Just last week I was browsing through a piece in Fortune 100 and found about this thing I had never heard of before called a skype phone.The two geezers who began it sold their website to ebay and are now very wealthy because of it.You are probably wondering what I am going on about.A lot of people call it voip.This idea of calling someone for nothing over the internet is not a new one.
Basically then you will be able to chat to whoever you like whenever you like wherever they are in the world and can even see them if you have skipe and a web cam.There is a downside, however, and that is that it is most easily used over a broadband connection.Video is still in its infancy so you wont always get a good picture.
One of the worlds biggest sites Ebay has already jumped on the bandwagon and is flogging phones specifically for skyp.I guess it's been around for about a year already but it's catching on fast..
Some of the commercial phone companies are already selling voip phone service..The question on everyones lips is will it last the distance.Is it here to stay or will it have vanished off the face of the net within 12 months.
If previous experience is anything to go by then we can expect the big players to look at voip in minute detail.Then of course the feds will come in and regulate it.At the moment skype makes its money by charging people who phone land lines from their pc using it.
The next big thing which voip are making a cheeky move towards is the notion of web conferencing. Voice Over IP comes pretty close, except that it will be eventually typified as an internet phone service, ready to take that next step of video conferencing which gained a lot of attention years ago.
Audio and video are becoming possible for everyone nowadays-in this day and age especially with the massive success of youtube.Many people think video and audio will be a passing fad but all the evidence points in the other direction.
But one thing is for certain, it's not just hype they're muttering about, and only time will tell if the general public will catch on when they get their free skype download.We'll see in the next few years.