General: Skype Celebrates 5th Birthday

Who would of thought it, 5 years old yesterday. As Stephen Fry was suggesting the other day, Skype has become as much of a verb as Google has, by making VoIP accessible to the masses. I love it - convenient, cheap and multi-platform - what's not to like? It's definitely much more than a well packaged SIP client.

There weren't any major launches happening at the event, as it really was celebrating their birthday. The latest Skype Phone, via 3 Mobile was being shown around (review on Trusted Reviews today), and a beta of Skype 4.0 was being shown off too. No ability to record conversations/videos yet, but rather a host of UI improvements to make things a little easier.

Probably the most interesting thing at the event was this Asus pre-release Skype Video Phone. This is designed to hit the market of people who don't know how to install and setup Skype on a PC (which can be a little hit and miss) or merely can't get their head around the idea that the PC is a multi-functional device.

It has a 7" display, wireless, built in ethernet and speaker as well mic/speaker inputs should you wish to use a headset. It also has a battery should you wish to unplug it and give someone a tour of your house, or retreat to the bedroom to show off your stamp collection. There is no keyboard and the device is designed to be as simple to use as possible with a limited selection of buttons - select your contacts and dial them. Something I forgot to ask, is how on earth you add new contacts to your list, or control things such as your Skype subscriptions (I have the unlimited calling package at around £3 a month IIRC). Maybe they haven't thought about this either?

I couldn't help but wonder if the device was simply a 7" EeePC crammed into a different shell. At an estimated £199 this is pretty pricey and anyone in the know would sooner just buy an EeePC for around half the price, giving you a keyboard for instant messaging too. If they can reach that critical price point of £99, I imagine these selling quite well - I'd probably consider it myself. There is a lot to be said for having an independent device for particular things, such as Skype calls - especially with the number of sound conflicts I appear to be getting with my Ubuntu/Mint Linux install.

So, Happy Birthday Skype, I look forward to seeing what the future holds!