Skype available from the App Store
As of today, it is possible to download the Skype app for the iPhone from the Apple App Store, and although it is obviously a new offering, it’s a good start.
The iPhone joins several other mobile platforms on which Skype is already available, namely Nokia, Windows Mobile, and Google Android. The next big name to be joining this crowd, after the iPhone, will be the the Blackberry, with a RIM version due in May. The new Skype app for Apple mobile platforms will also work with the iPod Touch, although Touch users will need to add a standalone microphone or a set of headphones with a built-in microphone, according to a PC World story. There are plenty of those available.
The iPhone Skype app appears to be very easy to use. It has the feel of an iPhone app but maintains the basic flow and visual clues from the Mac and PC versions of the software. It even imports your larger platform contact list from the Skype site the first time you you use the app. If you don’t yet have a Skype account, you will need to sign up for one, and you can do that directly from the iPhone or Touch.
Experienced Skype users will recognize at least the utility of the Skype icons at the bottom of the iPhone page: Contacts, Chats, Call, History, and My Info. These functions correspond at least roughly to similar items available from the menu of the Mac and PC Skype applications. In fact, the “My Info” data is imported from your account along with the contact information when you first log into the app.
There are some disappointments. For now, at least, the iPhone app can only make calls over Wi-Fi. That may or may not change in the future. Our guess is that it will not. But users do get the convenience of being able to use the iPhone as a handset when they are in a Wi-Fi area, and for many iPhone users that means at home. It is generally less expensive to use the paid Skype plan to make calls to non-Skype numbers than it is to do it on AT&T 3G. You can also chat with your Skype contacts, and join conference calls, though you cannot initiate one.
All in all, the Skype app is a useful one. If many of your calls are to Skype friends, and you are normally in a live Wi-Fi zone, the app will save you some minutes. If you don’t mind paying for and using Skype credits for calls to regular telephone numbers, the Skype app will also save some of your minutes. If you have Wi-Fi at home, you might even be able to purchase fewer monthly minutes from AT&T as a result of getting this app. But, for now, SMS, video and proper conference calling, file transfer, and voicemail are absent from this first Skype iPhone app.
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