What are Skype's plans for the enterprise? What do they see as their target market? On Saturday, TechCrunch posted an interview, with David Gurle, Skype’s General Manager and Vice President of Enterprise, focusing on these questions: "Skype’s VP Of Enterprise On Future Strategy, Products And Competitors.
While not deep on details, the interview did offer a few interesting glimpses into their plans. For instance, Skype is looking at industry-specific business-to-consumer apps:
For example, Skype will soon be offering businesses a way to establish Skype-powered virtual video call centers, allowing enterprise customers to talk to their own customers across multiple devices, platforms, geographies, and more.
Such an offering could certainly be interesting. I was also intrigued by this:
When I asked him about Skype’s future, Gule says it is in creating a one-click solution to allow you to reach a partner, friend, manager, employee, or business contact from any platform.
The "directory problem" has always been a challenge, i.e. where does your master directory live... it will be interesting to see what Skype comes up with for their answer.
The interview has more info and is worth a read for those of us continuing to track and monitor what Skype is doing. As they push into the enterprise, it will be fun to see how their disruptive influence does as it meets the well-entrenched (and well-financed) players of the enterprise space.
If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:
First off, Skype 5.0 includes a brand new Facebook integration that wasn't in the beta program and, per Skype's blog post, let's you:
see your Facebook News Feed in Skype
post status updates that can be synced with your Skype mood message
comment and like friends’ updates and wall posts
call and SMS your Facebook friends on their mobile phones and landlines
make a free Skype-to-Skype call if your Facebook friend is also a Skype contact
Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal walks through the new release (which is where I got the screenshot at right) and shows how the integration works. You have a new "Facebook tab" in the 5.0 Skype version that has both a "News Feed" and a "Phonebook" subtab.
From what I've heard from folks trying it out this morning, the Phonebook does a one-time import of all your Facebook contacts and then you can call or SMS them via their regular PSTN phone (if it's in their Facebook profile) or via Skype if they are a contact. I'm not clear on how you keep it up-to-date with your Facebook friend list ... but I'm going to assume there is a re-import or something like that.
UPDATE #1: Jim Courtney tells me that the Phonebook appears to refresh every time you go into it and he has verified himself that information gets updated. Chaim Haas also notes that there are buttons to call or SMS people directly from within the NewsFeed - so if you were reading your Facebook NewsFeed and wanted to call or text someone related to their item in your feed you could do so right then.
As a huge daily user of Skype, I find this integration rather cool since it will let me reach people directly from within the Skype interface where I spend my time. Given that I find myself doing more text/chat interaction these days instead of voice, I'm not entirely sure how much I'll use the Phonebook... BUT... it does get closer to having a single directory that I can reference.
Skype 5.0 also has the group video calling that has been in all the betas and some other changes outlined in this video from Skype:
I do, though, have one issue with the content of the video...
The Failure of Skype 5.0
... Rick Osterloh says that group video is now rolled out to all users, which, of course, is completely false.
Group video calling is being rolled out to all Windows users.
Skype continues to miss the rise of Apple and the fact that so many of the early adopter set long ago left Windows for MacOS X. They continue to follow the fractured and fragmented product strategy that I've ranted about at length in the past (also here).
It's the same tired old story.
I'm a huge fan of Skype and a heavy daily user. I do video calls with people pretty much every day. I currently have 87 Skype chats open to various people, teams, projects and groups in which I participate. The main phone number I give to people on my blogs rings through to Skype (and my cell).
I'm a paying Skype customer.
Yet I am also on a Mac.
Along with 140 other heavy Skype-users at my company. Along with a good number of friends in the blogging community. Along with a ton of people in the IETF and bleeding-edge communication community.
I would love to write here about how great Skype 5.0 is ... and I'd love to use it and give Skype feedback... but I can't.
I of course realize that from a resource prioritization point-of-view, Skype's largest market it Windows. I get that. It's just too bad Skype can't figure out a way to come out on both platforms so that "all users" on both Mac and Windows could experience the cool new features. (Particularly since many of the Mac world are exactly the kinds of folks who seek out (and promote) "cool new features.") Of course that still leaves the Skype for Linux users out, too... but it would be a start.
Perhaps one day Skype will see the cross-platform light.... meanwhile, if you're on Windows, you can head over to Skype.com and download 5.0 today.
Have fun with it - maybe someday others of us will get to play with it, too.
UPDATE #2: Skype lead blogger Peter Parkes mentioned to me that he put up a post on the Skype Mac blog today - undoubtedly because he knew he'd get flak like this from people like me. The post is basically a repeat of the last Mac blog post back in May... that group video will be coming, etc., etc. Peter does, though, promise:
we intend to give our app for Mac OS X a complete overhaul, both in terms of the way it looks, and in terms of functionality
We'll see what that means :-) Well, and when...
If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:
This week I've been down at the SpeechTEK conference in New York and in the Voxeo booth we had a system that was running 16,000 simultaneous phone calls using our new software release, Prophecy 10. While there, I recorded a video interview with Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor where he explained what we did and why we did it. I thought I'd post it here, because while I'm obviously biased, I think it's a fun example of making a demo system for a trade show/conference. Enjoy!
If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:
Sadly, it's far too true... (although I haven't yet personally experienced the issue with not being able to accept a call)
Kudos to "adamburtle" for putting the video together.
P.S. I learned of this video through the ZDNet article, Apple should advise against upgrading iPhone 3G to iOS4... and yes, Apple should make it clear that you will severely degrade the performance of your iPhone 3G by "upgrading" it.
Today mobile startup Fring is in the news for their claim that Skype is blocking access for video calls to and from Skype users. Fring issued a news release and wrote a rather inflammatory blog post which has garnered them coverage on TechCrunch and many other sites. With typical David vs. Goliath fervor, much of the reporting so far seems to have favored the small startup Fring fighting for connectivity with big company Skype.
It seems the situation isn't so clear. Skype's legal chiefVP of Legal, Robert Miller, fired back with his own blog post which included these lines (to which I added emphasis):
An hour or so ago, Fring reported on their blog that we had blocked their access to Skype. I want to make one thing absolutely clear: this is untrue....
In this case, however, there is no truth to Fring’s claims that Skype has blocked it. Fring made the decision to remove Skype functionality on its own.
This, coming from Skype's legal headVP of Legal, would seem to be a rather definitive statement.[1]
Plain and simply, Fring has a capacity issue. This is why Skype was smart to take their "wait and see" position on interoperability with FaceTime.
... Bridging requires skill, expertise and capacity management. And it has a price. So while the Frings of the world may think they can go out and simply cross connect and transcode, the real secret to satisfaction is in keeping it up.
It all does cause one to wonder:
Is the issue really that Fring does not have the capacity to truly support Skype video from iPhone 4s?
Is Fring seeking to use its apparent ongoing legal issues with Skype as the rationale to avoid adding capacity?
Or is this more of a marketing ploy to try to get more people to sign up directly as fring users?
What is the truth, Fring?
P.S. Please don't misunderstand me... I'm a huge advocate for the "open Internet" and would definitely like to see Skype open up their walled garden more - and applaud the moves they've made to date, while still wanting more. Normally I'd find myself siding with Fring on this... but at least from what Skype is saying, the situation seems much deeper...
[1] UPDATE:It was pointed out to me after I published this post that Robert Miller is still Skype's VP of Legal but no longer the "legal chief" as he has a new boss.
As I note over on the Voxeo web site, I recently posted a video showing how you can use a USB headset with the Apple iPad. The video is available on YouTube and you can see it directly here:
WHY might you want to do this? Well, primarily if you want better audio quality when using VoIP on your iPad... and if you are like me and always find Bluetooth headsets sucking up too much battery power, it's nice to have a wired option.
Next up, figure out what else can be plugged into that USB connector... ;-)
While I may rant about Skype's multiparty video being Windows-only (or "kvetch", according to the VoIP Princess), I still do think it is an excellent development. I'm on Skype conference calls quite often and it would be great to add video. More often, I'm in a video call with someone and we realize we need to bring someone into the call... which we do... and drop everyone to audio.
So, rants aside, I'm very much looking forward to trying out the feature whenever Skype makes it available for the Mac. In the meantime, those of us who choose the Mac will have to live vicariously through blog posts such as this one from Phil Wolff at Skype Journal:
Phil went screenshot-happy and captured a whole sequence of shots experimenting with the new feature. Looks very cool.
Thanks for sharing, Phil.
P.S. And by the way... nice hat! :-)
UPDATE: Just after publishing this post, I noticed that Phil has another post up, "Skype 5 beta and group video bandwidth" where he's investigating the network paths and video used by the multi-party video. Good stuff!
By all accounts I should probably be incredibly excited about Skype's new 5.0 beta 1 with group video calling. After all, I'm a huge daily user of Skype and make video calls pretty much every day. It would be fantastic to be able to add video to some of the conference calls I do... particularly where I work with a globally distributed team.
I should be excited... but I'm not.
Why?
Because yet again, Skype continues to follow their fractured and fragmented product strategy that I've ranted about before:
Skype 5.0 Beta 1 is Windows only.
I would love to try it out and use it... I'd be glad to give Skype feedback... I'd be glad to write about it here, talk about it and show it off on my video podcast... I'd tweet about and promote it on Facebook and other sites... as a fan, I'd love to help Skype promote its services!
But I can't really.... yet.
You see, I use Macs exclusively these days. In fact, I work for a company of over 140 people... all of whom are Mac users... and all of whom are heavy Skype users. None of us can try this out. Sure... I can fire up a virtual machine and run Windows to try it out... but why bother with the headache?
Oh, and for those Mac users out there, don’t worry – we’ll be launching group video calling on the Mac later in the year too :-)
Great... wake me up when you get around to having a real cross-platform strategy, Skype.
P.S. And yes, I realize that Linux Skype users are also left behind...
UPDATE #1 - To be clear, I completely understand why Skype chose to focus only on Windows. Windows has by far the largest market share and when you only have so many development resources you must choose where you focus their development effort. I get that. But Skype is trying to become the ubiquitous communication platform used by everyone. Would Firefox have been as successful as it is if it only focused on one platform?
Other softphone/video/communication clients like CounterPath's Bria and SightSpeed can come out with at least a synchronized Windows and Mac releases... it would be great if Skype could, too.
As I mentioned on a Voxeo blog yesterday, the good folks at TMC recently posted a video interview I did with them at ITEXPO back in January in Florida. In the interview, I discussed:
the Cloud Communications Summit and pushing communications out into "the cloud"
security issues related to cloud communications
what's next in communications, including multi-channel communications (a component of what we refer to at Voxeo as Unified Self-Service)
Anyway, for folks who wonder what it is I do, part of it is telling stories in forms like this...
Over on his Voice On The Web blog, Jim Courtney posted this morning a two-part video interview with Skype CEO Josh Silverman that is interesting to watch. Jim summarizes the interview indicating that we should expect to see from Skype in 2010 the following:
a revitalized developer program built around a more comprehensive platform from which developers can, amongst other features, embed Skype into their applications
Skype access on many more mobile platforms as well as taking advantage of wireless carriers’ recognition of Skype as a mainstream telecommunications environment
expansion of video calling services, including a strong role in the introduction of Internet services as a feature on a new generation of television sets;
launch of a formal comprehensive Skype for Business program targeted at small-to-medium businesses
many more Skype video interviews on broadcast media – for example, Skype video (and voice) calling has been used quite extensively by several networks to facilitate communications with Haiti following the earthquake
And while Josh Silverman did cover all of those points, I personally found it interesting just to watch and listen to how he covers the points and where he is focusing his attention (through what he talks about). Skype's at a very interesting point in its history and appears to be poised to do even greater things... so it's definitely worth paying attention to what their CEO is saying. You can click the image below to go over to Jim's post with the embedded videos:
Note: I didn't embed the videos directly here because, quite frankly, I think Jim's context and commentary setting up each video is well worth a read.