Download Skype for Mac 5.2.0.1523.
CORRECTION: You can now be in group video calls and pay for a Skype Premium subscription, just like the Windows users. You can now screenshare in group video calls, which not even Skype for Windows users can do. From Skype’s blog post and change log:
Major changes in this update compared to previous release are:
Improved Multi-tasking
Group Screen Sharing (requires Premium subscription)
Sidebar enhancement
Support for Mac’s built-in HD and Logitech’s B910 HD cameras
Minor bug fixes
Skype launched a page with a dozen tips and tricks for Mac users.
- Call control bar – with video
- Switch conversations – swipe the trackpad with three fingers
- Mark as unread – CMD + SHIFT + U.
- Toggle Mute – Press CMD + SHIFT + M.
- Push to Talk while Muted – hold CTRL + OPTION + CMD + UpArrow.
- Edit last message – CMD + SHIFT + E.
- Change input field height – Click and drag the top of the input box
- See your online contacts when Skype in minimized – CMD + 3
- Enter a new line. SHIFT + ENTER.
- Dial pad – CMD + 2.
- Close a conversation – CMD + W.
- Assign avatars and new titles in group conversations
Related articles:
Thanks for the correction, Jim.
Irrawaddy reports Burma’s Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication (MPT) ordered a stop to competitive over-the-top services.  From the order: “The increasing use of the VoIP overseas calls via the Internet services such as Skype, G [Google] Talk, Pfingo, VZO, etc. given by PACs [Public Access Centers] and cyber cafés have caused official overseas calls through the [junta's] communication services to decline, affecting state revenue.” The real target seems to be Singapore’s StarHub Pfingo, hugely popular for talking with Burmese expats via email, IM, and voice on PCs and mobiles.
Let’s look at where most of Skype’s cash flow comes from: paying customers.
Skype is selling hard with the launch of Skype group video calling and the Skype Premium service to pay for it. Skype now features Fee over Free at a rate of 3 to 1, if you look at screen real estate on this US Skype for Windows download page. The Premium package has high eye-catching art, a contrasting green “Buy Skype Premium” action button, and a bright pink, attention grabbing special offer decal (“15% discount”).
The push is on to sell up from $3 to $12 monthly SkypeOut plans, where price of minutes continues to fall, to a $9/month service without competition from phone companies.
Hmmm. Where else might Skype pick up some real cash?
I broke the news Wednesday that Skype has “fair use” guidelines for group video calling. I haven’t talked to Skype’s price/policy team so I can only speculate why their Skype Premium prices are structured this way.
Why would Skype cap Group Video Calls at 4 hours per call, 10 hours per calendar day (GMT), and 100 hours per month (starting when you buy)? 
Skype is balancing several conflicting goals.
The obvious one is risk avoidance. Caps minimize gaming to co-opt the Skype group video service for criminal activity or large scale business use. For example, you wouldn’t subscribe on one account and give the login to a whole customer service department.
A second goal is to cultivate the perception that your product has value. Artificial scarcity is old hat in telephony. Phone companies chose to charge by the minute instead of by the call, by the month, by the number of callees, etc. Caps make you worry about running out.
A third goal is virality. When you run low on GVC minutes, you’ll push your friends, family or colleagues – the other people in group calls – to buy their own subscriptions and shoulder some of the weight of the call costs.
A fourth goal is to test consumer behavior when exposed to different price points and product scopes. 4/10/100 is a baseline. Do people hang up at 3:59 and call again? Do people trade off who anchors a conference call? Do customers start opening up a second Skype account to get around the limits? This is useful data for the next round of pricing/product choices.
A fifth goal is to contrast general consumer and small business pricing with enterprise products. For example, Skype could offer to double the monthly caps and do away with the 4 and 10 hour limits on a $20/month enterprise plan. Or let a list of Skype users (like a team or department) share a pool of minutes, billed centrally.
A sixth goal is to make customers plan before using. These first Premium plans are the same, differing only in duration, a simple choice that asks “how often will I make group video calls in the future?” The psychology of planning assumes a course of action, which is why car sales reps invite you to imagine yourself behind the wheel. You can’t choose among these plans without an answer and putting yourself in the host’s seat.
It is still very early. Skype has some data from the public trials that would lead them to expect that few people will bump into these caps. So they will watch for those edge cases and see what they can do to accommodate them or if these customers are too expensive to serve.
See also: Skype Premium Terms of Service.
Email tips@skypejournal.com. Chat with me on Skype. Call me at +1-510-316-9773 (my mobile), follow on twitter @evanwolf (everything) and @SkypeJournal (just the posts). Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats, where we’re talking about this right now.
Group Video Calling Fair Usage Policy
Group video calls are subject to a fair usage limit of 100 hours per month with no more than 10 hours per day and a limit of 4 hours per individual video call. Once these limits have been reached, the video will switch off and the call will convert to an audio call.
© Skype – Last revised: October 2010
Details that matter.
- Calendar days start at midnight GMT (Convenient only if you’re in London).
- The hours represent the time a subscriber hosts a video call, to the nearest minute. You can be in a group video call but only one subscriber is hosting, typically the one initiating the call.
- You can add time with an upgrade but not a downgrade. So you may extend a day pass with a month subscription, but you cannot get extra time within your month subscription by buying day passes.
- You cannot have multiple subscriptions at the same time. So you cannot run through your 100 hours in two weeks then buy another 100 hours; you’ll have to wait until the next month. Similarly, you cannot buy two day passes at once; you’ll have to wait until the first one expires before buying the second.
- Your subscription or pass starts from when you buy it. No obvious way at this point to “normalize” your subscription to a billing period of your choice.
- The 10 hour per day limit is for a calendar day. So if you buy your one day pass at noon and start your group video call, you’ll run out of time at 10pm and must wait until midnight to start your next 10 hours.
Are these limits reasonable? Is this a lot of time? Sufficient?
For comparison, a forty-hour work week averages 167 hours in a month. 100 hours of GVC would be a half-time job, all meetings. I’m not sure why this limit. Conversely, men watch TV 2.8 hours daily, or about 84 hours monthly.
Seem like enough time for most people.
However these limits can hurt if video cutoffs interrupt…
- Negotiating a peace treaty
- The last stages of combat before leveling
- Prepping for your final exams
- Your wife is starting her tenth hour of labor
- Virtual honeymoons (with a third or fourth or fifth person)
- Your 2011 Oscar party (four hours, easy)
For workers who live on the phone or in meetings, it’s easy to imagine bumping into these limits.
Correction: Work month is closer to 167 than 220 (for most of us).
This question came up on Quora. My answer:
Skype designed the Prime program as a test. It was set up to fail when launched in March 2007 as part of Skype for Windows 3.1.
- The rates charged to service providers meant you would be paid just 55% of sales after Skype collected VAT (which might not even apply in your country) starting four months after you delivered the service.
- Skype Prime’s maximum rate was too low so high-end billable services, like architecture or nursing, could not charge enough.
- Prime’s minimum rate was too high, so people in developing countries could never afford the service.
- Skype never promoted it seriously, burying it on the web site.
- The software user experience was confusing and didn’t quickly iterate to improve (understaffed).
- The Prime provider directories didn’t benefit from any insights from eBay’s experts at creating active markets and trusted communities.
Skype’s sixth president, Josh Silverman, cut the project in 2008 shortly after he took control of Skype while clearing a number of deadwood projects. 
IMHO, Prime could be Skype’s greatest business opportunity, since the price of voice minutes is trending toward zero. We live in a flat global economy, where for every dollar spent on hard goods and capital expenditure, ten are spent on information, education, entertainment, and services. Skype can still become the eBay of the knowledge and service economy, bringing those who seek help together with those who offer it in a safe and well regulated marketplace. After a decade, eBay is a $40 billion business, Amazon an $80 billion business. Skype as a marketplace has the opportunity to blow past them.
I’d like to see the Skype for Business division reconsider Prime. What would it take for Skype Prime to succeed?
- Research. Develop a cadre of collaboration researchers who can model the range of behavior people really use in all different types of contexts. Project culture vs. task culture vs. process culture. People you know and trust vs. newbies and strangers. How length and continuity of engagement vary by type of service. All of these dramatically affect how you discover, trust, contract, interact, pay and endorse providers.
- Theft. Look at other online labor markets and steal their great ideas about feedback, supervision, team formation, talent discovery, alerting, and certification.
- Engineering. Continue building Skype’s technology to enable third-parties to bring Prime into their contexts. Aside from building Prime features into a scriptable client, offer Prime as a platform. eBay, PayPal, and Amazon do roughly half their business through their APIs.
- Allies. Partner with others to learn and understand the markets.
- Workplaces. Bring this inside the enterprise as a tool for people and teams within the workplace to buy and sell services to each other, even if only through swapping charges to cost center codes.
This is not low hanging fruit. This is a long term strategy. Skype’s other coming businesses (Skype as a Cloud Service; Skype as a Video Conference) will print money but nothing makes money like helping other people sell things to each other.
P.S. Just for fun, at last count, the top provider categories on Prime: Computer and Internet (35%), Business and Personal finance (13%), Relationship advice and Counseling (9%), Tutoring and Homework (9%), Language lessons and Translations (5%), Spiritual and Astrology (4%) and Other (24%).
P.P.S. One side effect of the Prime experiment: The whole language education industry moved online, to Skype and to similar tools. This time they kept service payments, directories and marketing outside of Skype’s ability to define rates or extract rents.
Call me at +1-510-343-5664, Skype me, follow @SkypeJournal and @evanwolf. Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.
I’ll try to wrap up a few of our season’s stories as we end Summer 2010, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere. First up, Fring.
This July Skype talked with Fring and Fring turned off customer access to its Skype network gateway.
Skype told Fring that Fring was in breach of Skype’s contracts: the Public API ToS and the general Skype EULA. Look to Section 3 of the API Terms of Use (below the fold). A basic reading shows Skype was right: You can’t build what Fring built without breaking Skype’s rules.
For example, Fring uses a "Mobile Thin Client – Fat Server" design that keeps mobile clients small, flexible, and fast. The mobile software provides one user experience while the server logs into your accounts on multiple voice and IM networks. Skype’s ToS forbids a service like Fring holding your Skype login data on the server. This is a valid security concern. Other companies use the OAuth and OAuth 2 protocols to solve this problem. This lets tens of thousands of companies connect users to Google, facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, twitter, and others. Not Skype. So Fring is stuck between the "password anti-pattern" of storing a user’s Skype login credentials on their server and forcing a mobile Skype user to login repeatedly (annoyingly) every time they lose a Wi-Fi or wireless connection. Fring dropped Skype.
Fring dropped Skype despite investing precious manpower, cash, brand, and technology integrating their mobile service with Skype. Fring had committed themselves to helping Skype users access Skype even when Skype wouldn’t. When Skype wouldn’t offer their own thin client to US Android customers, Fring did. When Skype didn’t offer free Skype-to-Skype voice calls over wireless 3G, Fring did. When Skype didn’t offer mobile video calling on any platform except for the Nokia tablets, Fring did.
Fring bet on Skype’s stated commitment to a third-party developer ecosystem, attracted by the value of the Skype network.
Fring bet wrong.
On technical grounds, Skype wasn’t ready for a third-party to host such a massive gateway. The concentration of Skype clients coming out of one server farm threatened to overload a neighborhood of Skype’s P2P network cloud.
On security grounds, Skype wasn’t prepared to offer waive the password issue. Although Skype couldn’t/wouldn’t offer a technical alternative, Skype wasn’t prepared to trust the Fring company with Skype customer logins.
On brand integrity terms, Skype hated that Fring’s audio quality wasn’t up to their own very high PC-to-PC standards. Skype worried Fring’s video quality wasn’t comparable to Skype’s PC-to-PC video quality. That, frankly, is balderdash: Skype accepts lower quality audio for its own Skype mobile thin clients used in the Verizon Wireless and Three partnerships.
Skype had a pretty strong contractual argument, which I’ll step through below. They threatened Fring with overwhelming force ("Skype will rigorously protect our brand and reputation, and those developers that do not comply with our terms will be subject to legal enforcement") if Fring didn’t completely change its technology architecture, reallocate engineering resources, and its consumer value propositions. Fring managers told me Skype’s lawyer’s intensity rose until Fring didn’t think there was any way to negotiate. So Fring turned off their Skype gateway and removed the Skype feature from their web and mobile clients.
Here’s why this was good for Skype.
- Fring proves a Skype gateway is a money-making proposition.
- Skype showed it is big enough to push around even mid-sized partners.
Here’s why this was horrible for Skype.
Skype demonstrated inflexible and indelicate treatment of third-party developers. Again. Skype’s heavy hand made it look like a bully. The timing is horrible as Skype prepares to widen its SkypeKit developer program and to pave the way for Skype’s 2011 cloud communication developer program. Skype builds a counter case just when Skype should be earning developer trust and love.
This must be chilling for all the companies that operate Skype gateways. Nimbuzz and Voxeo come to mind.
Fring is not an easy partner. This small Israeli startup leads with passion, aggressively seeks opportunities, takes debates to the press, and has an operations tempo out of sync with large MBA-driven companies like Skype. Fring started this relationship without Skype’s blessing, in the spirit of the now defunct Skype Developer Program. Fring went beyond the simple architecture of Skype’s early days, enshrined in Skype’s ToS. Fring may even have had difficulty preserving Skype’s wideband audio quality.
Yet Skype could have found a better way to bring Fring into the Skype family. A memorandum of understand. A bridge ToS to last until Skype could offer Fring the SkypeKit SDK for Fring’s gateway or Skype’s own hosted gateway. A SILK license and access to in-house codec transcoding experts. Skype could have walked an encouraging path without the bitter aftertaste of intimidation and the harsh public reminder that soft skills matter.
Here’s my detailed, blunt and plain-English translation of the Skype Public API Terms of Use and how it applied to the Fring 2010 case… [I am not a lawyer.]
IMPORTANT — PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
These Skype API Terms of Use ( "API Terms") set out the terms and conditions of use of the Skype API. If You want to use the Skype API for any purpose (including without limitation, in connection with an application or software program or for the purpose of interfacing with hardware), You must first register with Skype by completing and providing accurate contact information on the Skype Partner enquiry form available at the Skype Website (the "Registration"). By submitting Your Registration to Skype and / or using Skype API, You explicitly agree to be bound by these API Terms and any revised or renewed versions thereof, as will be published on the Skype Website or as may be otherwise notified to You by Skype. Skype reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to refuse or reject Your Registration.
In addition to the capitalised terms defined elsewhere in these API Terms, all other capitalised definitions used herein shall have the meaning given to them in the Skype End User Licence Agreement ("EULA") as published on the Skype Website at www.skype.com/intl/en/legal/eula/.
The software comes with these terms. Live with it.
You and Skype agree as follows:
1.2 This licence does not grant to You any right to any version enhancement, update, or guarantee the continuous availability of the Skype API or the Skype Software. Skype may revise, modify or cease to provide, require you to immediately cease using the Skype API, the Skype Software or its functionality or any part thereof, which may result in loss of compatibility, denial of access to the functionality of the Skype Software or the Skype network, system, Skype Website, servers, tools, information and databases, commercial activities related thereto, from time to time without notice.
You’re on your own if we break things.
3. Your right to use the Skype API under paragraph 1 above is subject further to Your compliance with the following:
3.1 Your Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) shall in no way and to no extent whether directly or indirectly adversely affect, impede or otherwise hinder or disrupt the functionality or performance of Skype Software or products or services provided by Skype, including without limitation, that it:
This is the performance part.
(i) does not adversely impact the call quality of using Skype Software;
This is a real issue with Fring. Fring wasn’t using Skype’s SILK audio codec in their mobile client or in their media transcoding system. There was no way for them to offer Skype’s wideband audio quality.
(ii) does not adversely impact the stability of Skype;
This refers to the Skype client in particular and the Skype network in general. This wasn’t an issue since Fring had built all sorts of code to keep Skype clients running vigorously in their server farm.
(iii) does not adversely impact the behaviour of other applications using the Skype API;
Again, not a problem. Since Skype was in a server farm, no other applications but Fring’s were talking to any of the Skype clients.
(iv) does not attempt to install spyware or malware on the client computer;
Not a problem since Fring had complete control of the client computers.
(v) does not attempt to redistribute information about the use of Skype Software or Skype services without express permission of the user;
Fring’s privacy policies cover this, assuring users their activity is kept private except as required by law.
(vi) correctly identifies itself to Skype when requesting authorisation;
Refers to the way Fring’s server app talks to a Skype client in the server farm. Not a problem.
(vii) does not attempt to send messages or place calls to or communicate with other users of Skype Software unless specifically directed to do so by the user; and
Not a problem.
(viii) does not attempt to modify the Skype Software User Interface in any way.
Not a problem since users never saw the Skype user interface.
3.2 Without the prior written consent of Skype, You will not remove or hide (save as permitted in API command "set silent_mode on"), modify, take over or otherwise alter the User Interface. At all times, You will comply with the requirements and specifications relating to application design and use and presentation as stated in Paragraph 4 below.
Whoops.
This is exactly what Fring did. It offered an alternative user interface so you never saw the Skype client.
Skype might have waived this since they’ll be removing this clause for the SkypeKit API.
Skype chose not to.
3.3 Save as expressly approved in writing by Skype, You will not distribute the Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) online through website(s) that in Skype’s opinion is/are in any way similar to, or infringe the intellectual property rights of the Skype Website or use Skype’s trademarks or words describing Skype’s products or services as the registered URL for website(s).
Means: Don’t make believe you are Skype.
Fring went to great lengths to comply. They never used the Skype logo. They created a little "SKP" badge as a stand-in logo.
3.4 You will at all times maintain the value and reputation of the Skype Software, Skype API and Skype brand or name, to the best of Your abilities.
This was in Fring’s interest.
3.5 You will not use the Skype API in any Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) that in Skype’s opinion is actually or potentially fraudulent or inappropriate or contrary to the EULA or any other Additional Terms.
"In Skype’s opinion…" is the point. Skype can shut you down if they think you’re even "potentially" going to breach the EULA.
3.6 You will not collect any user’s personal information or data in a misleading, illegal, unauthorised or unfair way. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, You will never collect, store or record Skype password used by the users to log-in to his or her Skype account ( "Skype Password"). If users need a separate password to use Your Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable), You will either (i) automatically generate a unique password and securely communicate it to the user or (ii) not permit users to use a password that is the same as the user’s Skype Password. You agree that the services and products provided through Your Software Application or Hardware Device shall be provided by You in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation those relating to the protection of privacy and the processing of personal data or traffic data).
A few parts to this:
"You will never collect, store or record Skype password used by the users to log-in to his or her Skype account ( "Skype Password"). This goes straight to the Password Antipattern issue.
"If users need a separate password to use Your Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable), You will either (i) automatically generate a unique password and securely communicate it to the user or (ii) not permit users to use a password that is the same as the user’s Skype Password." This is problematic. Most people use the same login on multiple systems. Should Fring compel users to alter their other logins?
3.7 You will not use the Skype API to create a Software Application or Hardware Device that sends unsolicited communications (whether commercial or otherwise) to any third party.
No spam? Not a problem.
3.8 You agree that You are solely responsible for (and that Skype has no responsibility to You or to any third party for) any services and/or products You provide through Your Software Application or Hardware Device.
Fring was cool with indemnifying Skype for Fring’s products.
Cool right up to the point that Skype threatened to shut them down.
When you offer an API, is there a promise to keep the service available?
4. You hereby specifically acknowledge that Your rights to use the Skype API are strictly subject to Your full compliance with these API Terms, including the following instructions related to promotion, marketing and design of Your Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable), and any breach of any provision of these API Terms or any applicable Additional Terms shall give rise to automatic right of termination by Skype.
Skype controls how you use Skype’s trademarks and symbolmarks.
4.1 In respect of the Software Application Purpose only, You may only use the following references to Skype, Skype API and Skype Software in connection with Your Software Application:
- "works with Skype Software" or "works with Skype"
- "uses Skype Software" or "uses Skype"
- "for Skype Software" or "for Skype"
Be clear that your product is not from Skype in your packaging, signage and tag lines.
4.2 You acknowledge that the Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) must prominently display the following statement in the help text or about text, in the Acknowledgements in the documentation associated with Your Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) and the packaging and other promotional material:
"This product uses the Skype API but is not endorsed, certified or otherwise approved in any way by Skype"
The foregoing will not apply provided the Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) has been certified according to Skype’s Certification Program https://developer.skype.com/Certification.
And here’s fine print stick wherever you stick fine print.
4.3 The Software Application or Hardware Device (as applicable) may only use icons from Skype’s archive of application icons in reference to Skype.
Only use our approved art inside your software or on your gadget.
5. Nothing in these API Terms will give You any right to use the Skype Promotional Materials, including without limitation the Skype trademarks and logos, or make references to Skype or Skype’s products or services other than those explicitly stated in paragraph 4 above. Unauthorised references or use of Skype Promotional Materials shall be considered as material breach of these API Terms and shall result in immediate termination thereof, as well as any other applicable Additional Terms You may have entered into with Skype. Such termination shall be without limitation to Skype’s right to claim damages, seek for injunctive or other equitable relief and obtain other remedies from You.
While you can use our logos, icons and other art to promote your software, stick to that use.
6. At all times, You must constantly monitor the Skype Website to ensure You are aware of any changes in the API Terms, the EULA or any other applicable Additional Terms. In the event You cannot agree on any changes in any applicable legal document, You will immediately cease any and all use of the Skype API and, where applicable, any and all use of the Skype Software.
Monitor this document. If you won’t bind yourself to our product, sod off and stop using Skype’s APIs.
7. You represent and warrant that You are authorised to agree to and meet with the terms and conditions of the API Terms
If you’re using Skype, you’re authorized by your organization to bind the organization.
8. You acknowledge and agree that Your use of the Skype API will be at Your own risk and account. You agree, on demand, to indemnify, defend and hold Skype, its Affiliates and staff harmless from and against any and all liability and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by such person, in connection with or arising out of (a) Your use of the Skype API or (b) any breach or violation of the terms and conditions of these API Terms and any other applicable Additional Terms and (c) the provision by You of any Software Application or Hardware Device You develop using the Skype API.
If you mess with us, you’ll pay us for our enforcement costs.
9. Skype reserves the right to modify these API Terms at any time, on a general or individual basis, by publishing the revised API Terms on the Skype Website or by otherwise notifying You of the revised API Terms. Any eventual modification of the API Terms that establishes Skype’s right to charge royalties is subject to a three (3) months’ prior notice thereof. Your continued use of the Skype API shall constitute Your acceptance to be bound by the terms and conditions of the revised API Terms.
If Skype decides to charge for using the API, Skype will give three months’ notice.
10. In the event that You wish to use the Skype API in a manner other than as expressly set out in these API Terms such use is expressly prohibited unless and until Skype enters into a specific licence with You.
Don’t start using Skype before you cut a deal for a separate license.
12.2 You may terminate these API Terms with immediate effect at any time. Without limiting other remedies, Skype may limit, suspend or terminate these API Terms (the EULA and any other Additional Terms) and Your use of the Skype API at any time if we think that You are in breach of these API Terms or if we think that You have acted in a way which shows that you do not intend to comply with these API Terms. In addition, Skype may terminate these API Terms with immediate effect at any time, for any reason, including but not limited to, if You engage in any action that in Skype’s opinion devalues Skype’s brand or reputation or the Skype Software or Skype API.
If you don’t like it, leave.
If we feel like it, we will kick you off or throw lawyers at you.
12.3 Upon termination of these API Terms by You or by Skype for any reason: (a) all licenses and rights to use the Skype API shall immediately terminate and (b) You will immediately cease any and all use of the Skype API.
Done is done.
© Skype – Last revised: September 2008
See also:
 Download. From the iTunes app store: "Run Skype in the background with multitasking in iOS4. Receive Skype calls and IM while other apps are running or when your iPhone is locked. You can also continue your call while you switch to another application. Multitasking is available only with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS." Peter Parkes adds "We’ve also updated the app’s graphics to support iPhone 4’s Retina Display."
Peter also announced a change in pricing policy: "We no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G."
UPDATE: More details about the update from Skype. Release notes with improvements, known issues, and fixed issues are below the fold. Notable changes:
- The only way to close Skype now is to delete it from the task bar.
- Skype doesn’t turn off other audio for a call.
- IM chat continues in the background.
- Most graphics upgraded for iPhone 4 Retina Display.
Full Story »
Skype’s rivals and partners have been busy
 Rumor: Michael Arrington suspects minority Skype owner Andreessen Horowitz is buying Foursquare. I love 4sq. Robert Scoble has 8 suggestions for building more 4sq consumer/platform value as Yelp copies 4sq features. Meanwhile, I can’t wait for an enterprise version, the better to check in with colleagues, clients, suppliers, partners. The location-based-workplace is here, waiting to be updated, searchable, social, and easy to navigate. LBS checkins should do wonders for triggering face-to-face work conversations, adding people virtually to f2f conversations, and plain old space-shifting virtual conversations. A little Skype integration, foursquare?
 Skype’s founders launched Rdio (said r-dee-o) earlier this month. Rdio will blend playlists with radio-like programming. Skype alumni Carter Adamson and Malthe Sigurdsson are on Rdio’s management team. Malthe was responsible for Skype’s visual brand and much of its defining user experience. Rdio should be a great experience but I’m waiting for the next release, stuck in the Apple App Approval Queue.
     Steve Jobs announced iOS4 and iPhone 4 at the Apple WWDC. They should make a better platform for iSkype: faster processor, longer battery life, front (VGA) and back (HD) video cameras, two microphones with noise reduction, multitasking, an improved display and now support for Bluetooth keyboards. This could mean better performance from Skype, the ability to stay connected to the Skype network all the time, even better audio than what Skype’s SILK codec offers, touch typing text chat, and Skype video calling.
 Apple announced FaceTime, iPhone 4-to-iPhone 4 video calling. The spec for FaceTime is based on some open protocols and Apple will submit the suite to standards bodies. The rumor that Skype wanted to use FaceTime was downgraded to Skype noticing it.
The Google Voice team experimented with desktop softphone software. People told Michael Arrington they are moving their effort from the desktop to browser and mobile clients.
 ooVoo reset its pricing for multiparty video calling. $0.10 per minute per person (e.g. $18/hour for three people above the two free included in the service) or $20 per month for six-way calling. Clues to Skype for iPhone’s mobile video charges? ooVoo has to pay for expensive servers and bandwidth since every stream goes through its servers at least once. Unlike ooVoo, Skype distributes its iPhone and desktop video streams peer-to-peer. Skype can undercut ooVoo ten-fold and still make money.
Logitech announced a line of HD webcams that will compete with Microsoft’s and InStore Solutions freetalk webcams.
Meanwhile I’m loving my Skypeless [but Qik'd and Fring'd] Sprint Evo 4G.
Skype’s busy too
 Skype hired Rick Osterloh from Motorola to head consumer product management. This includes desktop software (netbooks? tablets?), Skype.com, and Skype’s paid products (SkypeIn, SkypeOut, SMS, voicemail, WiFi access, etc.).
Verizon will put Skype on non-smart phones too, according to a news release. "Skype mobile from Verizon Wireless, currently available on 12 different smartphones, will expand to more handsets later this year, including several 3G Multimedia phones." Good for Skype: a lower price-point means more users will have access to Skype. via Florin
Skype will redesign its Skype mobile UI to pursue international callers. From the same release: "In addition to Spanish, Skype mobile will also be available in Korean and simple Chinese, providing more flexibility and the ability to communicate with people around the world. Skype mobile customers will soon see an enhanced user interface with a drop-down menu with flags for international dialing."
Juniper Research predicts 100 million mobile VoIP users by 2012, half in the North America and Europe. An analyst said "we also anticipate that several more traditional operators will have joined 3UK and Verizon in the US and developed relationships with mobile VoIP players such as Skype."
People are using Skype from conception to the old age home
Telemedicine was attacked in today’s Telegraph Herald, covering Dubuque, Iowa. A right-to-life advocate is afraid out of town doctors will prescribe RU486 to women in local Planned Parenthood clinics through a Skype-like videoconference.
Kids are using Skype for video play dates. In a few years it will be Skype pajama parties. Then Skype sex. I saw a difference between watching people shoot pool through a video monitor and, as I did tonight, watching a pool game in a local tiki bar. As vivid as the video gets, the view is frozen. When I move my head, my body, perspectives change and the part of my brain that thinks spatially tells me this is real, not a painting. So let’s be sure to keep kids catching colds from other kids, immersing them in face to face reality along with skyped conversations.
 Meanwhile, check out Skypito: "Kids can finally safely chat on the Internet. Strangers and bad guys cannot reach them anymore." Uses Skype, naturally. Free, sponsored by EasyBits. This follows the classic blend of server based community and desktop based Skype plug-in. Meanwhile CNN readers who’ve never seen kids play together virtually objected strongly to video play dates.
 "It’s a Skype-produced album" singer Kat DeLuna told The Daily News about collaborating with her producer while on her European tour. Try @KatDeLuna‘s PushPush Dance video.
Study: Skyping with family makes nursing home residents happier. A Taiwan nursing professor found average video calls lasted nearly 12 minutes. About half the calls were weekly and almost half were less frequent. citation and abstract.
Updates: ooVoo revised prices on video calls.
 Skype promised Skype-to-Skype calls will be free forever.
Forever comes September 2010 for Skype for iPhone users. Skype is defining mobile apps as a new class of service requiring a separate “mobile subscription.”
From the “Details” page:
Skype on 3G/Edge
What does the “free Skype trial” mean?
You can now make and receive Skype-to-Skype calls and call phones over 3G from your iPhone.
To get you started, we’re offering you free Skype-to-Skype calls over 3G until at least the end of August 2010. After that there’ll be a small monthly fee.
Remember, you can always make free Skype-to-Skype calls from a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Skype now says its app for iPhone and iPod touch comes with “Free Skype-to-Skype calls from any WiFi zone.” [My emphasis.] A new limit emerges.
Safe to say the same will apply to Skype for Blackberry and Skype for Android unless subsidized by a partner carrier like Verizon or Three.
This breaks Skype’s promise that Skype-to-Skype calls will always be free. The pledge is fundamental to Skype’s brand, to Skype’s freemium model, to the simplicity of trying Skype before buying premium services. No longer can you say “Skype-to-Skype is free.” Now add “except when…” and hope you get it right.
I appreciate Skype’s need to drive new subscriptions.
Breaking faith with your core brand promise is not the way.
More than six years since we asked for it, Skype is promising limited multiparty video calling in a beta release for Windows next week. Lovely!
See the Skype-provided mockup of a multiparty video call above, featuring the faux Cooper family. MPV’s controls, starting at the top:
- Snapshot, make bigger and full screen.
- Bottom right: five bars (signal strength? call quality?).
- Center bottom: Add People, Webcam (on/off), and Share (social objects like files, contacts).
- Bottom left: elapsed time in call, microphone on/off, speaker on/off, and End Call button.
But what do we need in a Skype multiparty video service? How might we judge Skype MPV?
Before a call:
- Option to minimize audio interruptions/distractions during a video conference.
- Test your webcam (and how you look) before connecting
- One-click launch to video from multiparty audio or chat conversations.
- Add a voice caller to a video conference. Drag-and-drop, please. And support leaving a member of the call in audio-only mode.
- Invitation and scheduling service. Two people are difficult to calendar; five can waste more time negotiating when to call than in the call itself. Partner with companies like Tungle and Evite.
- Addressable chats so we can share a skype: link or a web http: permalink to bring people to a meeting and to its archive.
During a call:
- Moderator power for one or more of the parties. Sometimes you help the quiet person to speak, a dominant personality to pause, or a rude person to leave.
- Lurking mode: mute your outbound audio and “mute” your outgoing video while continuing to see/hear the meeting. Sometimes you just need to adjust your clothing or divide your attention.
- Desktop screensharing, one of the great collaborative features of Skype video.
- Easily switch video/audio sources without interrupting the meeting. I should be able to control my contribution to the call. So let me switch from the webcam that shows my face to the Ipevo close-up cam that shows the product defect we’re discussing to the product specifications Acrobat file.
- Play a video file or stream from your PC or the web to everyone in your call. Video is a social object, triggering conversation.
- Multitask. Sometimes we must be in more than one video conference at a time; sometimes meetings overlap.
- Live streaming of meetings through services like Ustream.tv and Livestream. Skype could easily become the talking-heads network.
- Let third-party software overlay captions, speaker names, illustrations and effects atop live video.
- Picture-in-picture video for full-screen viewing.
- Studio controls, to decide which participant has the focus
- Interoperability with Cisco, ooVoo, Logitech, and other video calling and conferencing networks.
After the call:
- Meeting video archive. Save meeting to YouTube (and other services) and to a blog.
- One-click fallback to voice conference from multiparty video. Sometimes you just want to downshift.
- Profile the chat. Let me add notes to describe what we did and what we promised, and share them.
Performance concerns:
- Video quality. How many participants can be in High Quality (640×480@30fps) or High Definition (720p) at the same time?
- Connectivity robustitude. Does Skype MPV perform well under adverse field conditions, with Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connectivity?
- Scaling Up with Fixed Bandwidth. How does adding a third, fourth and fifth person affect bandwidth consumption?
- Anchor requirements. Do video conferences have an anchor party or host, the way audio conferences do? If so, what cpu/bandwidth/memory is needed?
- Audio quality problems and solutions become more difficult with multiple parties. How well does Skype address echo cancellation? Multipoint noise reduction? Sound leveling?
- Proprietary or public audio and video codecs?
- Backwards compatibility. Will people with older Skype clients be able to join a multiparty Skype video call?
Platform:
- Software Developers Kit for the desktop client plug-in architecture. So independent software developers can build MPV applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops.
- SDK for SkypeKit developers. So Panasonic, LG, and Samsung can build MPV into their televisions. So others can build MPV into desk phones, video phones, and automobiles.
- Hosted web-service SDK. Please! The better to build SkypeRoulette.
- Feature-complete SDKs compared to the desktop UI.
Policy:
- Is the architecture centralized or decentralized? Where is a call’s jurisdiction? Are PCs used by the parties to a call the only computers used to conduct the call?
- Can MPV be turned off through the enterprise IT .msi controls?
- Are multiparty video conversations encrypted end-to-end?
- Do you need to be a party to a call or be monitoring the desktop of a party to that call to intercept the call?
- Can others contribute Skype credits to share a call’s cost?
- Is everyone charged, or just the host? How is the host determined?
- Priced for wealthy-nation corporate use? Or for developing world personal use?
Can’t wait to get my hands on MPV and walk you through the details.
Q. My son Skyped my mobile phone from Argentina. Will I see expensive international rates or roaming fees on my next bill? – Dad in USA.
A. No. That was a local call as far as your phone company is concerned. Your son only paid "SkypeOut" rates, about $1.20 per hour. Aren’t you glad your boy learned to use the Internet?
One in nine cross-border minutes was a free Skype-to-Skype call last year. That’s $12.9 billion in international calls Skype gave its users for free assuming Skype’s customers would pay a world average market price of roughly $0.24 per minute.
Did Skype take those billions from telephone companies?
Just a little.
Telephone companies don’t offer much in the way of differential pricing, charging more to people who’d pay more and less to people who’d pay less. So they leave a large underserved market.
Skype is happy to serve them.
Skype is also making the market bigger. When you make Skype-to-Skype calls, you don’t worry about the cost of the call; just your time and your Internet connection. Skype voice calls can run for hours without anyone feeling anxious about using up minutes or the phone bill. So not only is Skype bringing underserved callers into the international calling market, Skype is encouraging them to speak longer and call more often.
Looking at the chart, people have been substituting Skype’s free/cheap, simply priced, IM-style calling for expensive, unpredictable, and hard-to-dial PSTN calls. This bids down the market price of all calls. That’s been going on for years; the average price is one fifth of what it was fifteen years’ ago. It also slows the growth of PSTN calling as people switch to Skype.
The trend line shows Skype serving 75 billion minutes this year and 100 billion in 2011. That assumes Skype doesn’t do anything new, like improving virality, usability, availability, presence, accessibility. You know: things that bring more people in and get them to call more people, more often, for more minutes.
tags: skype, competition, international, longdistance, pricing, chart, stats, statistics, trends
Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.
Skype-to-Skype calls are free. Skype sometimes charges you a small connection fee for Skype-to-PSTN calls in addition to your per-minute rate. The rates to non-"Global Rate" markets go up four cents per call on Sunday, 6 September 2009 to US$0.079 (about 8 cents).
CORRECTION: "With a calling plan there is never a connection fee, regardless of where you call".
Do you have one of Skype’s calling plans? Calls are free of connection fees.
Without a calling plan you’ll continue to pay 3.9 cents for each call to mobiles or landlines in Skype’s Global Rate markets (listed below). Now, without a plan, your connection fee is 7.9 cents per call outside those markets.
The Global Rate destinations: Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Cordoba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Denmark – Shared Cost, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – Mobile, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Korea, Republic of Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico – Mexico City, Mexico – Monterrey, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Norway – Shared Cost, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia – Moscow, Russia – St.Petersburg, Singapore, Singapore – Mobile, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, USA.
Why did Skype raise the rates?
Does this new pricing simplify buying and calling choices? Does it make Skypers switch from pay-as-you-go to a subscription? Does it help prevent predatory calling or unwanted telemarketing? I think not. Most people will not notice the four cent increase. Are termination costs really higher outside of Skype’s Global Rates markets? Possibly. This might offset those costs.
How much more revenue will this price increase bring?
Skype doesn’t report the number of calls made or call volume by country. So let’s guess [See the Google Docs spreadsheet and play with the the numbers yourself]. Skype reported 3 billion minutes of SkypeIn/SkypeOut calling. Let’s say ten percent are to non-Global Rate markets (I suspect it’s a larger share). And that Skype calls average 10 minutes (much longer than the average PSTN call, a little shorter than free Skype-to-Skype calls). 3x(10^9) minutes * 10% of all calls / 10 minutes per call. So, 30 million calls per quarter. At 4 cents more per call, that puts new income around $5 million each year. Or more. What’s your guess?
Send a fax for €0,09 per page (US$0.13) to  Singapore, Israel, Aland Islands, Malaysia, Finland, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Venezuela, Cyprus, Argentina, and Estonia. PamFax Pro subscribers pay €0,06. (Seems to be part of a larger trend. Skype cut rates to Turkey.)
And in today’s news, PamConsult is now selling a localized release of PamFax for the Japanese market. You can fax to Japan at the same rates. Here’s PamFax’s page operated by PamConsult’s distribution partner, Fusion Network Services Corporation.
tags: skype, japan, china, pamfax, pamconsult, fax, ipfax, fusiongol, fusion
Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.
|
7 years and 2 days since Skype Journal launched as a stand-alone blog.
|
|
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room