Niklas Zennström, CEO of Skype, recently said they are working on Skype on embedded devices.

This isn’t surprising. Many ADSL modems and routers are having processors powerful enough to run Skype. Many of them are running Linux (like Linksys) and Skype is available for Linux. The convergence there is easy to see: Modems and router manufacturers won’t have a difficult task to get Skype running on their boxes. They just need to add a jack to plug a standard phone and you have the possibility to use Skype:

1. from a normal easy-to-use phone;
2. without requiring the PC to be on (something most users don’t do yet);
3. and at Skype prices, free when calling or receiving a call from another PC or such a “Skype box”.

Technology savvy enough can use Skype as their main phone, but other users still find the PC to intimidating for this. But such a box removes the PC hurdle when using Skype.

SkypeIn is 30 Euros / year, this is 2.5 Euros / month. It gives you a normal phone number for other people to call you at local rates from anywhere in the world. Sounds like easy to sell, but Skype and their hardware partners won’t need to invest a lot in marketing: The millions of Skype users will quickly install these boxes by their parents!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 at 8:00 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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