Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft to Launch "Skype Killer"
TheChillPill writes "Microsoft is due to announce the launch of a service to rival Skype following the acquision of VoIP provider Teleo.
While a crude version of VoIP is already included in most Instant Messaging programs, Skype is currently the only provider to allow calls to landlines and cellphones.
Microsoft intends to launch the service by the end of the year. "
In the old days, an announcement like this would have been an instant death blow to the competing company. I am happy to note these days it is a relative non-event. This is not to say Microsoft's entry into a market cannot have a significant impact. But gone are the good old days where Microsoft simply had to announce some vaporware to stop a competitor in their tracks. From that perspective, things are better today than they used to be.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Thanks but no thanks.
Skype works great on my Suse box. The M$ program never will see the light of day on any of my machines.
Microsoft intends to launch the service by the end of the year.
Why not wait until the end of the year to make an announcement when it will be news? Anything more than that is free advertising for something that doesn't exist. *sigh*
Speak truth to power.
Does anyone have any review info on Teleo? I would expect the service to be of simial quality to what Teleo did with a Microsoft look.
Evolution or ID?
... when it runs on Mac's and Linux boxes. Or, runs on anything other than soon-to-be-released-honest MS operating systems.
It is so funny, they seem so determined to spread their plague to ever corner of IT but in the end all MS every does is reduce choice and that was the one thing Windows really had going for it. Now a typical PC will have what, MS Windows, MS Office and ummm, some games, oh and lots of anti virus and anti spyware software, but then MS makes all that now, and now they want another market.
:-(
It is funny though that the con(ned)sumers are still swayed by the MS name. I have heard people in shops debating over buying a mouse for instance and plumped for the MS one because it was Microsoft and therefore would be compatible with their PC. For this reason alone I expect MS' move into telephony to be a raging success
I just wonder how hard they will try the old embrace, extend, extinguish tactic this time?
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
You're thinking like a geek. $10 bucks says most people's mothers who use MSN already (like those that use Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, etc) will use the service that pops up and says "Would you like to make a voice call to 'Your son in Italy' for only $10/mo". Probably saying to themselves: "A monkey is asking for my credit card number... That seems fair."
This is the world we live in. We talk about marketing being just FUD, but it's really not. People buy whatever people sell. I've seen funny stuff on infomercials that people obviously buy (a vacuum that sucks up your hair and cuts it with a blade inside the vacuum attachment- this was in the 'cut your hair at home' stage of the late 80's).
People will buy what seems reasonable and what you tell them to buy. Ask any marketing student. 99% of the market is uneducated as to what Skype is. Vonage has only made such headway through significant marketing, which M$ could outdo anyday... and who wouldn't switch to a M$ product that already runs their office, home, and play communications needs?
M$ integrates an ad and the feature into MSN Messenger, and they'll instantly have a LOT of people. No having to download additional software, no setup, no confusing additional software that may or may not hurt your computer... just works.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
I hope Skype doesn't make the same mistake as every other company that tried to beat Microsoft at their own game. The best strategy for skype in a battle like this is play by their own rules. Specifically, they should completely open their protocol. If they try to pit one proprietary solution against a Microsoft proprietary solution, they will lose.
I agree Skype is going to be around (I use it and love it), but I think they really need to think about becoming SIP compliant. My biggest grip about Skype is I cannot call friends who use other VOIP clients, but those same friends who use different clients can still call each other because other services are SIP compliant.
Will MS's product be SIP (standards based)? The Teleo beta products was, so I'd assume so but I haven't heard anything for sure and with MS you never really know.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Prediction: Microsoft will embrace and extend like they have always done in the past. They will have a SIP compliant client, they will add extra (and compelling they hope) features that will only work between their client, the client will be free with Windows. Behind the scenes Microsoft will sell some built in functionality aimed at business. It may be in the form of solicitation (i.e. the EULA says you must agree to some form of marketing) or ads or whatever. In other words, Microsof provides features that only work between Microsoft clients while charging a fee to third party companies for access to you.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
This is really about Microsoft staking its claim in an emerging market. It doesn't mean they're going to strike oil. WebTV hasn't really led to a rush to adopt a Microsoft-dominated media/PC convergence model. And neither has Windows MCE. Microsoft's ventures outside its traditional Windows and Office franchises have not been particularly successful.
Nobody would think of phoning people through their PC if there wasn't temporarily a tariff anomaly - that's simply not going to persist in the long term.
The kind of thing that will persist is a rather different kind of innovative integration that delivers services that can be used on familiar devices (phones, televisions, etc) as well as PCs - an example of which might be HomeChoice.
If Microsoft provided a IP service that could ring *all* phone numbers would certainly kill Skype.
...
There are a huge range of numbers that aren't accessable from Skype. This of coarse depends on which the country. In Spain for example, Skype cannot ring the special service numbers used by banks and other companies. These turn out to be very important for normal users, so in fact this what prevents people from replacing their phone compleatly and using Skype.
These are the so-called "special numbers"
This would be a killer blow to Skype if they could equal the quality of Skype and provide some extra features:
* Ability to ring *all* numbers, including "special"
Over the last year MS introduced/announced:
/me puts on tinfoil hat
A 'google search killer'
An 'ipod killer'
A 'bittorrent killer'
A load of X killers that I can't be bothered to remember
now a Skype killer
How about, well I don't know, eh, ACTUALLY MAKING A DECENT OS THAT'S FINISHED ON TIME?
I guess that's asking too much.
Come on MS finish what you start before you do something else.
we NEED a slower operating system on our computers. It's the only thing that will lead to faster processors.
Or do you think it's a mere coincidence that since the introduction of WinXP and the long wait for it's successor, processor speed suddenly stopped doubling every 18 months?
It'll just be the next version of Windows. Ensure Skype doesn't run properly, and that'll kill them off long before it can come out in the courts that Microsoft was engaging in anti-competitive practices.
Ahhh... history... why do you repeat yourself?
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
Skype does not use SIP becaue SIP *SUCKS*. Its NAT and firewall behaviour is atrocious. Forget SIP. Any client using SIP is almost useless in the real world. SIP is what has prevented VOIP from taking off as it should have for the past 10 years. It's a bad protocol design. Dynamic server port numbers is StuPId.
Skype is good because it JUST WORKS. Skype should add a SIP bridge, though, to leverage the SIP installed base, like they leverage the POTS installed base.
Now if Skype switched to the IAX2 protocol used by Asterisk, that would rock. But NO SIP PLEASE.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-