Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#231

Post by briandear » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:23 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #208

utnick wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not 100% sure, but I think the moneymaker and core competency for skype is not video chat. I have a skype account, I pay for a personalized USA number that people can call with their phones and reach me around the world, I also pay for the ability to dial any number around the world. All of my work contacts also have skype accounts which we use to communicate. It would take quite a bit to get me to move off of Skype.

How about move up then? I work for Sococo, and they have a service for distributed teams like yours. Always-on, no minute charge or limit, plus expanded presence information like you wouldn't believe. Can also call out/in, share docs and views, works on Mac/linux/Windows. Above it was mentioned Skype has no loyalty, will be replaced when something better comes along. We're hoping thats Teamspace, Sococo's 1st product…

Only problem is Sococo is designed for closed groups, and it has no video -- it's hardly a Skype competitor in functionality. Besides for group chat and conference calls and Campfire does it better for less money and without having to download anything -- it's elegantly Rails and works from anywhere on any device. I'm sure Microsoft will find a way to break Skype like it breaks everything else!

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#232

Post by dataminer » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:23 PM UTC

timc3 wrote: post #149

mmaunder wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a very strong network effect with Skype for PC to PC calls. But I doubt MS is going to get full value. They have had little success with freemium business models and I don't see why this would be different.

In what way do you measure success? Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger for two services have a huge amount of users.

I have accounts on Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger since their early days but my use of both of these services has diminished over last couple of years. I have observed the same attitude among my friends and family, all of them still have those accounts but they are active users of other services. I hope skype doesn't end up like Hotmail, windows live messenger.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#233

Post by profgubler » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:28 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #19

mgkimsal wrote: post #13

A few thoughts: When we see the mac version stagnate, we won't be able to say MS has sabotaged it - skype did that before on their own. The linux version has never been on parity with the others - will it be officially killed? Might MS actually put resources in to it to make it work as well as the others? Overall, good on MS for doing this. I'm assuming this may bring on some more interesting dynamics to the google v…

Don't forget about the Android and iOS apps. No doubt those will be killed off as well.

Don't think so, as Microsoft makes great Bing apps for iOS and Android.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#234

Post by whatusername » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:30 PM UTC

jeza wrote: post #176

jcampbell1 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. AOL bought ICQ for 400M, got patent exclusivity to IM for some time, sold a bazillion ad dollars during the dotcom boom through the ICQ client, and then sold the company recently for 200M. I am sure AOL came out ahead on that deal. What is an ICQ moment?

Though in terms of your average joe, no one seems to know about ICQ anymore. Those that do seem to remember it as something of the past (remember those days when we all chatted on ICQ?). Ironically though in Australia it was MSN that took over the market from ICQ. I guess because so many people had a hotmail account and the client came with their computer. Now if only people would switch so quickly to Jabber/XMPP as…

MSN had one killer feature for me over ICQ. Server-side friend lists. When my PC was replaced - my MSN list was there. My ICQ had to be re-added.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#235

Post by gsmaverick » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:33 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #211

riams wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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." Really? I'm thinking the barriers to switch from Skype are pretty high due to the vast amount of users Skype has. Why switch to a slightly more polished product when you have no one to communicate with there? We have to remember t…

They were pretty quick to adopt Skype. Its only seconds to load another VOIP-style client, and no time at all to use the one that came preinstalled. And you always know who you want to talk to on Skype, you're not calling the flower shop or anything, its your brother-in-law or whoever, so you can arrange for them to try another client in seconds. So the barrier to switching is pretty low.

Very few people are going to go through the hassle of installing a new client just to make a phone call if a good solution, which both parties have, already exists.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#236

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:47 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #231

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about move up then? I work for Sococo, and they have a service for distributed teams like yours. Always-on, no minute charge or limit, plus expanded presence information like you wouldn't believe. Can also call out/in, share docs and views, works on Mac/linux/Windows. Above it was mentioned Skype has no loyalty, will be replaced when something better comes along. We're hoping thats Teamspace, Sococo's 1st product…

Only problem is Sococo is designed for closed groups, and it has no video -- it's hardly a Skype competitor in functionality. Besides for group chat and conference calls and Campfire does it better for less money and without having to download anything -- it's elegantly Rails and works from anywhere on any device. I'm sure Microsoft will find a way to break Skype like it breaks everything else!

Yeah, Sococo is not a Skype replacement - its for teams, that's for sure.

But don't mistake it for another "group chat and conference call" tool. Its designed to remove the friction from those activities by making collaboration instant, always-on and visual.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#237

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:48 PM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #235

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were pretty quick to adopt Skype. Its only seconds to load another VOIP-style client, and no time at all to use the one that came preinstalled. And you always know who you want to talk to on Skype, you're not calling the flower shop or anything, its your brother-in-law or whoever, so you can arrange for them to try another client in seconds. So the barrier to switching is pretty low.

Very few people are going to go through the hassle of installing a new client just to make a phone call if a good solution, which both parties have, already exists.

Well, they did that for Skype. And if it comes with the platform, that barrier is gone.

But yes, there is market inertia and Skype has it.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#238

Post by raganwald » Tue, May 10, 2011, 1:55 PM UTC

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #210

raganwald wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will bet a bottle of single malt that Apple will bring FaceTime to the PC. I agree that FaceTime sells Apple hardware, but I think the hardware they want to sell is the iOS product line. Weigh how many Mac sales the will lose if people can get FaceTime on a PC against how many iPhone and iPad sales they will make to people who can now chat with Grandma on her PC? Ubiquity on the desktop and exclusivity on the mobil…

Are we talking about the same company? The only time Apple ports their software to different environments is when they are in a position of weakness (like they were when they reluctantly put iTunes on Windows). I don't think a single Apple iOS app has made it's way to Android, or any new Mac software has been ported to Windows in recent years. You can accuse Microsoft of a lot of things, but they've always been willi…

I personally see porting something like iWork very differently than porting FaceTime. If they think porting FaceTime will help sell iOS devices, I think Apple will do it for the same reason they ported iTunes. Whereas porting iWork doesn't do anything for selling iOS devices.

That being said, this is a guess and that's why I said I would bet on it. If I knew for sure, it would be unethical to bet on the outcome!

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#239

Post by technomancy » Tue, May 10, 2011, 2:09 PM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #120

joshzayin wrote: post #4

If this goes through, I wonder what would happen to Skype's Linux and Mac support. I'd hope MS would still support it, but I don't think they have any Linux software currently (I'm not positive about that, so please correct me if I'm wrong) and the Mac version of Office is always delayed compared to the Windows version. I hope Skype doesn't similarly languish.

There really isn't anything better on Linux, sadly. I wrote a longer comment about this a few days ago, but the gist is that Skype is the only semi-reliable video chat/SIP client for Linux, even factoring in serious neglect from Skype Inc. for the platform. This acquisition probably is the final nail in the coffin for Skype's hypothetical open-source Linux client. I don't have high hopes at all that alternate version…

Huh? There are plenty of better voice-only Linux clients. It's really only in video that Skype has the edge.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#240

Post by technomancy » Tue, May 10, 2011, 2:10 PM UTC

damncabbage wrote: post #53

william42 wrote: post #43

Earlier 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…

We moved off Skype chat at our company partly due to the fact that the Linux client makes you keep a separate window open for every chat you're in, making it basically unusable beyond 5 or so chats. Throw in the fact that the usernames aren't color coded and you can't bump the font size and switching to IRC was a no-brainer.