Skype Eats More Young: RIP Skype’s software developers relations program.
Skype clients have APIs. Thousands of developers wrote Mac, Windows, and Linux software controlling a Skype client through the API. Call recording, desktop sharing, games, commerce; thousands of products. While Skype will maintain the API, the developer relations program around it is over. The commerce component: Dead. "Skype Certified" software: Dead. Support: Dead. Skype will continue to engineer the communications API. They won’t help you promote your software.
They won’t help you test and improve your software.
They won’t help you co-brand your software.
They won’t help you distribute your software.
They won’t help you sell your software.
They won’t help you process payments.
They won’t help you keep up to date on API changes. Not that they’d executed terribly well on these in the past. But that’s what they’re defunding. Presumably all that energy and money will go into a new program for developers. Skype moved some of its devrels people to new teams, some to a team working on the public version of Skype’s future cloud communications platform. Was there a good reason to kill off the old program before the new one was up? Skype won’t say. Will the old community fare poorly on the new platform? Does the current community of developers not build a million dollars in yearly value to the Skype brand? Do these developers have anywhere else to turn? This Dear John letter went out today to registered developers along with a blog post saying much the same thing. Subject: The future of Skype Extras Program
From: [Someone at Skype] Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:52:23 +0100 Dear Sir/Madam, I am contacting you on behalf of the Skype Extras Program. Unfortunately I have to announce that the Skype Extras program will be shut down, effective September 11rd 2009. Despite the incredible breadth of Extras developed for Skype, simply not enough people were using them to justify our continued support of the Extras program. It was a tough decision for us, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our time and resources to deliver our core products such as voice and video, expanding Skype among business users, and expanding Skype into mobile and other platforms. The following changes will be effective from September 11th onwards: We have decided that we will no longer certify new Extras. However, all existing Extras will stay certified until their expiration dates and all unused test tickets will be reimbursed. We will continue to distribute applications through the existing Extras Manager in Skype for Windows but will no longer add new Extras to the Extras Manager. All public API documents will continue to be maintained Skype will also support accessories via the Public API. The Skype Shop <http://shop.skype.com/extras/> will continue to support the currently listed Extras This decision also influences the payment terms that are currently in place. After December 11, Skype will no longer allow the use of Skype credit by 3rd Party Extras developers. A final invoice detailing the full amount of the gross revenue received from Skype users must be submitted within 45 days of this date. After the 25th of January, Skype will no longer be able to process publisher invoices. We understand the impact that this decision will have on our community. If you have any additional questions regarding the payment terms or any of the other listed changes please don’t hesitate to contact me. Best Regards, See also: Alec Saunders’ Go Big, or Go Home. But Please, Spare Us The Whinging?. tags: skype, devrels, extrasCall me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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