Saturday, March 04, 2006

Why Skype is so popular?

Why a company that appeared from nowhere become so popular in so short time? Who dared to think a few years ago that the big VoIP giants will be shaken be obscure software with roots in the disputed P2P world?

Here are a few good things that made Skype one of the most used application for PC-to-PC voice communication:

- it works everywhere. No matter if you are at home, on your corporate network, in an airport or hotel, Skype just works. This capability to traverse NAT and Firewall has roots in the P2P world;
- good sound quality. This doesn’t come from P2P as some believe, but actually from the hi quality codecs produced by Global IP Sound;
- the seamless integration of voice client with an IM client. Phones look cool but to replicate a classic phone interface in software is not always a good idea. More appropriate for PC-to-PC communications may be a IM type interface;
- the ability to make calls to PSTN phones and to receive calls from PSTN directly into Skype;
- EBay acquisition!

No comments: