I just heard that Skype (remember the company getting ready to be outlawed in China?) has official plans to acquire the mobile video service Qik (via: Mashable).  $100 million later and the deal’s sealed.

Skype has been a desktop VoIP service for quite a while.  I’ve used it many times and more recently I’ve used it to chat with my in-laws who are missionaries in Haiti.  Skype has also released apps for iPhones and Androids for internet conversation, although it hasn’t been until recently that they released video capabilities in their iPhone app.

Personally, I’m waiting for the Android app to have video capabilities.  Maybe this acquisition will hasten the development.  I though the feature was promised before the end of the year.  What I’d like is the ability to use the front-facing camera on my HTC Evo to video chat with those who are using the desktop version.

How’s the quote go?  ”Robots need love too” is what the Hootsuite video says!

I recently became distracted by a headline on the Reuters website about Skype and a possible Chinese ban.  Skype has had my attention in the past few weeks because I’ve been sitting round waiting for the Android app to allow free video chatting.  When this headline hit my email I was instantly interested.

China is an interesting animal these days.  Sometimes we hear about strides they may be making in free enterprise then other times we hear stories like this that make us rethink the direction they’re going.  I still remember the headlines before the Beijing Olympics talking about free speech and Internet.  As much as people like to think that China is becoming more free, I still think there is a long way to go.

Let’s just look at their latest telephony incident in this article because that is what caught my attention this time.

One of the reasons the article gave for the possible ban on Skype is the protection of the big three telephone services offered in China.  Skype, and VoIP services like it, offer free calling between users, thus saving the users long distance charges.  Many people can call internationally as long as both users are using Skype.  China may be seeing this as taking business away from the main telephone services.

How has competition from VoIP services affected American telephone companies?

In my opinion, I think it has benefited everyone involved.

Customers are finding prices a lot more reasonable and long distance boundaries are pretty much falling, at least within the states.  Now even the telephone companies themselves, along with cable companies, now offer much better pricing plans.  Many plans are now unlimited.  Customers no longer have to watch the clock to make sure they aren’t thrown in the poor house because of their phone bill.

Telephone companies have learned to deal with the competition by innovating and improving their own technology and operations.  Companies either went out of business or competed.  It was this competition that lead to the improvements.  Capitalism encourages competition, improvements and innovations.  This is the way America runs (or ought to be running).

How will stifling the competition for the big three affect services in China?

Personally, I see the lack of competition stifling innovation and improvement.

If you have a company who has no competition, they won’t have any reason to innovate.  Their customers won’t have any other choice but to use their services so why would they invest money in coming up with new technology?  The answer: they wouldn’t.

If there is not any other companies undercutting a business, why would they go out of their way to find ways to cut costs or improve the offerings?  Same answer: they wouldn’t.

Also, the basic idea of freedom is being obliterated.

Once again, we have a country with a poor record for freedom proving to the world that they are not ready to change.  Our president can go over there to check things out as much as he wants, but if they keep this kind of Communist garbage up, there isn’t much sign of change.  Basically, China’s free because they have the freedom to sell their wares in our WalMarts, but when it comes to competing in their markets, we get the proverbial raspberry.

I know they aren’t an American company, but you get the idea.

So what do you think about this rumor hitting the mill?  Is competition from a company such as Skype a healthy thing or something to be threatened by?  You know my opinion!

A Guest Post by Brett Barner of GodlySheep.com and @Godlysheep about Trillian Astra.

Instant Messaging (IM) clients are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. Though IMing seems so ’90s, it is still useful today. The big issue with IM clients is that unless you and all of your friends get together and decide universally what IM service you all want to use, you’re stuck having 4 different accounts. That, and you’re still using the screen name you came up with in high school (CreedFan4Eva) because you don’t want to take the time and effort to create and tell your friends of your new, more adult, screen name. This isn’t a problem for all your high school chums, but if you meet someone new, you cringe giving it out. That’s where Trillian Astra steps in, and then organizes even more.

Instant Messaging:

The founding function of Trillian Astra is its IM feature. It is it’s own IM network, but also supports other IM networks in case you venture away from just AIM. Here’s a list of the IM networks Trillian supports in addition to it’s own network: AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MySpace IM, Windows Live, and Yahoo!. Not only can you have multiple clients open at once, you can also have multiple screen names under the same client open at the same time. This comes in handy if you have different screen names for different reasons. (i.e. personal & professional). You can also set all your status as “Away”, “Invisible”, “Offline”, or “Online” with the click of one button. (or you can set them individually)

Trillian also offers video/audio support and file transfers. It supports Skype, which you can add as one of your services as well. You can use Skype as an IM service as well as a video and audio client. The downside of using Skype with Trillian is the amount of system resources it requires to run Skype alongside of Trillian. Trillian manages Skype, but if you’re concerned about processor speeds, Skype eats up a lot of your RAM, even when it’s just sitting there.

Email:

If you set up an AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live, or Yahoo! in Trillian, you will get the option of setting up the email notifier that is associated with those accounts. If you have another kind of email service, POP3 and IMAP. A small notification window will pop up in the bottom, right-hand corner of your screen to notify you of your incoming messages. Click on the link, and Trillian will whisk you away to the new message through your browser.

Social Networks:

If you’re hip to Facebook or Twitter, Trillian Astra’s got you covered. With Facebook, Trillian will notify you of people’s status changes, and profile updates. If you or a friend’s wall has been written on, it’ll let you know. If you receive a Facebook email, it’ll notify you of that as well. My favorite part of Trillian’s Facebook tool is that it also notifies you of your friend’s birthdays. This has helped me out since Facebook moved the birthday portion down on its homepage.

Trillian’s Twitter tool gives you up to you news feed of who you are following, direct messages, and you can tweet directly from the contact list with TinyURL support. Trillian also supports multiple Twitter accounts.

Trillian is typically running in my system tray and helps keep me up to date with it’s great, OS X Growlish, notifications. You can even have multiple accounts with Trillian. For example, my wife and I have our own accounts with saved personal settings. There are a lot more other features as well, with widgets and different skin settings.

Trillian Astra is free with the option of a pro version. Trillian is only available for Windows right now, but is close in development for Mac and iPhone users. There is also a web version that doesn’t require a download.

Screenshots:

Visit: Trillian.im