FaceBook deeply integrates Skype - Microsoft, the Ladykiller of Landline

Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the poor man’s cottage and the palaces of kings.

(Pallida Mors aequo pulsate pede..)

Horace Odes, I, 4

Facebook “awesome” [pronounced with a Californian Surfer’s accent] was the deep integration of Skype into Facebook as stated in the article “Facebook Introduces Skype Video Calling”, published July 6, 2011 1:10 pm by Nancy Gohring, IDG News, PCWorld and “Facebook’s ‘awesome’ product is video chat from Skype”, published July 6, 2011 by MOLLY MCHUGH, Digital Trends. Here is a video of that, and I quote “awesome” moment:

On the surface, this appears to be nothing more than Microsoft extending its empire into Social Networking, being as Microsoft had earlier purchased Skype as stated in a previous blog article entitled “Microsoft aquires Skype for US$8.5 billion - Miley Cyrus's Fly on the Wall Drops it Like its Hot”.

So to be clear, not only am I late in writing this post, but the announcement is not awesome. My SOLE claim to fame, is that I saw this coming, as evidence from the above blog post. GigaOM CEO OM Malik, however, points out that Skype Calling will benefit tremendously from Facebook’s seven hundred and fifty million (750,000,000) customers.

In the process make VoIP and Video Calling synonymous with Skype as stated in the article “Why the Skype-Facebook deal is awesome for Facebook”, published July 7, 2011, 10:00am PT By Om Malik, GigaOM.

Still, it is a follow-on of the nascent trending in Video Calling I had noted was on the fast rising plane back in 2010, according to, ironically, Google’s own 2010 Zeitgeist of Most Searched Terms for 2010 as plainly laid out in my blog article entitled “Chatroulette, FaceTime and Smartphone Video Calling  - The Thomas Crown Affair”.

Please note too, Microsoft is also a major investor in Facebook, as I noted in my blog article entitled “Google vs Facebook - Age of Empire and TRON Legacy” and the article entitled “Facebook Credits and Online Gaming - The Pied Pipe's Revenge in the Age of Empire”.

Hence Microsoft comes out of this deal smelling like a rose, as stated in the article “Microsoft will make out thanks to Facebook, Skype deal”, published July 6, 2011 by MOLLY MCHUGH, Digital Trends, which may have greased the Skype integration into Facebook.

To quote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “It would have been fine when you guys were an independent company. But now that you guys are with Microsoft, there’s a sense of stability that we’re going to be with a company that we can trust”.

But to us Telecoms People, the full integration of Skype into Facebook and eventually everything else if Microsoft has its way, is more confirmation that the transition to all Data Networks is happening as I had prognosticated some time ago and nicely distilled in my blog article entitled “KDDI's Broadband WiMax and Wi-Fi Municipal Network - Ruckus's Japanese Flight of the Navigator”.

To be honest, however, GigaOM CEO and Founder OM Malik article entitled “When will the (traditional) telephone hang up?”, published July 7, 2011, 9:30am PT By Om Malik, GigaOM does a better job and takes my prediction further.

Not only is the a time coming when Landlines will be extinct as my blog article entitled “LIME Landline Rental Increase and HomeFone XPress - The Dead Zone is the Sum of All Fears”, but The Dead Zone (1983) Theory is spot on in the Caribbean, if the current slated expansion of Wireless and Wired Broadband continues as stated in my Geezam Blog article entitled “LIME, Digicel and FLOW – Leading the Global 4G Adoption Curve”.

Mobile Telecoms was obvious and in my mind a bit tame a prediction, as Telecom Provider LIME is experiencing this firsthand, having had to raise their Landline Rental Rates, due to fallout in Landline usage.

Something I had predicted back then now brought to life in graphs, showing Mobile usage on the rise and Landline usage in the US of A on the decline. A phenomenon now all to familiar to Telecom Provider LIME ever since Telecom Provider Digicel came to Jamaica in 2001 as stated in my blog article entitled “Digicel and Wimax - Great Expectations Part 1”.

Please note I am not claiming credit for predicting the demise of Landline but rather for The Dead Zone (1983) Theory, which originally had to do with SMS (Short messaginsg Services) or Text Messaging as first published on my blog article entitled “Telecom Providers and SMS - The Dead Zone”.

Skype’s deep integration into Facebook indicates that the pervasiveness of Facebook, now confirmed to be seven hundred and fifty million (750,000,000) members strong, is itself a sign of the shifting tides of Landline towards Data in the US. Much as is already happening in Jamaica with HomeFone Xpress.

But as it is Microsoft that is pulling the strings, this effectively makes them The Ladykillers (2004) of Landline.