2007-04-29

Income generation?

I downloaded yesterday the new Skype Beta version 3.2.0.115

I immediately noticed a difference with the previous version 3.2.0.82, see the pictures below.


Although in both cases contacts are sorted according to their online status, in the new version two categories are mixed up:
  • Online contacts
  • Contacts with call forwarding
And they made the second category look very much alike the “online” one: same colour instead of the previous orange.

It could of course be a programming mistake, but the combination of changing the colour AND the sorting makes me think this is deliberate. Some inattentive persons will think their contact is online, and will place the call, and … the contact person will pay a SkypeOut communication without the caller noticing!

Not a problem for the caller of course, although disturbing somebody who isn’t online isn’t always very advisable.

But sure this could generate some supplementary income for Skype.

I still hope this is a mistake, and that they will correct this. I believe the sorting should indeed be according the “online Status”.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Here is my opinion, when people hook a phone number to SkypeOut they want to be reached, even when they are not on-line with Skype, by people calling them via Skype. In other words, they want to project an on-line presence while being over the phone.

When I am on-line with Skype I will prefer to talk Skype to Skype as the audio quality is much better than any phone system.

BitWine (www.BitWine.com) for instance a new feature - Skype Extra - in the new Skype 3.X, supports only Skype to Skype calls for people who want to buy or provide Paid Services over Skype (In this case for BitWine users’ personal Income Generation). The reasons are clear: better audio quality, video capability and payment control and verification. All of which are provided much better when doing Skype to Skype and not Skype to Phone call.

For more information and questions about Skype, here is a person and for you :), even a Black Belt in Skype, http://www.bitwine.com/advisors/billcampbell

Jean Mercier said...

Hey Noni,

I agree people with Call Forwarding are saying: you can call me. However, i know they probably aren't in front of their computer, perhaps they are even sleeping. So, unless it is very urgent, i never call a person with call forwarding.

And Bill Campbell ... yes i know him and know he has a black belt in Skypology. ;-)

Ferocious said...

income generation indeed, and so annoying that I actually reverted back to Skype 3.1
would be interesting to see the download-volume of oldversion.com or oldaps.com
Skype's really going the wrong way with the price-increases of skype-in (+40%), Skype connection fees and this latest attempt to trick people into forwarded skype-out calls (most probably to mobile phones!)

Jean Mercier said...

Filiep,

thanks for the comment!

There still is Skype to Skype calls ... they are free ;-) (grin)