Saturday, April 09, 2005

Voice-over-IM a Skype-Out killer?

Voice-over-IM a Skype-Out killer? by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- Microsoft's New MSN Messenger 7.0 has been launched with some enhanced PC-to-PC audio capability. The giant from Redmond says the new 7.0 is built on a peer-to-peer technology that will render it less susceptible to unwanted firewall block.As voice-over-IM expands with better quality, I cannot help but wonder - given the huge installed base for these utilities - what that does to existing, free user-to-user VoIP services such as SkypeOut.Skype I could see, but with voice-over-IM, why download and install another program if you mainly want to use IP to call your friends? I mean they are probably on one of the IM services already?Do I have a point here? Will enhanced voice over IM hurt the softphone service providers? ...