Walmart To Sell Skype Gear
Just when you thought internet telephony was dying a slow death from Verizon poisoning, Walmart steps in with an entire section of the store devoted to Skype electronics. Somewhere, we can hear Vonage weeping. Anyway, from MSNBC:
"We think there will be a lot of Wal-Mart shoppers who will not be familiar with Skype," said Don Albert, general manager for Skype North America, a unit of eBay Inc.The Skype section will feature pre-paid calling cards as well as cordless phones and other goodies from Motorola Inc., Plantronics Inc., Logitech International SA, Royal Philips Electronics NV and so on. —MEGHANN MARCO"We have worked with Wal-Mart to describe Skype simply in the display," Albert said, noting that the products may vary from store to store, depending on the market. "In more tech-savvy areas, you may see higher-end Skype certified hardware."
Wal-Mart to sell Skype phone gear [MSNBC]
(Photo: Ryan Fanshaw)
Attention, Walmart shoppers! This ad is for you! Woo hoo!
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Comments:
@mopar_man: Skype has to make money, but I'm sure they won't miss yours. Please be an elistist somewhere else.
About time for me, I need easy access to Skype hardware. Europe has had it for ages.
Skype has to make money
They can't do it without whoring themselves out to Wal-Mart? I'm sure they'd probably be better off without Wal-Mart squeezing them to lower their prices to what they want.
It could be that Skype is focused on getting people to use the service, and to do that, they're willing to use "Skype-certified" hardware as a loss leader. Wal-Mart is not a bad choice.
mopar_man,
"I'm sure they'd probably be better off without Wal-Mart... "
They would be? Oh, wow, what idiots! You should totally be like their CEO, so they would totally be like better off!
Now I can talk to the walmart pantry rats for pennies per day.
I welcome this move as the prices I have seen for Skype phones are way too high in my opinion. Now I can go to Walmart and find more affordable gear. (My headset is on it's last leg so I hope they hurry!)
Walmart has been selling VOIP usb telephones for quite some time now. It is that generic Chinese stuff, but it says that it works with skype and it does. They did a poor job of branding it on the shelf, or even explaining what it actually does.
I think once they start selling Skype branded merch, along side with instructions explaining exactly WHAT sykpe actually is, then it might catch on with a lot of folks that are borderline tech savvy.
@Justinh6: I think once they start selling Skype branded merch, along side with instructions explaining exactly WHAT sykpe actually is, then it might catch on with a lot of folks that are borderline tech savvy.
I'm not even sure most Wal-Mart shoppers are borderline literate.
eeeeeh - what has eBay got do with Walmart?
they own Skype after all.....
And yet another brand slips into the grips of Wal-Mart. Too bad Skype, I had planned on supporting you in the future.