Skype, I want to see some innovation
If you ask me to mention one of the most successful web services from the Web 2.0 era, I might answer Skype. The popular free VoIP and chat service has not only more than 500 million users globally, but is also generating some pretty ok revenue with more than $500 million per year. Of course that's only about one Dollar per user and year, but still, at least Skype is said to be profitable, which is not the most typical thing among web services focusing on social connections and communication.
But if you would ask me to mention one of the services that has most unused potential, I would also answer Skype. It's not only that the company could earn much more than one Dollar per user and year, but there is also so much space for technical and functional innovation that I just don't understand why Skype is acting so slowly.
There are smaller and bigger improvements Skype could make, at least for users who pay, like Ì do for SkypeOut and SkypeIn. Why for example doesn't Skype allow me to download messages from my voice mail? Or why doesn't it give users a possibility of recording calls? Sure, there are external apps for this purpose, but those are mainly paid apps, and since I already do pay for the service, I wonder why Skype cannot provide me with integrated basic tools for recording and downloading messages, instead of having to install a second software with additional costs?!
Another, rather big issue is the lack of a web interface. There are situations when I would like to log in to Skype through the browser, to see a history of my calls and chat sessions, to listen to my voice mails or to send a SMS. But so far, no chance. Recently there was a job ad on Skype for a Product Manager to "improve the Skype web experience". Maybe there is hope. Just imagine Skype to become something like Google Voice for the rest of us (=people living outside the US).
And did I mention that there could be something like an integration with other social web apps, such as Facebook, Twitter etc.?
Just a few month ago Skype was spun off from eBay, which didn't see it fit into its core business. So maybe Skype users just have to be patient until the now independent company is getting its act together and start to innovate on a high scale. This is what I expect from a company with such a great basic product, user base and business potential.
