUNET was there, Sprint was there, MCI was there. And we actually used to meet, a bunch of kids, geeks and we would actually trade SLA agreements. We would go to the Tortilla Factory once a month and I would buy a circuit, you’d buy a circuit and that was how it worked. And in those days there was no settlement and all the discussions we have today.

But I always kinda felt that the missing thing was how were these things going to evolve and scale.

When I joined Cisco I worked in the CTOs group and we had these guys called “consulting engineers,” very smart people mainly more pragmatists who had been building. And I kinda ended up being the de facto product manager for the high end router space and we were redefining it and there were a lot of people involved. But my first big project was working with a thing called 12000. The twelve-thousand was the real first carrier class box.

And then to cut a long story short so this doesn’t go on forever, the real big thing I got involved in was this thing called the CRS1 and what was brilliant about that was all aspects about building a system: which was hardware; we created this new operating system called IOS XR, which I drove and led and this you know; put it this way, pretty much any time that someone connects to your website you get sent one of these packets, it comes across one of these devices so it’s part of the infrastructure.

And the only other bit that may be relevant for this is that along that way I got really enamored with video. I was asked to integrate Scientific Atlanta because we’d acquired Scientific Atlanta, and now we got bigger and I was general manager and I had most of the carrier business, a big portfolio, and what I loved about the technology was the complexities of it and the complexities of the multiple forms of capture to display. And I also loved the fact that it took me to a place that I hadn’t been before. I had been basically a plumber, I had been selling plumbing, building plumbing. But when we acquired Scientific Atlantic at Cisco, the dialog changed – we now were actually in the home. We were in the ARPU part of their discussion.

And the other thing that happened because of that passion around video and the fact that I had been so focused onto the early generation of the Internet I had the opportunity to be on the board at YouTube. And that was my first real shot into that kind of “consumerland,” consumer Internet. Loved it, it was over before it started, it was great fun. Founders are fantastic people, Chad and Steve. If you ever get a chance to meet them, they’re wonderful guys.

And from there, I was just building my portfolio, growing my leadership, and John Chambers asked me to take on enterprise 18 months ago, and this opportunity came up.

SJ: And out of the all the companies – Why Skype?

Well, it’s a great story. I’m very goal-driven. My wife will tell you that we…

SJ: In terms of personal career goals?

Goals in general. I’m just being very candid. Some career, some material, some more social. I mean, I believe that goals work. I think that it’s a myth that there’s some Harvard study that wasn’t empirical that said that they did a measure of people one year of one graduation class and those who had goals, who had wrote down goals were more successful than those who didn’t write down goals. Now again, goals are different for different people. But three years ago, I wrote down a goal that I would like to be a CEO before I am forty-five and I wrote down three companies and this was one of them.

SJ: Really?

And I’m not telling you who the other two are. But I will tell you is that each one of those was not in the infrastructure system space, was in the consumer internet space, because I think that the consumer internet side is the most disruptive space and continues to be. I was in the transition at Cisco where it was frankly academic-led to enterprise-led and it transitioned to consumer-led and I got to see that.

And the other thing, just for what it’s worth, I hope it doesn’t come across as cheesy, but I’ve been a big user of Skype for a long time and…

SJ: A little cheesy.

Yeah, but let me tell you the story of why it’s less cheesy. When I went to Tallinn. Have you ever spent any time in Estonia?

SJ: No.

You’d love it. Actually, a big part of the history is the disruption of what they’ve done. One of the questions they’ll ask anyone is – how long have you been using Skype? One way you can tell how long someone has been using Skype is asking if you have a unique handle, that maps to their unique handle. My Skype ID is TBates. I started using Skype in March 2004. There’s a great story here. So the guy who runs the database who has all the secrets, Asko, they asked him to run it, cause I was asked this question myself, and the answer came back – he goes wow that’s before I started using it. So yes, you can say that it’s cheesy but the reality of it is that I used it a long time ago.

I met Nicholas a long time ago. I developed an idea of putting p2p inside routing protocols at Cisco. We have a patent on that. And I pitched it to them and they said it wasn’t a great idea. ‘Cause of their core values. So I’ve been involved in that technology.

SJ: Skype vs. Cisco?

Just to give you a perspective, I was at Cisco for 15 years. So I was there when they were kind of in the low billion dollars which is slightly bigger than this and actually it’s kind of interesting, when I came to Skype, there’s a lot of similarities in culture. Right? We can discuss what Cisco is today but back then it was highly product-centric. There was a belief system in this case, that you can kind of equalize the world by making IP the center point of it.

In Skype’s case, it’s saying we’re providing a communications services platform that breaks down barriers on a global basis. And they used a very powerful disruptive technique to do that. One – it’s low cost, but two – it’s highly scalable. And so there are similarities there.

Culturally, there are also similarities, in the early days of Cisco there was a belief system that you could do anything if you had the right talent and the right engineers in place. Now that scales to a certain level and then you have to put processes in and so on. And Skype I think is at a very similar point in its life cycle. So for me, I was sort of lucky enough to go through that, so when you ask what’s the value I can bring, I have been through that.

I think there’s two other pieces which is leadership as you go through these transitions is critical and I learned that from John. And John created a bunch of cultural values that stick with the company. Those values are different, but the importance of those cultural values are very critical as we went through different parts of that long term journey.

And so I am in the process, and it’s an internal thing but I have to share it. It’s sort of establishing a bunch of cultural values that I think are very important to Skype. Different to the ones we had at Cisco. At Cisco we had “Customer Success”: customer is always right, no technology religion, results driven. So there’s a bunch and there’s a badge you get at Cisco.

I’m trying to focus on four key things:

Number one – product engineering led company. The way Skype will be successful is its products must speak for themselves. Its products and its services. And you know, I think we have some wonderful products. I think what we just did with the iPhone launch, just to bring you up to speed, we did the New Year’s Eve event with 11 million – 10 million upgrades, 1 million new users — in less than a week. And just the pure use cases are just unbelievable. And I think why? Because they’re multi-platform and they’re going to lead to more platforms. Just takes it to the next level. So that’s one key thing. But product engineering – that must lead. I don’t want to talk about the past. I want to talk about what I want to do. But that’s number one.

Secondarily, understanding that we’re truly a global company. One of the things that attracts me to Skype is that we were founded in the East. We were founded in Eastern Europe. Maybe we should do this at some point – maybe we should do this at some point, you should come with me; the energy and the way they think about life is just amazing. It’s not just that they disrupt – they see this as a platform that could change the world. Now to change the world you need a big platform. So you have to keep investing and so on.

But we also need to grow. And at some point you have to look at that talent pool and say if you go to Estonia and you get in a cab and you say Skype, you don’t have to say any more. And I’m saying Estonia, I’m not just saying Tallinn. So this is a population thing. So we’re sort of bringing East to West. Now why I like that concept is that we actually have the infrastructure and the capability to do it. The way people use Skype internally is they’ve already embraced “globalization” but not necessarily really realized the full power of it, so that’s number two: Truly global like no one else. Really be a global company. Most global companies today are headquartered in The Valley and they outsource. That’s not what I’m talking about. Completely distribute the company. That’s the second cultural value.

The third one is we’ve got to, one thing that I think is really important is incredible ideas. [And you’ve got some great ideas by the way. And I do want to mention, we are going to take up your Heartbeat idea. I think that’s a good one. Not committing right now! But I absolutely think that heartbeat not a good one right now, we have to put more data and status around it.] There’s probably ten things that you would like to do in the Skype product, probably five or six [of mine] are the same. If you go to Tallinn and you say to them, we should do this, I don’t know: ring tones, as an example, it’s been done. But what happened was for some reason the processes and things to get it to market and really get it to take off, so they just moved on. So cultural concept number 3 is ideas to real users much quicker. And I think I know how to do that. Because I’ve been through that process. Last year I helped develop 400 new products at Cisco. Different types of products Software products as well. Android tablet, business social software, obviously switches and routers and so on, so that I think picking up that pace…

Last one I think is a bit high level, but understanding that the role Skype plays is that we’re in a highly dynamic world, much more dynamic than it used to be. There’s a bit of a sense that it’s static – you win VoIP and then you win the next one. I think all those things are blurring – and so that’s the 4th concept. This notion of dynamics – what’s happening in the marketplace with the competitors and so on, I think we can translate internally and really move much quicker.

SJ: What does Skype need to become?

Look, I think there are a couple things. One is Skype in my opinion is the only truly global communications services company already.

One of the things that’s going to come out tomorrow is a Telegeography report. Wait, let me ask you a question, what do you think the numbers are going to be for 2010?

SJ: For international minutes?

For us, as a percentage of total.

SJ: 16?

25!

SJ: Congratulations.

What’s that really about? That’s still mainly people with good broadband, mainly people in the developed world with PC architectures. You’ve got to move to mobile, you’ve got to get to the third screen, I would say the living room, really. I think the world is made up of three, increasingly, three modalities of input and receive communications. These guys (holding up iPhone) for sure – that wave’s there and we’re in the heart of that right now with what we’re doing with our products. This, and I think the desktop is still a metaphor for what we’re doing – mainly for the web and the browser. And increasingly the living room. And that’s the other thing we’re going to be talking about tomorrow – is continuing partnerships around what we’re doing with TVs, and SkypeKit as a generalized kit can now be put into a lot of different devices.

So when you say what I think we can become, I think we can service a billion people quite candidly. I think offer a rich set of communications services in a way that leads to more wonderful experiences obviously. There are so many stories of the way people use it in terms of whether it’s outreach, in terms of education to kids, and so on or whether you’ve got someone who’s at war trying to get back home.

But I actually think that the broader play for us is that it can also start to become much more useful. The way people collaborate is becoming more video based. It’s much more immersive, people actually want to talk to each other. Customer service, there’s so many different examples of where video will become the next frontier. I think we’re leading in that. But I think we need to be multiplatform. That’s really what we’re doing in the next few years.

Word cloud from transcript via Wordle.

Thanks to Jenifer Caukin, Skype PR, whose voice you’ll hear about two-thirds of the way through the video.

See also:

• An Atlas of Cyberspaces: Historical Maps of Computer Networks. A range of the historical maps of ARPANET, the Internet, Usenet, and other computer networks, tracing how these pioneering networks grew and developed.
• Internet History, Computer History Museum.
• IETF RFC 2260: Scalable Support for Multi-homed Multi-provider Connectivity. January 1998
• IETF RFC 2270: Using a Dedicated AS for Sites  Homed to a Single Provider. January 1998.
• IETF RFC 2283: Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4. February 1998.
• IETF RFC 2796: BGP Route Reflection – An Alternative to Full Mesh IBGP. April 2000.
• IETF RFC 2858: Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4. June 2000.
• IETF RFC 3180: GLOP Addressing in 233/8. September 2001.
• IETF 4456: BGP Route Reflection: An Alternative to Full Mesh Internal BGP (IBGP). April 2006
• IETF RFC 4760: Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4. January 2007.
• 10 Questions for Skype’s new CEO. October 4th, 2010. I only got to a few of these.
• The Skype Hall of Presidents and CEOs. October 30th, 2010.
• First video message from Skype CEO Tony Bates. December 23rd, 2010, responding to the pre-Christmas network outage.
• Skype CEO: We apologize and will top you up. Caption contest. Announcing the outage was over. December 23rd, 2010.

What do you think of Tony Bates’ past experience, fit for the job, or his plans for Skype? Email tips@skypejournal.com. Chat with me on Skype. Call me at +1-510-316-9773 (my mobile), follow on twitter @evanwolf(everything) and @SkypeJournal (just the posts). Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats, where we’re talking about this right now.

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)

Aid workers and care givers who provide services in politically- and infrastructure-challenged countries where law and order is not necessarily a given, where war, violence and crime are rife, have always ranked very high on my admiration list as one of the most unselfish and high risk roles that one can perform in hopes of betterment of individuals’ lives. And often these workers are in hardship situations where they must spend not only weeks or months but even years with little or no contact with their families and friends.

So what is Skype doing to help?

Today Skype announced a partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) where Skype has not only worked to supply communications services to 120 “hardship locations” but also adapted their software technology to deal with the low bandwidth communications infrastructure available to these locations. Skype’s Antoine Bertout has discussed this partnership with UNHCR’s Mohammed Faisal:

In Skype experiments with refugee workers, Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff outlines some of the special technical features of this “bespoke” version of Skype:

Changes that limit bandwidth use:

• Video will not start automatically.
• Video will not start until Skype sees needed bandwidth.
• Skype’s SILK voice CODEC (8-40 kbps) will be used when possible.
• No Facebook support.

In the video you will hear Mohammed refer to “our network”; there is an element of a virtual private network (“VPN”) involved in some circumstances as well. Also the client supports Skype Chat, including Group Chat, and SkypeOut calls to the PSTN. Note also that the Blue Wall firewall incorporated into the associated infrastructure allows calls only “outside business hours” in order to minimize impact on critical business operations.

Video calling may be bandwidth challenged in some situations; it would be interesting to know what resolutions and frame rates are supported (even if lower that High Quality Video’s 640 x480 @ 30 fps, at least one should be able to see images at, say 320 x240 @ 15 fps, etc., given Skype Video’s bandwidth adaptation features). But just hearing a distant voice will suffice for most calls.

But why just for UNHCR?

Dan York questions why such technology would not also benefit a sector of the business market in Interesting Tech in Skype’s Low-Bandwidth Version for UNHCR – Wouldn’t Enterprises Want This?:

As I listened to the video, it definitely occurred to me that there are businesses and organizations out there who could also benefit from a low-bandwidth version of Skype. I think, for instance, of shipping companies with limited Internet connectivity to vehicles or ships. Or to companies with distributed offices with very small branch offices with very small Internet connections.

Skype’s Peter Parkes has responded to a comment (to the original Skype blog post) about other aid organizations with:

UNHCR is the first partner to benefit from this low-bandwidth version of Skype for Windows. A large dispersed organization such as UNHCR is an ideal testing environment to evaluate the performance of this software in a wide variety of challenging connectivity networks. At the moment we are focused on ensuring a successful roll-out of Skype to a planned 80 to 85 per cent of UNHCR “hardship” locations before the end of 2011.

As such, it is not currently available to other organizations or the general public to download. It is clear to us however, that others could benefit from the changes and the lessons learned during the evaluation of the software that Skype has developed for UNHCR. Unfortunately, however, we are unable able to talk about our future intentions and can only discuss our partnership with UNHCR at present.

You can support UNHCR’s activities also….

Skype and UNHCR have also put up a page where you can provide financial resources to UNHCR to assist with supplying textbooks and training manuals, funding teachers and purchasing solar-powered computers, amongst other requirements that go to support their programs.

Bottom line: Over the past few decades advances in communications technology have helped to overcome many political injustices, natural disasters and barriers to economic opportunity . While it’s been great that Skype offers many cost-free services to all of us,  when it comes to providing assistance to those helping peoples disengaged from life’s real opportunities, Skype’s services become “priceless”.

Related articles

• UN refugee agency staff trial new version of Skype (guardian.co.uk)
• Skype Creates Bespoke Software to Help Refugee Workers (mashable.com)
• Low-bandwidth Skype custom app created for UN Refugee aid workers [Video] (slashgear.com)

Three weeks after announcing SkypeKit for Linux, Skype has lived up to its commitment to provide support for Windows and Mac OS X.

What does this mean for future deployment of Skype access?

Basically the ability to embed Skype within a third party Windows and/or Mac OS X application without the need for the Skype client to be open. Whereas the target developer audience for SkypeKit for Linux is probably hardware developers, there is now an offering available for software developers. From Jonathan’s post linked above:

Today, Skype is taking the next step by announcing a new version of the SkypeKit Beta SDK that works on Windows (x86) and Mac OS X. Now multiple desktop applications can offer Skype conversations — including video, voice, and text — without the need for users to separately download Skype software.

Look forward to seeing the innovation, especially with respect to video, in deploying Skype Everywhere within these future third party offerings.

Related articles by Zemanta

• SkypeKit SDK beta gains Windows and Mac support (slashgear.com)
• Skype’s SDK arrives in beta for Windows, Mac (download.cnet.com)
• Skype Announces Mac, Windows Support for SkypeKit (pcworld.com)
• SkypeKit to allow integration of Skype into all web-based devices (boygeniusreport.com)
• SkypeKit: Easily Building VoIP Into Any Application (fastcompany.com)
• It’s Been a Week for New Skype Video Experiences (voiceontheweb.biz)