AKMA asked me if I expect to see an OS X client for Skype. See my answer here. But the important thing to note is that Skype is non-standard in a couple ways:
The "callto:" tag I mentioned the other day is not unique to Skype and, unless you associate the "callto:" tag with Skype during set up it will open other applications, like NetMeeting. This and the fact that Skype doesn't implement the Session Initiation Protocol in a standard way, indicates that there is a wide hole in this product, big enough for a truck to drive through, because the Skype client can succeed only by shutting out other VoIP applications.
I was on the phone yesterday with a friend at AOL who installed Skype while we talked. We could see the directory information propagate across a set of peers and it took a few minutes for us to find one another and, finally connect. Voice quality was excellent, but better voice quality than other services is merely a feature, not a complete application. Unlike the IM world, where proprietary systems could co-exist, I think VoIP applications are not going to succeed unless they connect to all other voice services, simply because the interconnectivity is a basic expectation in voice services. Look at the way wireless carriers have implemented their services -- you can call any phone out of the box but text messaging had to migrate through several generations of proprietary archipelagos before one could send a text message to a friend using a different carrier.
There are huge opportunities here, but not for a closed system (Skype has said it will open its code, but the non-standard SIP implementation is a barrier to connectivity that will not stand).
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at September 20, 2003 03:41 PM | TrackBack