Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X provides screen sharing, WiFi access, chat features and Twitter-like mood messages
Tonight out at the “ShowStoppers” event at MacWorld in San Francisco, Skype announced the new 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X. The new version will apparently be available for download tomorrow, January 6, 2009, from Skype's website.
Context & Ripple Effects
Skype's 2.8 Beta for Mac, unveiled at MacWorld's ShowStoppers event, is an early data point in a long feature-escalation arc on the Mac platform: screen sharing introduced here resurfaces in Skype 5.2's group screen sharing two years later and again in Skype 8.0's HD video and in-call screen sharing, while the WiFi access feature foreshadows the Skype WiFi rollout to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The release also shows Skype borrowing social gestures — Twitter-like mood messages — as it competes for attention beyond pure telephony.
First-order effects
- Mac users gain free access to screen sharing, WiFi hotspot connectivity, richer chat, and mood messages starting January 6, 2009 — directly expanding what Skype can be used for beyond voice and video calls.
- The MacWorld launch signals Skype treating OS X as a first-class platform rather than a Windows afterthought, forcing Apple-centric users to weigh Skype against iChat for collaboration.
Second-order effects
- Screen sharing on a consumer VoIP client pressures rivals — iChat, WebEx, GoToMeeting — to defend the low end of remote-collaboration pricing, since ad-hoc desktop sharing becomes effectively free.
- Bundling WiFi access into the client pushes Skype further into the paid-access business, extending its revenue model beyond calling credit toward connectivity itself.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, communication clients converge into general-purpose presence-and-sharing platforms — a trajectory visible later in Skype for Business' Outlook integration and cross-platform Video Messages — blurring the line between telephony, conferencing, and messaging.
- Feature parity across desktop and mobile OSes becomes table stakes, setting up the multi-platform expectations that later define unified communications and eventually enterprise-grade offerings.
The trend: Consumer VoIP clients steadily absorb collaboration features — screen sharing, WiFi access, social status — turning single-purpose calling apps into unified communication platforms.