Skype on the iPhone ?

In Om Maliks interview today with Skype CEO Josh Silverman - here - Josh speaks about rich services and Skype "needing to be on every device..... with a focus on mobile".

So, native Skype clients on iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry? I think highly likely. iPhone has inherrent platform limitations however. You cannot run applications in the background. Skype is a service which requires constant background running to get maximum benefit.

I have no doubt they're working on it. Josh wouldn't be pushed beyond a "watch this space" comment, but how good and/or useful it turns out to be remains to be seen.

Om has a poll running on the interview page asking if users want to see Skype on the iPhone (a resounding yes will be the outcome). One of the poll options however is:-

Quote:

In this era of flat rate plans from mobile companies, does anyone need Skype?

... which I think completely misses the point. Skype is not about voice, it's about IM, presence, file-sharing etc. It's a different type of connectivity.

Reply from satphoneguy on Sep 13, 2008 - 03:58 PM

i hear this sort of thing a lot. but i do not know a single person who is not rather on the geeky side(such as myself) who thinks of skype as anything other than a way to make less expensive phone calls. for the vast majority people the only interest in VOIP is rock bottom pricing.

Reply from ianplain on Sep 13, 2008 - 05:53 PM

Hi,
I think this shows the different perceptions that people have of what skype is. To domestic users its a cheap phonecall to granny in Mongolia , But to business users it as Dean has said its IM Chat and file sharing. In a word collaboration. I use it with all my customers to discuss projects show configs etc, but never use it to call them.

Ian

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