Skype made its official debut on the iPhone today and announced plans to make its way to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones in May, bringing the total number of operating systems it has a presence on to six. In addition to Windows Mobile, Java, Symbian and Android, AT&T’s handset and BlackBerry’s carrier partners will be the latest in Skype’s mobile attack.
The Skype app will work only over Wi-Fi so that it doesn’t steal minutes from AT&T. Skype makes its money through supplementing its free services with paid options, including subscriptions and Skype Out and Skype In to make receive calls from certain areas. The service has become one of the fastest adopted technologies in history. Skype adds around 350 thousand users per day, racking up about 20 billion minutes each quarter and capturing 8% of the international calling market. It took the company 4.5 years to get the first billion minutes, but based on its growth rate now, COO Scott Durchslag anticipates the next 1.5 billion will be achieved by the second half of the year. Skype’s goal, he said, is to make Skype everywhere – move calls from any device in the home or mobile.
“Applications flow like water across these different devices and networks,” Durchslag said in a CTIA press conference. The ability to do that unlocks important benefits to consumers, including much richer experiences like video Skype, easier access everywhere and seamless device integration and more choices – consumers buy a data plan and get a selection of best-of-breed apps and premium services.
In terms of mobile, Skype’s approach is three pronged. First make the service downloadable across all major operating systems – today Gartner says it covers 90% of smartphones, second, make it preloaded on devices and third, partner with operators. There’s a reason operators come third, Durchslag said. Selling the carriers on offering the Skype app is no small task, considering the service is disruptive to their own voice business. Without the Wi-Fi restriction, consumers would have no need for a calling plan. They could subscribe to a low-cost data plan to access the Web to use the Skype app instead. Durchslag said Skype is in talks with operators across the globe and has been met with a range of reactions to the service – some carriers are more receptive than others.
Skype’s relationship with UK-based carrier Hutchison 3, which offers a Skype phone in association with iSkoot, paints a pretty picture for carriers. 3 has sold 500,000 units of their Skype phone and have had a 20% higher margin than average, Durchslag said. It is also bringing in new customers it couldn’t attract without the handset – 79% are new to 3. These customers are talking a lot too, using 1.6 million Skype-to-Skype minutes per day.
“Hutchison found it had a much lower cost to acquire and a much lower churn rate,” Durchslag said. “We are reaching our hand out to include them in this end-to-end story to include our vision of Skype Everywhere. Those that take our hand will prosper.”
While the best known and most successful, Skype isn’t the only wireless app to support VoIP. Others include Truphone and NimBuzz, already available on the iPhone. Google is also becoming a key player with its Google Voice service, its feature-packed unified communication service. This week, Zer01 is launching a wireless VoIP service, which will use interconnect agreements with GSM and UMTS carriers to access their wireless data pipes, over which it is delivering its IP voice service.
