skype on nokias would be nice.
I can use skype on my nokia e63. It's even free to make and receive calls to/from skype contact through some landline gateway provided by my carrier.
chat works too but the interface is not that great.
Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
91–100 of 277 posts
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've used the Linux version of Skype. It's rather bare-bones.
Which is great. It does pretty much everything the Windows client does (chat, voice, video, desktop sharing), without the big, gaudy, annoying interface. I fear that it'll just go away, or actively get shut down by compatibility changes. (My friends and I practically live on Skype. The one killer feature for us is persistent chatrooms; it's like IRC, except when I log in I get all the missing chat history I didn't ge…
Skype is demonstrably worse on Linux. Aside from it's tendency to lock up, its support for conference calls is wrong; for example, if you're in a call, and call out to a phone number it offers to add the new call to the conference after you've made the request.
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#93MS would do a lot better to buy 200 promising startups (especially in the mobile space)
I get the sentiment, but do you really think a) that there are 200 worthwhile startups in the mobile space, or b) that there are 200 promising startups that you could acquire for an average of $350 million each that would have anywhere near the chance of establishing a network effect as big as Skype's in any kind of reasonable internet timeframe (say, in the next 5 years)?
a) Probably, though I bet I don't know most of them. If I were MS M&A I would bet disproportionately on mobile, though, because that's an area they need to nail if they want to stay relevant. If they could get 70 out of 200, that'd be a darn good start.
b) Individually, not terribly likely. Collectively? Sure. (And it's $35M each, but the exact number isn't the point - let's say you could offer every ycombinator and techstars startup an average of $35M each, you'd likely end up getting two or three Dropbox-esque gamechangers, a few dozen decent products, and 150 otherwise good ideas folded into MS and dead-ended.)
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#94To paraphrase an old anecdote, No software company ever went broke flipping Skype.
I do hope Microsoft flubs up like Ebay did, and purchases Skype, but make the same IP mistake and neglect to license the core software that runs Skype.
Anyone recall the old news about the Skype founders selling Skype to Ebay, but retaining the licensing of the core software, then pulling the plug on the license years later, and regaining control over Skype?
I'm looking forward to 2014 when Microsoft has to pass the football again, though hopefully this story will get more interesting next time.
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#95This is Microsoft's ICQ moment. Overpaying for a company at the moment when its core competency is becoming a commodity. Does anyone have the slightest bit of loyalty to Skype? Of course not. They're going to use whichever video chat comes built into their SmartPhone, tablet, computer, etc. They're going to use FaceBook's eventual video chat service or something Google offers. No one is going to actively seek out Sky…
> This is Microsoft's ICQ moment
Is that a reference to ICQ's "Uh-oh"? If so, I fully agree.
If Apple stock is priced to perfection, MSFT is priced to stupidity. This kind of wasted earnings is exactly why Microsoft stock sells at a mere 10x earnings. Investors are fully aware that a large portion of all future earnings will be wasted.
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#96This is Microsoft's ICQ moment. Overpaying for a company at the moment when its core competency is becoming a commodity. Does anyone have the slightest bit of loyalty to Skype? Of course not. They're going to use whichever video chat comes built into their SmartPhone, tablet, computer, etc. They're going to use FaceBook's eventual video chat service or something Google offers. No one is going to actively seek out Sky…
> This is Microsoft's ICQ moment Is that a reference to ICQ's "Uh-oh"? If so, I fully agree. If Apple stock is priced to perfection, MSFT is priced to stupidity. This kind of wasted earnings is exactly why Microsoft stock sells at a mere 10x earnings. Investors are fully aware that a large portion of all future earnings will be wasted.
I think this is a reference to AOL buying ICQ.
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've used the Linux version of Skype. It's rather bare-bones.
Which is great. It does pretty much everything the Windows client does (chat, voice, video, desktop sharing), without the big, gaudy, annoying interface. I fear that it'll just go away, or actively get shut down by compatibility changes. (My friends and I practically live on Skype. The one killer feature for us is persistent chatrooms; it's like IRC, except when I log in I get all the missing chat history I didn't ge…
>it's like IRC, except when I log in I get all the missing chat history I didn't get while I was logged out
What?
screen + irssi + /lastlog your_nick
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#98This is Microsoft's ICQ moment. Overpaying for a company at the moment when its core competency is becoming a commodity. Does anyone have the slightest bit of loyalty to Skype? Of course not. They're going to use whichever video chat comes built into their SmartPhone, tablet, computer, etc. They're going to use FaceBook's eventual video chat service or something Google offers. No one is going to actively seek out Sky…
I have loyalty to Skype. And this is infinitely better than Facebook owning Skype, imo
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#99Hopefully this forces Google to drop the "play nice" attitude with carriers & Skype and properly integrate video chat into Android across the board (yes, it's in 2.3.4, but it annoys me that Google left it this long and even then made it tied to a release that many phones will not get for ages if ever).
Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget about the Android and iOS apps. No doubt those will be killed off as well.
Interestingly, if Microsoft does buy Skype and make it Windows only, they would be opening a huge door for GChat as [EDIT: the obvious] cross-platform client. FaceTime too, I guess, if Apple decides to move in that direction. If Skype isn't the default, verbed, system, doesn't it lose some value?
On that node, didn’t Apple say, via Steve Jobs at the presentation where it was announced, that FaceTime was to become an open standard? What ever happened to that?