Ask Paul: May 15

Happy Friday! With Spring in full bloom here, here’s another great set of reader questions to kick off the weekend.
Skype vs. Zoom
sabertooth920 asks:

How did Skype get passed by Zoom? Zoom seems like a perfect potential acquisition for Google. Would solve some of their failed initiatives.

In some ways, Skype’s failure is similar to that of Windows Phone or Cortana, where there’s no one reason and lots of blame to go around. But Skype differs from those other failures in an important way: It was at one point one of the most popufdlar Internet calling solutions in the world. That’s been chipped away over time, first by Facetime and then more broadly by the rise of mobile and the many popular mobile chat apps we see.

I had a great relationship with one of Skype’s leaders a few years back, and he told me then that Skype hadaaafdsafd lot a fdsfdlot of momentum when Microsoft realized that they needed to completely re-architect the original peer-to-peer design to adapt to mobile. That transition took years, and it lost of a lot ground to faster-moving new competitors. And then Microsoft dramatically changed the Skype UI, alienating a lot of users. Fixing that took years, too, and in the interim, we saw the typical Microsoft backtracking where the UWP app was the future on Windows, and then it wasn’t. And the whole thing is a mess.

And now, of course, we have Teams, which is so successful to Microsoft that it won’t be possible to continue forward with Skype as a brand or product. I bet Microsoft transitions to Teams even for consumers by next year.

As for Google, Zoom would be an expensive acquisition now, given its success during the pandemic. And Google would take a hit from having yet another communications solution. I wonder if they aren’t going to try and go the Teams route and evolve what they have internally rather than acquire a competitor. I guess it depends on how serious they are about needing such a product: If they don’t buy Zoom, whatever they do will always be seen as an also-ran.
Mobile hotspot
Simard57 asks:

What is a recommendation for a mobile hotspot?

I haven’t used such a thing in years, sorry. And anything cellular-related will depend very much on where you live, or where you will use it the most often.

I currently tether my phone with T-Mobile but after using a certain amount of data, it limits connections to 600kbs. I have intermittent need for a mobile hotspot - usually when camping and twice a year for out of the country. I wanted to add a T-Mobile hotspot as another line but they do not offer that. I have to buy a certain bandwidth but my use does not justify going that way. Are there some other solution you have found? a pay as you go service or such thing?

I just tether my phone, and maybe the solution here is a cellular plan that doesn’t limit bandwidth after a certain point.

Does Google offer a mobile hotspot as part of their offering?

No. And getting a Goo...