Thursday, January 20, 2005

Skype physical product

Yesterday I received a box from Skype, something I wasn't expecting. Inside was a nice new year greeting from Mr. Zennstrom, and a gatefold box containing two disks with the Skype application (one for me, one for a friend), two headsets, a bunch of Skype stickers and "Skype me" cards. I assume that this is not just a one-off for "Skype friendly" analysts and journalists/bloggers, and I'm dying to see whether these boxes start turning up in music stores, supermarkets, or on the London Underground. Is this the beginning of a visible marketing campaign from Skype, and therefore of a push towards a new wave of adoption, more mass-market in nature?

On a separate, but related, note, having a phone conversation with someone a few minutes ago, they relayed an anecdote which rang my bell. Apparently, there is an 81 year-old granny somewhere in Australia who spends her entire day Skyping children and grandchildren around the world. Maybe Skype's marketing pitch should be "Your granny is using it, why aren't you?" or "Skype - it's not just for pimply geeks anymore."

No comments: