I just started digging into the facts around the new Skype QIK video app and candidly, given the kind of expertise Skype and the QIK team have with video streaming, I would have expected MORE.
Let's start with a side by side comparison of some of the more popular messaging apps that offer video messaging/chat:
For starters, it doesn't stream. It's a download using a very old school approach of store and forward. Services like Glide leverage the cloud and have an almost INSTANT ON feel. Second Skype's 42 seconds isn't that long message but it is longer than SnapChat's 10. It also doesn't offer text messaging, but it does include group messaging, likely from GroupMe. The other thing is for all the efforts around the cloud with Azure and Office 365 at Microsoft you would think there would be a cloud approach more deeply integrated, ala what Glide is also doing. The Glide approach avoids the running out of storage on a mobile device problem by putting it all up above the fog, in the cloud. You would also think given the efforts behind Windows Mobile they would have looked at that approach too….
So, what do I think this really is.. JUSTIFICATION.
You see, Skype bought QIK and GROUPME but really, other than incorporating the assets into the various interations of Skype, they haven't done much with what they bought.
So now what's left of those teams get to show their new works before they all likely end up working at Yahoo for Jeff Bonforte.