I opened my mailbox today to find the current copy of the Economist (yes, I still enjoy a few publications on paper) with the cover story “How the internet killed the phone business” (paid subscription required to read article). It covers eBay’s purchase of Skype, of course, but starts with a great definition of disruptive technology:
The term “disruptive technology” is popular, but is widely misused. It refers not simply to a clever new technology, but to one that undermines an existing technology — and which therefore makes life very difficult for the many businesses which depend on the existing way of doing things.
A term originally coined in The Innovator’s Dilemma, disruptive technology (or what Clayton Christensen later renamed “disruptive innovation”) is becoming increasingly pervasive. What Skype is doing to the traditional phone companies is like what blogs are doing to advertising and PR firms, or what SOA is doing to large systems integrators: forcing them to change or die.
In all three of these examples, and many more, there will be no putting the genie back in the bottle. And except for the traditional companies who are being forced to reinvent themselves, who would want to go back when there are such obvious benefits for the consumer? These days, I make all my international calls via Skype at greatly reduced rates; I use this blog as a my primary marketing medium at practically zero cost and with the added benefit of it being a creative outlet; and I consistently recommend to clients that they consider SOA as a way to avoid spending millions of dollars on custom integration solutions.
Embrace the disruption: resistance is futile.
What happens if all Internet Service Providers Block Skype and there are sofware available to do this.
When we use skype especially in developing countries we are taking away too much of bandwidth from whatever is available to them.
Foun d this in Yahoo News
Jay