Google Targets Skype

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Last fall’s acquisition of Gizmo5 gave the Google voice team a nice SIP client. However, they still didn’t have anything to match Skype’s crack team of AV codec developers – the team responsible for SILK, and so many of the other quality innovations that differentiate Skype in the market place.

Late last night Google moved to plug that gap, offering a cool $68 million to acquire publicly traded Global IP solutions.  GIPS supplies most of the major vendors in the communications industry, including folks like Nortel, Samsung, Yahoo, Webex, and AOL.  GIPS says that they will continue to be supported in the future.

The major vendor that’s not part of GIPS customer base is none other than former client Skype.

Piece all this together, and what do you have?  A pincer play by Google focusing on mobile IP handsets with Android, and next generation voice applications led by Google Voice with Gizmo5.  And potentially a potent future channel for distributing all kinds of Google products via telecommunications industry players.

Does anybody doubt that Skype’s in the bullseye?

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7 Responses to “Google Targets Skype”

  1. Ward Mundy 18. May, 2010 at 11:22 am #

    But still no SIP connectivity. I really don’t get it.

  2. Alec 18. May, 2010 at 12:14 pm #

    Ironic, isn’t it Ward? Not only that, but Skype seems to be acquiring a SIP braintrust with folks like Jonathan Rosenberg and Jason Fischl as recent recruits.

  3. Maxim 03. Jun, 2010 at 9:58 am #

    Everybody in the industry says that Google wants to control the core VoIP technology. Its bid for GIPS makes much sense in this respect. But what it means for the customers of GIPS, and some of them, by the way, are in direct competition with Google. It’s not unlikely they will be left with limited or no support at all. Google will use VoIP as a platform in its Android OS, Google Chrome and probably in its Google Apps. Google will need GIPS’ expertise and engineering resource to back its VoIP strategies.
    SPIRIT DSP which successfully competed with GIPS over all these years is now the only independent VoIP technology company on the market. SPIRIT dislodged GIPS from Skype and was named among the Top 10 VoIP leaders by FierceVoIP. Today SPIRIT offers its VVoIP platform on a variety of desktop and mobile platforms, supporting not only Google’s Android but iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile. SPIRIT offers a video server with 1000-channel capacity. Now SPIRIT is the number one choice for service providers, application developers, and telcos that are deploying voice and video communication services.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Tick, Tock, Core, Edge | Voyces - 18. May, 2010

    [...] Alec posted today about Google acquiring GIPS, and I see that pendulum in motion. For me, I see GIPs as being the quintessential edge company. If we didn’t have networks with edges (and more accurately, networks with narrow edges), GIPS wouldn’t be around. Google and Skype have an edge-centric world view. Incumbents, such as Verizon and BT, have a core-centric world view. GIPS is an important arrow in Google quiver, not only because it corners Skype into a media technology corner, but because it is an important part of the edge landscape. When added to other edge focused initiatives by Google, specifically the Android handset and Google Voice, it’s clear that the next generation battle-lines are drawn. Google is going over the top, betting hard on voice and handsets. Skype is controlling the browser, and betting hard on enhanced media like video. GIPS is a two-fer in a way; Google weakens Skype’s strategic control on enhanced media, while at the same time providing better voice experiences for its edge offering. That said, I’m not that worried about what Skype is up against. Skype has 450 million user accounts, and it’s a much safer bet that Skype has ten times more users than Google having ten times more users than Skype. Today, my money is on Skype. [...]

  2. GIPS acquired by Google. How does Abramson pick them? | Alec Saunders SquawkBox - 18. May, 2010

    [...] how long that relationship will continue. Over on the Voyces blog, I wrote that this acquisition is a strategic response to Skype, while Tom Howe rightly observed the subtlety that this acquisition is all about the migration of [...]

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    [...] Alec Saunders on Voyces.com: Google Targets Skype [...]

  4. Google eyes Skype’s pie, Skype hires pie guardians | insideCTI - 19. May, 2010

    [...] word out on the streets is that Big G is ready to challenge Skype. The folks over at Skype must’ve sensed something wasn’t quite right because about the [...]

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