Oh This One Had To Hurt

J.A. Watson today laid the smackdown in the direction of Skype when writing about the new Dell Video Chat application that became available yesterday which was developed by client SightSpeed for the world's largest computer manufacturer and e-tailing pioneer.

With a post like that one has to wonder if Skype is becoming the new Vonage, not because they're weak technically or because the service is bad (both Vonage attributes), but just as Vonage suffered from corporatization, it seems the eBay effect is starting to cast a cloud in the minds of many early adopters and industry watchers is in turn causing the watchers to go in other directions. While some of it is deserved, if not reigned in by the cooler heads at Skype, it could be Vonage of 2009 very quickly.

Personally I hope Skype pulls out of the perceptual nose dive. Vonage's woes and wrong turns have unfairly hurt the VOIP industry. In the Voice 2.0 space Skype has been really the golden boy and poster-child of many dreams and desires of developers and product developers. Having spoken to and with key team members there I know the passion, desire and vision remains true to their birth parents, but now, in the adopted home of eBay, Skype as a company is saddled with a lot of older parent thinking, something my gut says Josh Silverman is trying hard to correct, and was likely a key reason why Skype wasn't really a big part of eBay Live this year--as he's trying very hard to shape perception.