Don’t give up on eBay’s Skype just yet.
eBay’s (Nasdaq: EBAY) VOIP subsidiary Skype is starting to gain momentum with a surge of branded phones and deals in regard to ‘click-to-call’ advertising. Instead of debating forever if the Skype acquisition was the right move for eBay or whether or not it overpaid for it, lets look at what’s going on with Skype. (By the way, I do think eBay overpaid for Skype but I am willing to give eBay some more time to redeem themselves and make it work).
eBay’s recent deals with Yahoo on the domestic front and Google on the international front should really help Skype. Both Yahoo and Google will use Skype along with their own Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk services for their ‘click-to-call’ advertising initiative. The emergence of ‘click-to-call’ advertising will also be a big plus for Skype. I wouldn’t want to download Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and Skype and use the one which is available with a click-to-call advertisement. With both Google and Yahoo using Skype for their ‘click-to-call’ initiatives it gives a Skype a huge edge. Skype is even being included in the Google Toolbar.
Also, being a gadget junky, I have been noticing a lot of new Skype enabled handsets come on the market recently. Some of these don’t even require you to have a computer. Interesting thing is that some of these handsets are made by big time companies like GE and Philips.
Thomson (NYSE: TMS) and Skype will release a GE (NYSE: GE) branded landline phone that integrates with Skype and lets user makes VOIP phone calls using Skype.
Courtesy: engadget
Meanwhile Netgear’s (Nasdaq: NTGR) Skype phone is finally shipping according to engagdet. This phone is what the future is all about. If you have WiFi access then you can make phone calls and receive them as well via your Skype account or make SkypeOut calls. Although, this phone will only appeal to niche users for now the potential of this phone could be huge. Once Wimax becomes mainstream and covers entire cities a similar Wimax phone could make cell phones obsolete.
Courtesy: engadget
Belkin also is coming out with its own Skype WiFi phone.
Courtesy: engadget
European heavyweight Philips (NYSE: PHG) isn’t going to sit back either. They are coming out with their own Skype phone and should probably do pretty well in Skype’s main market in Europe. We in the United States sometimes forget the popularity of Skype overseas.
Courtesy: engadget
Here are a couple of other Skype handsets from Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI) and US Robotics.
Courtesy: engadget.
* I am long EBAY
September 25th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Yes, indeedy. Lots of deals with Skype. This could get huge. College campuses may push this, err, the students actually if the colleges use the appropriate way to administer it (QoS, disabling the super node feature, etc.).
Go eBay.