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Thanks to Anders Jacobsen, my blogging buddy in London, for the heads up on this news item. And thanks to Claudius for testing with me.

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff had this to say…

The question is not one of high end quality. It is a question of being good enough to get and keep the first generation of video customers. Sony can always buy different technology. But this puts them in the business and Sony is nothing if not a great marketer. If they do nothing but bundle starter offers with all their PC and mobile related products, they could have sizable market share in a few quarters.

Subscription to one service leads to others and Sony is in a position to strengthen those relationships. Remember too that Sony has a content business, and that having video subscription relationships enables cross-promotion for games, movies, and music.

This is not a Skype failure. If Skype had been shipping, or even able to demo, a reliable, attractive, scalable video product six months ago, they might have figured into Sony's make/buy choice. Even if they had product to sell, Skype may not have been able to come to terms with Sony's desire to white label the video tools or to embed Digital Rights Management and other user-hostile policies. Skype could have, and may still, become the value-add network of choice for Sony's rivals. Much depends on whether Skype's video road map keeps Skypers as conversationalists and self-publishers instead of customers to be pimped a la Sony.

I did not wake up in a bad mood. Somehow I keep feeling I have missed something in Sony's new offering. Maybe someone can point that out to me.