Skype Wants to Stalk You Everywhere

Imagine a world where everywhere you turn, a Skype client is waiting for you to use it. In the wake of the Consumer Electronics Show, the potential for VoIP service provider Skype to become natively embedded in a range of devices, from televisions to wireless devices to laptops to any other connected gadget — just went up. And in fact, that kind of techworld domination is just exactly what Skype would like to do.

It’s already making inroads to the vision thanks to apps for the iPhone and a new download for Google Android devices like the T-Mobile G1. The next wrinkle is having Skype as a remote button for the new generation of Web-enabled televisions. Manufacturers will have an incentive to do so in terms of a revenue share of any subscription money for the service.

The big opportunity on the television front, Skype says, is in video. About 24 percent of Skype calls are video-enabled, with that number spiking to 42 percent on Christmas Day.