Five Reasons the team making a Skype-compatible Windows client is Good For Skype:

1. Proof Skype is worth the effort. You rob banks because they keep the money there. You get around Club Skypenet's bouncers for the juicy social network inside. Now everyone will want their client to talk Skype.
   
2. Diversity of clients strengthens a network. Do you think one design fits all? Heck, no! Skype should be recruiting developers to build a thousand clients, to build better clients than the next gal, to innovate like mad. Clients for the blind, for traveling salesmen, for tweens, for milbloggers, for religious evangelists, for podcasting seniors, for mahjong players, for Manchester United hooligans, for hospitalized patients and sex workers. Reframe the question from "join the Skype network or not?" to "which Skype client should I use?"
   
3. Remind Skype they're not Ma Bell. The first time someone plugged their own phone into the wall, they defied a phone company monopoly. Now everyone does it. The Skype network isn't the client; Skype is the protocol stack that let clients join the network and talk to each other. It's a protocol world, Baby, and you're in the driver's seat. Innovate them protocols, explode what developers can build into their clients. Lead the ecosystem.
   
4. Force rivals to speed their own open architectures. Light peering arrangements between Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AOL, are nice. But their messaging platforms are far from open or complete. More innovation in APIs and protocols will help Skype's architects distinguish baseline features vs. differentiators. And set the bar higher for powerful telcos to compete. Remember it's AT&T with the Death Star, not Google.
   
5. Pressure Skype to add contextual value. VoIP is so last month. Strategic power is in the edge of the network, where devices connect, and the edge of conversation, where people connect. Skypecasting pioneers bringing strangers together for voice conversations. Skype must continue to make markets for conversation, the way eBay auctions and forums makes conversation into markets. As Skype continues to drive metered call prices to zero, surround threads of conversation with Skypey Goodness.   
   

As Ecademist Skypecaster Julian Bond says, "Skype's best reaction to this is to keep innovating and shipping code."