I got my first comment from a friend who has installed Gizmo. She would / is a potential switcher for the record button. People want to be able to record! Get with it Skype. Make it simple.

How much r Skpye paying you?

Dear NoSpam,
Fair question. Not a dime. If you have any money you can part with...

We make our money from consulting and subscription publications that will be released later this year.

Let me try and address your questions:

# What would be the compelling reason to switch? From Skype to Gizmo?

The biggest advantage today is hardware. My SIP calls ring my house phone because I have a SIP adapter which merges SIP calls with my house phone system. See: http://www.siphardware.com

I like the CIO (call-in-one) unit because it lets me merge my house phone and SIP phone and make outbound SIP calls from any handset in my house. Similarly there are adapters, routers and wifi phones which do SIP today.

Of course there are other little features I could mention like free voice mail, call mapping, etc. both those are tiny features and to be fair Skype probably has their own set that we don't have.

# Is the fragmentation of the VON VoIP market only going to affect other SIP players and have no impact on Skype?

Another important reason to use Gizmo is to avoid creating a monopoly. Because SIPphone is committed to an open directory we will never have the lock-in that Skype has. We connect to anyone and everyone to which gives consumers power to change providers, but still connect to everyone. Monopolies always turn out bad for consumers because the companies naturally take advantage of lock-in. Open standards like SIP and open directories will insure there's always healthy competition in the VOIP arena.

# Why aren't the "rates" for CallOut or CallIn competitive?

I believe we're 30% cheaper in the US, but more expensive in some international places. I haven't done an exhaustive comparison and rates fluctuate almost daily. So sometimes Skype may have advantage and sometimes SIPphone. But we agree with Skype that they're all going to zero cents a minute.

-- MR

Is Gizmo an open source project?

With all the P2P services available, I'm wondering how they all work. I'm most familiar with Skype and their supernode structure. I've read several complaints by individuals having their computer used as a server for Skype. Businesses are not going to open up their networks because of the potential for bandwith usage if they become a server. This hurts Skypes customer base.

Stuart, do you think with the success of Skype they will eventually deploy their own servers? I'm mean look at Google and others. They do it.

A very interesting contender. Stuart, to answer your question why would people switch? Well that's totally easy. First people are not as committed to a technology, if there is a better offer they will go for it. In addition Gizmo offers same voice quality but is open standard SIP based. Offers free voicemail (sent to your email btw, very slick) and has call recording built in (need add-on for Skype). They just need to add chat and off they go.

The rates are just a matter of volume and getting better deals.

Watch out for this one guys! However, maybe the SkypeAPI and the developers might be the thing that will actually keep Skype having a competitive edge? What do you think?

I was in the Gizmo forum and someone posed the question about IM. A source responded it's on the way. SipPhone, the maker of Gizmo, already has IM in another product - PhoneGaim. All they have to do is transfer the core over to Gizmo.

I just looked at the Damaka website for the first time since they announced their softphone. They have some awesome new features. They don't have PSTN connectivity yet, but everything else appears very good. Might be worth a revisit.

Indeed Gizmo is a contender. As a beta, it far exceeds what Skype was capable of at a similar stage.

The SkypeAPI is only needed because Skype is closed and proprietary. With SIP the need for an API vanishes.

What would make me switch?

Recording is a big plus, but the possible use of my existing hardware (sip based) is even bigger.

At the moment, Gizmo fails to deal with firewalls (they freeze when starting, options are unaccessible - I know what to switch, once I am in ...)

Chat is a must.

At the moment I stay with Skype because it is the only widely adapted international voip system for free calls. But competition is good.

This should lead to
- finally recording calls in Skype
- having better social systems for communication in skype (many features for this implemented in irc years ago have not made it into the chat system)
- chooseable soundquality - many calls would be MUCH better in overall quality, if we could finally select a codec for a call, e.g. more telefon like but much more stable in connection.

If I can get it to run, I will use Gizmo. :)

What is a standard ? The winner is the standard.
Thinking about the war between Microsoft and the ex-Unix-alliance, the result is Windows became the OS standard in the era of PC. No matter we like or not, in some situation the market will be dominated by one or few players.

For gizmo and other new software-based or IM-like voip startups, Skype is not the only one big enough competitor. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are the real Behemoths.

I've just started playing with Gizmo.

Does anyone know whether or not the calls are encrypted?

These are a great group of comments. I don't buy the SIP infrastructure for the consumer market. While it is not perfect "actiontec" provides the same PSTN bridging feature for $50 approx. to a Skype client, enabling their low rates etc. With few exceptions consumers don't make SIP calls right now.

I continue to have log-in problems on Gizmo. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Of the seven that were quickly added to my buddylist all no longer appear active.

Still it's clear the response is.. I want voice recording and better call forwarding and call management.

It may come as a surprise. I'm even prepared to pay Skype to give me that interconnect SIP number and listing in an open directory. That's just to make my access easier. That would expand the hardware options and enable me to access my Skype on a SIP phone at work etc.

Luke,

I'll answer this one since it looks like the support pages at support.gizmoproject.com haven't yet been updated to reflect all the features in the latest beta.

Gizmo to Gizmo calls are now encrypted. A lock icon will appear during the call.

triedto buy callout with gizmo and a callin number. CANT DO IT with regular paypal. need verified account. WHY??? my skype (ebay) easily took my $ and i now have 10 buks skypeout and I have a 561 usa tel number for 30 buks plus 4 in european tax(i live in murcia spain )prices are really similar i mean 1.7 or 1 is lil difference but i call cells too so gizmo (penny a minute to a cell) is good. I think the business is net2net or callout to cell CHEAP

Gizmo makes big advertisements saying that landline calls to some countries are free... that would be a tempatition for Skype users to move to gizmo... but the operative word here is "would". I was not able to make any free call, try as I might. When I reported this to their support, the answer was that I had to be an "active user" to make free calls. I then asked what the definition of that term was, and got no clear answer. Then I gave up.

Don't worry Skype, Gizmo isn't a competitor yet.

what's this software name? looks very cool

HD