Simon’s Blog

Skype has recently signed an exclusive deal with Intel to make ten-way conference calls run only on Intel-based hardware. Skype will limit the maximum number of callers on a conference call to five on systems based around AMD CPUs. The length of time of exlusivity in the agreement isn’t in the public domain. However, I think we can assume it’s going to be at least one year, and less than five. My guess is that the period of exclusivity is probably 1-2 years, subject to Intel delivering on its side of the deal.

For whatever reasons - be they to do with marketing, technology, or services - Skype clearly sees a benefit in an exclusive Intel tie-up. While Intel and Skype will no doubt tout some supposedly superior capabilities of Skype on Intel, what they’ve done is to open up an opportunity for Skype’s competition. If you were a software company that had a VOIP offering that can do ten-way conferencing on Intel and AMD - you now have a new opportunity for getting plenty of attention for your product. The story might look something like this:

VOIP software company NewCo today announced a major release of its software that catapults it ahead of market leaders Skype. At a stroke, NewCo has become the clear leader in multi-way conference calls using VOIP software. The CEO of NewCo said, “With Skype, you simply can’t guarantee to set-up a conference call with more than five people. That turns out to be pretty limiting in many situations.” With NewCo’s new product, the company says it’s easy to set-up a multi-way conference call that doubles the number of participants compared to what Skype can guarantee to deliver. Skype have been unable to say when they will be able to catch up with NewCo’s technology, but it’s thought that it may be years until they have equivalent functionality in their product.

Of course, all that pre-supposes that there is a VOIP sofware company out there that could do ten-way conference calls. It’ll be interesting to see if any of Skype’s competitors, either current or emerging, see the Intel/Skype tie-up as an opportunity, rather than a threat.