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January 07, 2008
VoIP is Alive and Well in 2008: A few points about the 2008 VoIP Industry
- Skype is no longer Disruptive. Until eBay acquired Skype in September, 2005, Skype’s viral growth invoked fear in the heart of Telecom executives around the world. These days if someone mentions Skype to the same telecom exec, at best they shrug their shoulders. Skype’s future growth no longer scares anyone. While Skype is still very much “alive”, even if it was declared “dead” from the perspective of viral growth, I estimate Skype has a half-life of at least 7, maybe 10 years. And with such a half-life, most people will never know Skype died since they will continue to use it until something better comes along.
- Social Communications, the MashUp of social media + Internet Communications represent a new multi-billion dollar opportunity for the VoIP Industry to focus on.
- Arbitrage opportunities will continue to exist in telecom and VoIP will be continued to be used to exploit this. There is still money (lots of money) to be made in “cheap VoIP.” Billions of dollars will continue to be earned over time by companies who know how to operate efficiently in a marketplace with razor thin profit margins.
- The SME market for Hosted VoIP services continues to flourish and will grow during 2008, and stronger than other friends have estimated.
- The Enterprise VoIP market will also continue to flourish and grow during 2008.
- Synchronous and Asynchronous communications will continue to blur during 2008 and will be felt first by my friends who are active on social networks like Facebook and twitter.
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While this is still just Janaury, I'm already thinking about the concepts I will be sharing during my speech at Spring 2008 VON taking place in San Jose March 17th – 20th. If you would like to attend as a blogger – just drop me a note. I look forward to seeing everyone in San Jose.
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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook
Tags: VoIP, Social Media, Social Communications, Facebook, VON, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on January 7, 2008 08:57 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
no longer Disruptive? today i saw 11 M skype users at the same time.
social media + VoIP? my mother still don't know what is facebook but she know how to call my skype because it simple. i dont understand about the fuss around social media/facebook i still prefer to read Jeff blog every day by going to his personal web page, i check my facebook every 4-5 days...facebook is more like dating web site mix with memo/calander from friends...
i dont think that skype will die so quick,but in fact all the other voip providers are dying (vonage and so) one by one, i think that this year the revolution will start, google mobile will be in the market in late 2008 with open source and all the reset (nokia and so) will follow,the mobiles will have better processor so skype will be able to run on them and they will kill the SIP once and for all (maybe not kill but will definitely be pain). i belive that skype will present voip in the future same it doing today!
another revolution will be the video conferencing, i guess that any smart LCD maker will implement builtin camera with LAN interface so my mother could talk with her grandson and they could see each other (over skype ofcourse :) ).
Happy New Year to all.
Posted by: MR. Pe Sky at January 8, 2008 08:10 PM
Yes, the Hosted SMB market is alive and kicking. I actually get kicked by potential customers a few times a day :-)
Posted by: Moshe Maeir at January 7, 2008 06:32 PM