counterpoints

Skype Journal: Cook Report on Skype

April 7, 2005 05:32 PM

Gordon Cook has been writing the Cook Report since 1992 as a bi-monthly industry service. For the past few weeks I've had the pleasure of his retelling of a deeply passionate discussion over the direction of VoIP, SIP and Skype. His May June report is now available. Telephone Become Software and the Phone a Computer: Skype Examined as Virally Spreading Second Generation of VoIP While SIP and World of Enterprise VoIP Live in Very Different Universe" If you do nothing other than read his introduction you will feel and hear the retelling of a dialogue and conversation amongst some of the great thinkers in the space. In the report you will learn of David Reed and Gordon's Stories about Nepal and much much more. What's interesting about Gordon's journey is that in a few short months this telecom and IP insider has had his whole rocked. Read his summary if nothing else.

I am concluding that the profound story here in “VoIP land” is not Vonage and Cisco's "stuff," or SIP, or IP PBXs etc - this "stuff", one way or another is tied to hardware and not surprisingly to the phone system and its related hardware. What I am increasing certain of is that Skype represents a second generation of VoIP that will have a far more profound impact than the first generation.

The reaction of many people is going to be” “Why would I use my computer to talk to someone rather than the telephone?” Let me say only that this immersion in Skype and softphones has left me with the conviction that, when people try it, they will find the experience to be so comfortable and productive that they would go back to the old way of doing things only with great reluctance.

Skype represents a hub to which many different means of communication can be tied, if you have broadband. The emphasis here (with Skype) is that communication is portable and tied to the individual and not to a phone company or a phone network. The lesson is that there are many different pieces here that can be tied together in fascinating ways and, when we are done, anyone who tries to control its users or keep them within the bounds of their network - looses.
The COOK Report On Internet

And starting earlier in the piece we get a feel for those in the conversation.

David Reed grabbed my attention a week later with the statement that Skype was on its way to becoming the globally dominant "Wintel platform of Voice over IP". SIP, Reed continued, had failed to become the signaling protocol glue that was going to tie all manner of different VoIP hardware devices together because the SIP developers were too beholden to the phone companies.

Reed asserted that the "way to succeed in business is to pick the best customers, and delight them. And the crucial caveat - the best customers are not the ones who always buy anything you sell - those are *your* best customers, not *the* best customers. The best customers are the ones who will teach you what you should be selling.

The following is how it applies here:
SIP's vendors have defined their customers to be phone companies.
Skype has defined its customers to be people who live a communications-centered life.

It's impossible to delight a phone company with voice over the Internet. The people who live a communications-centered life will teach you what really matters. Those people are *not* happy customers of the phone company.

It's still possible to beat Skype with SIP, but the current SIP vendors (such as XTen) have no clue whatsoever! To win, you have to delight some customers, not participate in an illusory "market" for "technology" Reed concluded."

Seeing this as a provocative challenge, I invited Richard Stastny, Richard Shockey, Henning Schulzrinne, and Cullen Jennings to join the discussion list and later added Martin Geddes (Telepocalypse), James Enck (Eurotelcoblog), and Stuart Henshall (Skype Journal). The result was a fascinating barrage of information that made the material for this issue too encyclopedic.
The COOK Report On Internet

There is lots and lots to read in the report. If you want a dipstick into what other think and what the arguments are for or against it then talk to Gordon.

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Comments (1)

I read the report and then re-read the summary and it puts into words the intuition that I have had about Skype and its growth.
Great article, a good brain stretch.

It's not that Skype is flying under the radar it's that the radar is turned off, and this is one time that I am glad someone was asleep at the switch.

Graham J Wallace

Posted by: Graham J Wallace at April 7, 2005 10:36 PM