I had some feedback at mesh earlier this week as the Skype announcement of free SkypeOut for calls within North America broke during the lunch break Monday. Others have now commented in both the blogosphere and traditional media; it is interesting to read their thoughts:

• Om Malik (who had just been a keynote Conversationalist at mesh Monday morning): SkypeOut.. Is It Really Free?
• Andy Kessler Will SkypeFree KO Vonage IPO?
• Alec Saunders: Pennies Dropping.... to Zero
• Jon Arnold: Skype - Free Outbound Calls - Good Deal Gets Better
• Andy Abramson (VoIP Watch): SkypeOut Now Free in USA and Canada
• Business Week (registration may be required): Skype Goes for Broke
• Light Reading: Skype Freebie is Defensive (Note; Jon Arnold was not at VON Europe as reported in this story; I can vouch that he was at mesh.)
• Globe and Mail, Mathew Ingram (a mesh Founder): Skype VoIP freebie could put Vonage on the ropes in which Skype Journal's Phil Wolff is quoted.

So the key follow-up questions are:

• Is this the death knell for the Vonage IPO? (or will we learn a new business model on how to operate on zero margin? been there; done that - see the paragraph "Another recollection" in this post on the early history of Internet browsers)
• Will it build Skype's North American user base significantly? (A key measure would be to see 175 to 200 million registrations worldwide by year end.)
• How and when will Skype/eBay leverage the resulting user base for additional revenue generating services and products?

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