Microsoft’s Skype struggles have created Zoom and Houseparty moments – Interest overview on Skype’s involvement since Microsoft bought it

To be honest I can’t remember when I last used Skype, and also up to last month I knew nothing or little about Zoom. Yet a bunch of us got going with Zoom and have been enjoying using it.

This article reminded me of the peer-to-peer days of Skype and looking at where Microsoft is now focussing on Teams I’m just recalling a few short years ago when Yammer was the flavour of the day (I think Yammer is still alive on life support somewhere).

Even Whatsapp today (bought out by Facebook) is nowhere near the innovator that it was years ago. It really seems that when someone founds a product, and that’s all they do, it really develops well and takes off. Then it gets bought out… and it stagnates.

Which is why my own opinion is ‘be wary of the all-in-one service’ because it’s not easy to back out of at all. Combining a few best-of-breed products can mean mitigating your risk if one disappears (like the excellent Wunderlist todo manager). You can more easily replace a single product. Of course if you are the vendor an all-in-one service is what you want to try sell…

See Microsoft’s Skype struggles have created a Zoom moment

#technology #collaboration #videoconferencing

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Zoom, Houseparty, and others are capitalizing on Skype’s failures