Skype: Speaks Volumes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) June 18, 2006 -- The excitement surrounding voice calls over the Internet is increasingly off the hook. The notion of consumers directly making their own calls via a broadband connection attracted early adopters and technology geeks, followed by the financial press and analysts. Now a debate rages about whether (or when) consumer Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, will make the landline phone redundant. One particular brand that raised interest in the category is Skype.

Thanks to Skype and its competitors, consumers can make calls directly from a PC, thus bypassing the conventional exchange�and the phone bill. With an Internet connection and a small software application, two users can have a conversation using a microphone and speakers connected to their computers. Digitized signals are sent between the two machines via a peer-to-peer direct connection�not via a separate server or hub, as in the case of email.
A product of the same Estonian-Scandinavian software team that brought us the legally-dubious Kazaa file-swapping service, there is nothing illegal about Skype. With 65 million worldwide users, and entering the 2005 Brandchannel Readers� Choice Awards at number three behind Google and Apple, Skype appears to be rapidly heading toward the mainstream only three years after its launch. But it isn�t alone in the category, nor is it the first to offer phone calls over the PC. So why is it so far in front of the pack?

Like Google or the iPod, Skype isn�t the first player in its category, but it has managed to achieve scale that its competitors can only dream about. Skype shares a number of characteristics with Google and the iPod�namely, a single-mindedness and determination to be perceived as the category benchmark. As a result, the brand seems poised to ride the wave of interest in the sector and to grow with the category as a consequence.
The notion of making voice calls over the Internet requires stability, bandwidth, and scale in order to have real appeal. Skype�s critical mass has brought two benefits. First, it means the company has a dedicated user base that is busily using and advocating the product. But second, and perhaps more significantly, Skype�s scale is probably its best chance of locking out competitors. Newcomers to the PC VoIP category will immediately identify Skype as the preferred supplier, without even considering its competitors.

The success of the Skype brand is a textbook case of technology marketing. The company has taken time to build a loyal user base before attempting to tackle the mainstream or mass market. While appreciating the different requirements of the early and mainstream markets, Skype has created a brand which can straddle both.


Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted Chris Grannell

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