The times they are a-changin'

In Arun Sarin's opening remarks just now at the Vodafone meeting, the last slide was a discussion of disruptive technology issues from Vodafone's perspective (VoIP, WiMAX and the foray of global internet brands into Vodafone's mobile content patch). Two years ago this would have been a non-issue, but after the events of the past few weeks we are clearly living in an age where IR/PR handlers wouldn't dare send an executive into the ring without a clear company position. I'm not sure I agree with their take on things, such as rates of change. It's also interesting to hear Vodafone's ardent commitment to mobile/3G ("no distraction/conflict of interest from stagnating fixed business") followed by a statement that consumers want services, not technologies.

Speaking of rates of change, my ongoing tally of Skype minutes, shows that over the past week since Meg and Niklas tied the knot, daily minutes have averaged 47.3m minutes, versus 44.1m in the week before the deal. As I have said before, I still don't understand why daily traffic isn't higher given the growth in the user base, but certainly relative to historical levels, something is happening. Imagine what happens when we start seeing SkypeBay ads on network television!