Wal-Mart & Skype to Bring VoIP to the Masses
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | May 14, 2007 | Share This
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Today Wal-Mart and Skype announced a partnership to begin selling skype-certified hardware to U.S. consumers. Headsets, webcams, handsets and pre-paid Skype cards will soon be available in 1,800 Wal-Mart stores. From the press release,
“The addition of Skype Internet communications products to Wal-Mart stores comes at a time when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) adoption among U.S. households is growing rapidly. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association, 9.9% of all landlines in the U.S. were VoIP lines in 2006, and this will rise to 34.1% by 2010. In addition, Skype is the number one software-based VoIP application in the U.S. by market share, according to a March 2007 report by In-Stat.”
This is the first instance of Skype selling a unique label of “certified hardware” and pre-paid cards through a major retailer. Though the deal will help Skype grow into a mainstream service, it may come with it’s own aches and pains. As Om Malik writes,
“The downside of this mainstream push by Skype is that it comes with the baggage of expectations. It will be viewed as a low-cost telephony service, and mainstream users will expect 911 services, which if not available can cause legal headaches.”
Topics: Wireless & Mobile |