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Skype identity crisis?

May 26, 2006 02:29 PM

Topics: Skype杂志 | Technology | counterpoints | design | ebay | skype | skypejournal | voip | wishlist

by Steve Smith, Lavalife Chief Scientist

I'm a huge user of Skype, as my friends and colleagues know. I've helped shift the management of several companies over to Skype as a productivity tool. One of the main reasons I use to promote Skype is the value of the seamless pyramid of communication: presence ⇒ IM ⇒ Voice. However, some factors are interfering with this value, and I think there's a paradox in the direction Skype is taking.

To recap, here's what's good about the model:

  • presence -- I can see if someone is at their computer, or not. If they're at their computer, it means there's a good chance I can reach them if I need to communicate with them
  • I can then IM them for simple matters, or to ask if they have time for a call. This is a much lower profile interruption than a ringing telephone, and therefore I feel freer to do it, and correspondingly do not mind it when people ping me
  • If we want to talk, it's just a push of the big green button

But, increasingly people are starting to access Skype from a mobile device that doesn't have presence and IM capability. For example, this Netgear Skype phone which I have on order from Amazon (and which as Andy points out has some flaws as an out-of-the-home device).

For months I was trying to reach a friend in Italy via Skype IM. When I was over there recently, he said, "Oh, the server is up in the attic and I never look at the screen, but if you call it, it rings on my phone downstairs". It turns out he permanently set his status to "online" and walked away. This breaks the model -- presence no longer has meaning, and IM doesn't work. You need to go straight to pressing the big Green "call" button. This is a huge step backwards from the virtuous pyramid I talked about above.

Yet, Skype seems to be accelerating this direction. Witness the recent move to offer free calling in North America (great link collection on this topic here). Witness the variety of Skype-enabled hardware coming. Combined with free urban wifi, these trends point to Skype being a free cellphone, not a Presence/IM/Voice platform.

I fear that you can't be both. Both directions are interesting, both are worthwhile. But by trying to be both you degrade the value of the IM/presence network, and thus rob one group of users from the productivity gain they currently enjoy. It's a bit of a conundrum, and I certainly don't have the answer, but just watch if the value of your Skype presence indications doesn't start to drop over the next year.

via Steve's Tech Journal.

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Comments

Posted by: Phil at May 26, 2006 10:33 PM

Hi Steve !

Interesting thought. But the problem is more on your friends side than on Skype's : it allows different features, and then people have a choice. You can just discuss with them to let the presence working as it is by default. This is more a process issue, on user's side, than a pure skype problem.
But I agree that moving towards these handsets which seem not to allow presence is something difficult to understand in terms of features. (kind of loss)

Posted by: Vincent Oberle [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 27, 2006 5:16 AM

The Netgear phone supports presence. In fact, there is a full Skype client running in it.

However it is true that it won't support IM. This is a usability limitation. Such a wifi phone doesn't have a full keyboard, and the screen is small. IM would be ver difficult to manage, especially for multi-chats. Imagine login-in on your wifi phone after a couple of days offline and having 10 chats popping up? Rather confusing I think.

But Skype on PocketPC supports IM, IM will for sure not be reserved to PC.

Vincent (embedded developer at Skype)

Posted by: Paul Jardine [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 29, 2006 4:30 AM

Ahem, what about SMS on a phone! I think the arguments you put forward here have been well and truly disproven by the fantastic success of SMS.
Poor marks to Skype and Netgear for being so short-sighted!

Posted by: Joe Blow at June 8, 2006 5:49 AM

Steve,

Welcome to the 22 century. As you know not everyone has assimilated to this digital age. If they had most phone companies would be changing or going out of business. I have had at least one computer for the past 27 years and working in the industry for 17 years. On the other hand, all my family and most of my friends are computer illiterate. The only way to communicate with them is via a POTS line. Skype gives me multiple communication options all wrapped up in one interface. They are simplifying communications and in turn capturing market share.

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