Skype  12% of global international calling minutes take place on Skype  At peak times, there are up to 23 million people on Skype  Skype users made 36.1 billion minutes of Skype-to-Skype calls; over a 1/3 of these were video calls ( during fourth quarter of 2009)

Skype Version 4.2 adding new features  Call transferring  Accessibility provissions  Skype access for Wi-Fi spots  Screen sharing

FeatureMagicJackVonageSkype Usable with your computer off NoYesYes (with skype phone) Video chatNo Yes Send and receive SMS text msg No Yes Three way conference calling Yes (2 calls need to be inbound to you) Yes (up to 9 people conference calls) Works with dialup connection Dreadful qualityNoYes okay quality Emergency 911 calling Yes No Keep your current land line phone nr NoYes (usually)No

Skype Pros  Calls to other Skype users are free  Video conferencing  Cheap rates to call land lines  Cheap international calling Cons  Variable voice quality  No 911 service  Computer must be on to make calls  Scant technical support

Demonstration If you haven’t already logged onto Skype and would like to follow along with us.. Do so now.

The Future of Skype

Resources  Hinchion & Sons. (2009). Skype future gazing. Vimeo. Retrieved from  New York Times Company. (2010). ConsumerSearch.com. Retrieved from  Page 17 Media LLC. (2010). SpotCoolStuff.com. Retrieved from