A spokeperson from Skype indicated that video is one of the directions Skype is looking. A second direction, with a more humanitarian view is finding a way to create a cashless economy that enables some nationals (i.e. China) to be able to use the Skype Out service without the ability to use their own currency.
That’s noble.
Video would be cool to see but I wonder about adoption rate. The most common complaint about Skype and other PC to PC software is “I don’t have a microphone” — which is an odd complaint considering they are so readily and inexpensively available. Heck, some monitors come with microphones.
The video component of Skype is supposed to ready for the next release, but I’m curious which CODEC the programmers will decide to use: Will it be a proprietary one, or an MPEG-4 or H.323 variant ? Music-on-hold would also be a handy little feature, not necessary though.