Skype generated news when it went down last week. There is also Techcrunch analysis on how competitors profited from the Skype’s downtime.

This also brings one more important point not covered in any analysis- how fast skype has moved into essential category. If you look into the past, electricity took a lot of time moving into cannot-live-without-it category. Next good example was computers which was faster cycle into the category followed by internet, then email and now Skype in a very short timeframe has attained the ‘essential’ status. Lot of smaller companies which have distributed work force are totally reliant on Skype for connecting their workforce. These companies had to scramble to find alternatives.

Which is the next ‘essential’? Any guesses?