PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped

PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped "The Likely Sale of Skype Will Be Another Kick in the Head to Old-Line Phone Companies Worldwide
By Robert X. Cringely
In high tech, the theory goes, advantage lies with the pioneers -- the first company to introduce a product in a new category. And that's true except when it is not, which is typically when the pioneers were too early, too expensive, or too difficult to use. In those cases, a second model generally holds, and in that one, the dominant company is a later entrant who simply does the task far better than it had been done before. For Internet searching, Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion."

I hadn't heard about the News Corp. scenario; interesting analysis, as always.