I've been letting the news about the management shake-up at Skype ruminate in my head for a few days. Clearly Skype wasn't making the numbers and eBay want it's investment to start paying off.

Me? I don't think Skype is going away any time soon. For all the various things I hate about Skype, mostly around not using open standards, Skype has the following things going for it:

Gerat Call Quality: Nothing else out there sounds as good as a Skype-to-Skype call. I've trie everything. but Skype wins on audio quality. There's a reason many podcasters use Skype in order to record.

Widely Available On Many Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Nokia N800 tablet, Wndows Mobile/Pocket PC. Not to mention all the Skype telephone handsets.

Works In A Wide Range Of Network Topologies: For most people, you turn it in, log in, and it connects. Regardless of your firewall/router settings.

Critical Mass Of Users: Many people who use VoIP use Skype in some form or another.

What do you think?