CEBIT-Vodafone shows Internet (Skype) calling on mobile - Starfish

"HANOVER, Germany, March 15 (Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile , Research), the world's most international mobile phone carrier with over 200 million subscribers, showed Internet-calling for mobile phones with Skype, which it said it may launch in the future.

Code-named Starfish, Vodafone showed the application in the future zone of its booth at the world's biggest technology trade show, CeBIT. It has yet to decide whether it will start offering consumers the service, which could eat into its traditional mobile voice telephone business".

via Reuters (full article here)

Skype without a PC

There's been a lot of buzz this week about Skype Mobile, but before we crack that - I think the home experience needs to be sorted first - and me thinks this is the solution. Skypestyle are selling exactly what I need chez moi - a Skype handset (the RTX Cordless DualPhone 3088) that doesnt require the PC running in order to work.
Comes with two main parts; handset & charging station, and the base station. The base station plugs in to your router and telephone line and you can plug the charging station in anywhere in your pad. You can then make and receive both Skype and "normal" telephone calls from the same handset.
Having the PC on, connected and headset avaialble was an early adoption barrier for Skype, which people put up with so that they could make a free call. With this simplification of the user experience, it should trigger even higher usage as the handset is such a familiar hardware medium for making calls. Presumably, you can also check you contact list to identify a victim to call. The only downside to this is the price - 109 of the UK's finest green sheets!
Buy it here at SkypeStyle
Noticed @ Red Ferret

The future of Mobile Voice & Text?

I've written previously about numerous mobile messaging services that are all targeted at taking a piece of existing mobile operators voice and messaging revenues. In Europe alone, these revenues are in excess of €250bn, and consequently this category presents a lip-licking opportunity to VC's, entrepreneurs and existing industry players

The last couple of years have seen a number product launches from the likes of Hotxt , Text2me, and Pica who are all trying to move SMS volume away from the operators monetisation mechanism (the SMSC) by allowing P2P application based messaging over a data connection. All require users to have the same application installed which presents a barrier to uptake due to the fact that not every one in a communication circle will have the same type of device – i.e. that supports J2ME. In younger age segments where users are more likely to have the latest, coolest and funkiest devices, then the chances of the communication circle having compatible devices is higher and a common messaging experience achieved.
Other apps including Mig33, Vyke, Woize, Skype, Truphone (deserves its own post) and now Nimbuzz include the mobile voice use case, providing mostly Java apps that allow you to make a call over you data connection, again avoiding the operators billing mechanism (apart from data charges) and offering non-member connection via cheap international wholesale termination rates (similar to Skype-Out).
I expect we will see a load more applications like this over the coming months, all in the same product space but with a slightly different product approach and spin. The big open question is which ones will prevail? On the current radar, Skype has the best chance of succeeding, principally due to having the financial and marketing muscle of an industry leader and an established non-mobile user base in excess of 170m. Other players that can quickly impact this space are mobile and fixed operators, who both have an existing customer relationship and billing mechanism and in the case of the mobile operators, a forced distribution channel – the device.
Another interesting aspect of this space is that the application offerings are increasing acting as integrated user experiences for what were previously silo applications (e.g. email, IM, blogging, content). Examples such as Pica, combine communication (email, chat, IM, voice messaging and text) with a range of community features (moblogging, personal profiles, emoticons and voicecast) offering users a single device destination for interacting and communicating with circles of friends and like minded users. Pica has now over 3m users, predominantly in China but raised $10m from Bluerun back in Dec 05 which could easily support localization and business dev. efforts in US and Europe.

These examples provide evidence of an increasing trend which is likely to gain traction over the coming years and IMHO presents a credible threat to operators which should be monitored. Applications like Pica give us an idea of what the future of mobile comms may look like, and serve as a valuable reminder on how fragmented today’s mobile experience is.

Read also Nimbuzz featured in MobileCrunch
12/09 - see also HelloSoft
12/09 - see also NootMobile
15/09 - see also Fring
10/10 - see also Berggi
18/10 - see also Reporo
29/11 - see GigaOM

Skype clutter

I took a look at the Skype website this morning and was amazed at how much product there is - maybe too much? Recent months have given birth to a number of new OS platform versions, beta versions of the standard windows version, SkypeIn Beta, Skype Zones Beta, Skype Groups, WeeMees, Skype Buttons - ok, you get my point?
Their web designers and product managers do a good job of laying it out clearly and explaining it well but there is a real danger that Skype ends up running ahead of itself and alienating a growing segment of curious mass-market customers who, as a result of the skype PR blanket, are checking them out and seeing if they "get it" in order to sign-up. Skype needs to somehow seperate the key sign-up benefit and process from the peripheral benefit for the more adept and accustomed user. Maybe they should put the additional product options behind the customer sign-in and match the product placement with the activity profile of the sykpe customer? This way, the prospective new user will clearly understand why and how they should sign-up, and they will be able to upsell more services as customers get more confident and explorational with the service. Ebays 10 years of knowledge in web-apps should be put to good use in doing this.

uConnect VOIP Converter

Just connect one of these in to the back of your PC and you can use any existing telephone to talk on Skype (e.g. analogue, DECT, corldless etc).

an early Skype backers story...

go here to read Morten Lunds post following the Skype sale to Ebay

Ebay acquires Skype

So its official - after some rumour at the end of last week - EBay has confirmed that it has acquired Skpe for $2.6bn.

read the press release here
previous post here
ebay investor presentation here

Skype signs first mobile partner

Thwack!

Skype may soon have some serious competition....from Google Talk

read this in the LA Times

$3bn Skype valuation and News Corp bid

Ok - so there have been lots of rumours and the Independent have added to these with a brief article where they claim News Corp made an approach to Skype that valued it at $3bn and that the negotiation "broke down last month".

Skype currently claims nearly 150m downloads. If you take a 10% active-user rate (which i think is probably very high), that gives Skype 15m active users, the majority of which are using the free VOIP element, not the fee paying parts of the product SkypeOut and Voicemail. Even assuming 15m active, the NewsCorp bid puts a per-user valuation at $200, which Ok doesnt sound a lot , but its probably at least 100x average per-user earnings.

Skype is a great product, but its not the only product in this space. I'm sure the company has some very grand plans, but history shows how a market leader can be quickly overtaken and surpassed (netscape -> IE -> firefox). A $3bn valuation is flattering and I suspect it respresents an extremely good return for Skypes early backers who include Morten Lund and Ariadne Capital, and their Series A backers who included DFJ, Index, Bessemer, and Mangrove. Im sure there is some truth in all the rumour, otherwise its an incredibly well executed PR campaign to seed the idea of a sale. Either way, i think a sale will be tied up by Christmas.

update 12/09 - Ebay has acquired Skype for $2.6bn - phew! press release here

iSkoot - Skype to mobile

iSkoot have launched a PC-app that enables you to foward incoming Skype calls to a mobile or fixed number. You pay for the leg of the call from your PC to the number you have selected.

Skype 4 SmartPhone (!)

Get Beta here

Skype Update

Wow! 100m customers (35% active), new SkypeIn product (for increasing your call circle to those who dont (yet) have skype) and new Skype Voicemail (in case you cant answer your SkypeIn calls).