Hi, quick question read article on zdnet that talks about alternatives to Skype now that some users are getting fed up with Skype and the recent news that Microsoft bought Skype have some users thinking they should leave Skype and look for another alternative to VoIP. In the article the author brings up the other choices and mentions sip (Ekiga, iptel and other sip providers) and also xmpp. Now here is my thing with people looking for an alternative to Skype shouldn't the best choice be sip as it is open, very simple to use and has the ability to call any other sip provider network, meaning you can call someone from Ekiga.net even though your sip provider is pbxes.org. Second question if sip is not number 1 alternative to Skype, why isn't it? I mean it basically very similar to Skype in that a user only needs to download sip client install the client and then register your sip address and tadaa you can instantly make calls to any other sip user and also send instant messages to other sip users. To me that is the same thing as Skype only thing sip is better b/c its open source and sip to sip no matter where you are in the world is free and you don't have to pay for it to call someone in another country as long as they are using sip its free. With that said is the reason for Skype's popularity even though there are alternatives, advertisement? Is Skype popular because it was advertised all over and that's why they have such a large user base? And If thats the case then should sip like ekiga be more advertised now to make people around the world know there are options to voip beside Skype?
Also another point that I would like to make about sip is that it is more mobile and more people slowly but surely are starting to use sip clients on there smart phone, allowing cell phones with data plans to utilize voip. Also I feel with the new integration of an native sip client in android 2.3 os (gingerbread) on android cell phones that more people will start to use sip widely. Another thing to point out is that if google by chance uses google voice (which to me is a pbx system a little similar to asterisk when it comes to controlling where you want your phone calls directed to) in terms of sip portability by allowing google voice users to have there own sip address hosted by google (i.e: xxxxxxxxx sip voice google com) would also allow sip to boost numbers but that would all have to be up to google and how they decide to keep enhancing google voice.