Skype comes to the iPhone

At 18 Aug 2007 22:59:54 -0600 Oxford wrote:

> no bob. skype to skype is free, you are talking about skype going
to a
> landline or cell phone...


IF your device has a Skype client or you use Mobivox. Again, Skype
to Skype isn't free on SkypeForiPhone, because the iPhone can't
connect to Skype except via cellular, and the service uses YOUR Skype
credits to connect from their service to your iPhone. (A Skype-to-
mobile call.)

> but i can talk to anyone in the world on my
> powerbook, to another powerbook, (whatever your flavor) for free.


No one is arguing with that. Most people, however, want a smaller
phone, not a laptop-sized one.


> it's
> like a free world wide walkie-talkie.


Yeah, we all know about VoIP- like most things you tout, it's not
exactly new.



> so skype doesn't work with my neighbor across the street?
>
> bob, you're an idoit.


As always, you miss the point. Of course Skype can call across the
street. The point is that it's usually redundant to use it for that,
since most people today have cellphones with free domestic long
distance and a large bucket of minutes (plus free nights, weekends,
etc.) So generally, Skype is used, at least on a (compatible)
cellphone, to get around cell providers' ridiculous international LD
rates.


> cell phones are set up on an expensive, "dated" infrastructure, and
they
> have to lie / cheat their customers to stay in business. 802.11
wipes
> them out. you'll see...
>
> http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/ichat.html


Did I miss the part of that link that says 'coming soon for iPhone?'


> http://www.skype.com/

We've already covered this- requires cellular minutes on the iPhone.
Try to keep up.


> Jajah for iPhone
>
> http://snipurl.com/1po8x

From that link:

"You will of course use your bucket of voice minutes in your AT&T plan,
but hey, it's free calls anywhere in the world damn it, so quit your
complaining!"

So, again, it hardly _replaces_ your cell service, if your cell
service is REQUIRED to use it does it?

> Skype for iPhone
>
> http://skypeforiphone.com/

Do I have to explain how that lousy service works again?

Like Jajah, it hardly replaces your cell service, does it?

> bob, face the music, you are terrified of what i'm saying.
>
> read this:
>
> http://snipurl.com/1po8u
>
> the Cell World is going to die! Just a matter of time...

Obviously you read my last post then- you just linked an article
describing T-Mobile's UMA service I described earlier. But again you
missed the point- rather than being "proof" that cellular "is going
to die," the article makes my point that an incumbent industry can
adapt new technologies to their business rather than be destroyed by
them.

For example, cellular has slowly been stealing business from landlines,
but so what? Most cellcos are owned by the elcos. The left pocket
is taking money from the right. Or, like AT&T, they can bundle wire
and wireless with "unity plans."

What do you do when VoIP starts eroding telephone profits? Leverage
internet service. I get landline and DSL combined from my Telco
cheaper than internet alone from my cable co. So even "free" VoIP
(for landline replacement) is a money loser for me- I just use VoIP
and/or my cell for cheap/free LD, and my Telco happily takes my
$30/month DSL fees instead of the $20 in LD fees I used to spend
monthly.

T-Mobile has taken the VoIP idea and pushed it to the next level-
rather than mess with juggling VoIP at home and cellular when mobile,
one phone works SEAMLESSLY across the GSM network and wi-fi, with the
same phone, same phone number, and no flaky VoIP software client, or
VoIP hardware to mess around with.

As the article you linked says: "...it’s absolutely ingenious. It
could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet
enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win
plays like that are extremely rare."
As I've said to you before- don't think VoIP will kill the cellphone
industry- they'll find a way to adopt it, adapt it, co-opt it or
improve it.
T-Mo did just that with it's UMA "Hotspot @ Home" service- provided
an excellent consumer value, addressed a common problem for cellular
(crummy reception at home/indoors) and beat the VoIP providers at
their own game.



--

"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures
or double as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for
all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with
ACTUAL bells and whistles." -Bill Maher 9/25/2003

---

› See More: Skype comes to the iPhone

Oxford wrote:
> the Cell World is going to die! Just a matter of time...

What's going to replace cellular technology?

WiFi?

I think not...

From http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/
Google had big hopes in 2005 and 2006 that muni-WiFi was going to be the
wireless broadband opportunity it was looking for. Pundits had speculated
that Google was poised to blanket the U.S. with free WiFi in order to
become one of the globe's largest Internet providers and one of the
powerful ad sellers. That strategy hasn't panned out as the muni-WiFi
market has hit a shakeout. As it turns out, muni-WiFi is difficult--in a
technological, fiscal and operational sense. Google's plan to unwire San
Francisco doesn't look like it will come to fruition as its partner
EarthLink will likely pull out of the deal. And players everywhere are
determining that there isn't much of a business case around simply offering
WiFi access to the masses.

Public access: "Weak" reason for muni-WiFi?
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/...ifi/2007-01-23
Muni-WiFi analyst Craig Settles has released a report claiming that public
access, or bridging the digital divide, will be "widely viewed as the
weakest financial pillar in the business case for municipal wireless" by
the end of this year. Mobile workforce applications will be muni-WiFi's
biggest ROI generator, according to Settles. While the prediction reads
like an obvious point, Settles is dismantling the political rhetoric that
seems to precede the launch of most muni-WiFi services in the U.S. Recent
tests of the muni-WiFi launches in Milipitas, CA, and Mountain View, CA
show how limited a $20 per month muni-WiFi service will be for some folks.
What's more, it usually only works outside.

Oxford wrote:

> Once Apple releases VoIP iChat, bye bye AT&T except unless you are WAY
> out of range of a normal 802.11 access point.

Uh, thats virtually 100% of the time I am outside.

Steve

Oxford wrote:
> DTC <no_spam@move_along_folks.foob> wrote:
>
>> Oxford wrote:
>>> it's still far cheaper than what Cell Phone companies charge, Skype (and
>>> other VoIP companies that come after) will wipe the slate clean of the
>>> greedy Cell Vendors. Their game is almost over, Skype on the iPhone is
>>> MUCH cheaper than the cheapest AT&T plan. That's the bottom line.
>>
>> Ref: "Cheapest AT&T plan"...are you referring to traditional long distance
>> dialing from a land line?
>
> no, cheapest iphone plan $59.99 + $10ish in silly fees. (450 rollover
> minutes)

If I am home, where 802.11b is, I can use a land line, so he price
comparison should be between Skype and a land line.

Steve

DTC <no_spam@move_along_folks.foob> wrote:

> What's going to replace cellular technology?
>
> WiFi?
>
> I think not...

they said the same thing about ethernet.



and 802.11 is simply wireless "ethernet".

good luck cell companies... you are going to need it!

-

Steve de Mena <[email protected]> wrote:

> >> Ref: "Cheapest AT&T plan"...are you referring to traditional long distance
> >> dialing from a land line?
> >
> > no, cheapest iphone plan $59.99 + $10ish in silly fees. (450 rollover
> > minutes)
>
> If I am home, where 802.11b is, I can use a land line, so he price
> comparison should be between Skype and a land line.

you can get rid of your landline and use dsl "without" a phone line
charge (believe it or not in modern areas)

so you'd just use your iphone as a landline through dsl.

sweet.

Oxford wrote:
> DTC <no_spam@move_along_folks.foob> wrote:
>
>> What's going to replace cellular technology?
>>
>> WiFi?
>>
>> I think not...
>
> they said the same thing about ethernet.


What did the infamous society of They say about ethernet?


> and 802.11 is simply wireless "ethernet".

"SIMPLY"???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH

Oxford wrote:
> Steve de Mena <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>>> Ref: "Cheapest AT&T plan"...are you referring to traditional long distance
>>>> dialing from a land line?
>>> no, cheapest iphone plan $59.99 + $10ish in silly fees. (450 rollover
>>> minutes)
>> If I am home, where 802.11b is, I can use a land line, so he price
>> comparison should be between Skype and a land line.
>
> you can get rid of your landline and use dsl "without" a phone line
> charge (believe it or not in modern areas)

Old news...several telcos offer a "dry" DSL line. But that not always
literally true. Some telcos will still provide you with a talk battery (a
"wet" line) that can only dial 91.

> so you'd just use your iphone as a landline through dsl.

With the exception of Mother's Day, telco based long distance has the
closet thing to 100% Quality of Service. It has no echo problems, no
latency, no packet sniffing security issues.

VoIP has none of that.

With the exception of AT&T Long Lines going down for a few hours about
fifteen years ago after a system upgrade, its been running 100% reliability
for many years before and after that occurance.

VoIP cannot compare, i.e. the big Skype outage a last week.

Oxford wrote:
> Steve de Mena <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>>> Ref: "Cheapest AT&T plan"...are you referring to traditional long distance
>>>> dialing from a land line?
>>> no, cheapest iphone plan $59.99 + $10ish in silly fees. (450 rollover
>>> minutes)
>> If I am home, where 802.11b is, I can use a land line, so he price
>> comparison should be between Skype and a land line.
>
> you can get rid of your landline and use dsl "without" a phone line
> charge (believe it or not in modern areas)
>
> so you'd just use your iphone as a landline through dsl.
>
> sweet.

Yes, I know people who have dumped their land lines. I have had mine
forward to my cell phone for a few years now. I mainly use it for
outgoing calls that will be long, such as work conference calls, where
I can put it on speakerphone and not worry about a battery dying out.

Steve