Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Fortunately, technology has moved on and there is an answer. Forget
about looking for a Skype dual phone with Linux drivers. I'm going to
donate my crummy Windows only sub-standard dual phone to one of my
friends still living under tyranny of Redmond. Then, I'm going out to
buy myself a cordless Skype phone that doesn't depend on the operating
system I use.
I may get the Philips VOIP841, a DECT phone that
bypasses the PC and plugs straight into your WiFi router as well as
your phone socket. Or I may disconnect my PSTN telephone service
altogether and just get myself a Belkin WiFi phone for Skype. That
means of course that I would have to get myself a SkypeIn account so
people could call me. Either way, I'm better off because I no longer
have to rely on my computer for Skype.
The reviews on both the Philips and Belkin have been very good and
other players such as Netgear have also entered the market space of
Skype without computers in the past year. Who cares what the operating system is as long
as the user can get Skype up and running.
So, the Skype dual phone makers can keep servicing their exclusive
Windows market. I know many Linux users who have recently converted
from Windows will gripe initially but when it comes down it there's no
point crying over not being able to use obsolete technology.
Come to think of it, maybe Skype is simply being astute in not pressing
dual phone handset manufacturers on Linux and Mac drivers. Perhaps
Skype realizes that the days of shackling its VoIP service to computers
makes about as much sense as shackling yourself to a proprietary
operating system.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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