People always seem to think that things are priced according to the cost to the supplier, that is wrong. Goods and services are priced to what the consumer will pay for them. Skype are providing a service and people are (they hope) willing to pay for the convenience of having it on their phone. Welcome to the free market.
You're both wrong--and rehashing an old argument that got resolved a long time ago. Goods and services are priced based on both the supply side and the demand side, specifically upon the intersection of the supply and demand curve.
Not in a monopolistic environment, which due to Skype's strong network effect it may effectively be. The concept of a demand curve depends on multiple suppliers with different reservation prices.
No, there's still a demand curve. A monopoly has the power to set a vertical supply curve wherever they want (i.e. at the profit maximizing point) but the demand curve is still simply the demand curve.
Things in efficient markets ARE priced according to the cost of the supplier. But most markets are not efficient. This is not the fault of the customer.
> Things in efficient markets ARE priced according to the cost of the supplier.
Not if you're selling to humans.
Humans value things other than price and features. There are goods that will only sell if they cost considerably more than the cost of production.
The efficient market hypothesis may be true, but only if you consider all costs and benefits and even then, the value of the benefits is not static and you need to account for other things that people might do with their money.
Since Skype uses proprietary protocol and is the most popular VoIP service by huge margin, I wouldn't call the market entirely free. They almost have a monopol, sort of.
Sori nyt vaan mutta sun kannattais kiinnittää vähän huomiota mm. artikkeleihin.. :) "A protocol", "A margin", eikä "monopoli":sta tuu englantia ottamalla lopusta i pois.
( He's Finnish and his English contains mistakes that are typical for Finns, which is unfortunate, and could be avoided )
