Copycats

In other words, they want to copy how Apple executed Facetime video calls so that they can make their own video calls just as simple.

Missing the Boat

Too bad, Mr. Skype. You'll be missing a very very big boat.

the followers

I could see the next batches of HTC and Android phones will have front camera and, of course, with Android 3.0 that runs only on the newest hardware. If Apple put a Swiss knife in their iPhone, HTC and Android phones will be the "me, too."

Wonder what iPhone 5 is going to have? A built-in projector? or built-in Flash accelerator chip made by Apple/Adobe? I'll not surprise if Steve incorporate custom Flash chip in the iPhone down the road. The last time I heard Steve saying that they were not going to make video iPod, a phone.... etc .... yeah, right.

They know what they're doing. For a company that provides a complete communication platform like Skype, their bread-and-butter lies in tying their users to their network and milking them for money wherever possible. If they were to interoperate with other 3rd party networks, then nothing would be tying their users to that particular network, and they would expose themselves to competitors. It would have been extremely surprising to see a Skype client that could have video calls with people using 3rd party clients. Today, Skype has a captive userbase of tens of millions of users, even reaching ubiquity in certain parts of Europe, and they would be extremely foolish to throw away the advantage they have in network effect thanks to their popular usage.

@WiseWeasel

They know what they're doing. For a company that provides a complete communication platform like Skype, their bread-and-butter lies in tying their users to their network and milking them for money wherever possible. If they were to interoperate with other 3rd party networks, then nothing would be tying their users to that particular network, and they would expose themselves to competitors.

Right. And the problem is what? Skype spends a lot of money on their software, network, etc. Why should they just allow anyone to come in and use their service? So they can be driven out of business?

And FaceTime is just another normal Apple play. They are minor players in an area, so they try to push some 'open' standard to which they can then claim everyone else is proprietary.

However, in the areas where Apple is the proprietary standard, everything is kept close to the vest and closed, for fear of people moving to other platforms or the like. You know, like their DRM for music and videos. Or the entire AppStore.

@testudo

Obviously Apple protects their interests in a similar way. I'm not making a value judgment on Skype's decision, simply stating that it makes good business sense, and is not unexpected in any way. Companies exist to make money and continue existing, not to spread love and marshmallow-flavored unicorns. Apple has their reasons for doing the stuff they do, and Skype has their own. I'm just saying that this decision by Skype is not unusual in any way.