There is, for some reason, a continuing debate about whether VoIP is too complex for consumers. This news should pretty much end discussion: Wal-Mart is selling Skype-capable equipment and pre-paid cards in 1,800 stores. Wal-Mart is the world's biggest retailer, of course, and has a well-earned reputation for driving prices and costs ever downward. It's probably not insulting anyone too terribly to suggest that the typical Wal-Mart customer will not be, for instance, attending WinHEC. So Wal-Mart's selling of Skype-branded goods is a pretty strong indication that the comfort level with computer-based VoIP technology in the general public is fairly high.
For more about Skype and Wal-Mart:
- read this article [1] from CRN
Links:
[1] http://www.crn.com/networking/199501783