Just read over on CNET (which of late has been very much a news junkies dream site) that Skype updated their Windows Mobile client. I have a Windows Mobile phone on Verizon and actually have used the original client with success in the past. It was one of those overlooked “real Skype” applications that never got any attention, but was there. The question is does the new version work over 3G, as the old one, on Samsungs didn’t on Verizon’s CDMA EvDO rev A network.
Over at ZDNet, Matt Miller hat tips Jason Harris‘ Twitter tweet about the Skype Lite client for some, not all Nokia N and E Series devices. I’ll have to try it out on my Nokia E71 when I get to London today.
My take. Skype saw the value of what iSkoot was doing and developed their own client. Clearly the “invisible” mobile play of Skype is starting to become more visible. Persistence Presence is where Skype is heading. They have clearly won the IM game that used to belong to AOL, MSN and Yahoo, and none of those folks are at all doing anything any longer to challenge them, with only Gizmo Project publicly innovating. (See http://www.gizmocalls.com even if it has crappy Adobe Flash audio) Skype won’t feel any heat from the big three for some time. Two are in the middle of management chaos, while the third can really care less about what Skype does (MSFT) as it still drives sales of Operating Systems of the desktop and by having a Windows Mobile client also drives Mobile sales of Windows Mobile 6.1.
Companies like EQO are dancing with disaster. Fring and others are laying off, or trying to go an advertising model route, another road to nowhere long term. Only companies with a clear vision (i.e. client Palringo comes to mind) of where to take their business are going to survive in the long run, especially when you see companies like client Nokia launching integrating Chat and Mail Messaging platforms, and services like Google creating more hooks into GTalk all the time.
Oh yes, and then there’s Apple and their iChat app, which to this day doesn’t exist on the iPhone, simply to not take SMS revenue away from the carriers. Skype doesn’t care about the carriers, except the few they partner with. And those partners see the value of partnering with forward thinking companies.