Skype App coming to iPhone on Tuesday, Blackberry in May

It's legit; Skype is coming to the iPhone on Tuesday, BlackBerry devices in May. While we've seen plenty of Skype-capable apps on the iPhone, the poor, often echo-infected calls should be easily bested by the official Skype App that doesn't need the extra audio transcoding workaround required by the existing crop of unofficial apps. The Skype app works over WiFi only (not over EDGE or 3G data) and supports calls to SkypeOut contacts in addition to many of the other features you've used from the desktop client. iPod touch owners will require earphones with an embedded mic to talk. CNET has a hands-on preview of the App just as long as you can muster the energy required to hit the read link below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Mutairy @ Mar 30th 2009 7:58AM]

and skype was available on most phones since 18 months ago . .. whats the breaking news?

[P.A.C Man @ Mar 30th 2009 8:26AM]

I don't know if you heard, but the iPhone is THE cool device these days. It just passed the 30,000 app mark, which is 10,000 more apps than Windows Mobile, according to James Blamey, group product manager for Microsoft Mobile Communications Business.



App Store Breakdown (currently 30,883 apps)

6,227 Games
4,277 Entertainment
3,245 Books
2,571 Utilities
2,145 Education
1,695 Lifestyle
1,384 Travel
1,305 Reference
1,138 Productivity
1,093 Sports
955 Music
811 Navigation
808 Healthcare & Fitness
685 Business
589 Photography
585 Finance
490 Social Networking
413 News
309 Medical
158 Weather

[phobic99 @ Mar 30th 2009 8:42AM]

Ok I like my iPhone and all but the simple fact of the matter is that Windows Mobile phones simply can do more. Most of the apps in the app store are complete junk. How many versions of iFart do we really need? Seriously.

And what do those useless stats have to do with Skype?

[jakem @ Mar 30th 2009 8:44AM]

That's very impressive PAC Man but the real breakdown is a little less surprising:

15,441 iFart
15,441 iBoobs
1 Skype

Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's all about quality, not quantity.

(BTW, Skype on my N95 works over 3G)

[P.A.C Man @ Mar 30th 2009 9:07AM]

I don't know about Fart apps. Haven't looked at them, but here's a list of my favorite apps and games. I find them very useful.


Pandora
Shazam
PanoLab
RJDJ Album
Remote
Loopt
Fring
AirSharing
Televison
Bloom
Things
Jott
SpaceTime
Stanza
Urban Spoon
Files
ShoZu
Yelp
ColorSplash
VNC Lite
Simplify Media
i.TV
Snow Reports
Google Earth
Sketches
WritingPad
Instapaper
Tweetie
Camerabag
Facebook
Evernote
Call A Cab
Phoneflix


My Favorite Games

Rolando
Fieldrunners
Trism
Super Monkey Ball
Toople
Trace
Falling Balls
Aurora Feint II
Tap Tap Revenge
Platypus
Labyrinth
MotionX Poker
Flick Fishing
Hero of Sparta
Brothers in Arms

[Kelmon @ Mar 30th 2009 9:11AM]

@P.A.C Man

Please stop - these comments have very little to do with the article and are rather annoying. Stay on the topic.

[cg0def @ Mar 30th 2009 9:16AM]

@jakem and yet the iPhone is the most successful smartphone ever made ... that alone should make you reconsider your logic. Sure it's not perfect but to be fair neither is your n95 and if nothing else the iPhone at least has the innovation factor which is something that noone can say about the N95.

Anyway Skype should have been available for the iPhone and RIM and long time ago. I really don't know why ebay was dragging their feet. It's not like Skype is an awfully successful business anyway. ( not talking about the merits of the software )

[JZ @ Mar 30th 2009 10:01AM]

I dont get it, how can a mobile be the most succesful if its being outsold by the competitors. Yes sure the iPhone gave the touch-screen a new flare yet in a market smaller then 10% and not even being the biggest in there has in the end very little meaning.
As well I fail to understand on one hand how anybody manages to count the apps for other platforms and also as long as there is no quality/quantity breakdown its rather meaningless. As long as I can´t get my mobile being controlled by my ICT department instead of Steve-O there is no way I can even consider to step over to something different. Also as long as I cant get apps developed for my mobile and my company allone, see previous statement, it renders a smart-phone useless. (I wonder btw how a mobile that can´t handle more then 1 app can be called smartphone actually).

That said, nice start though shame it requires WiFi to be actually used. 3G is pretty common over here but open WiFi spots less, as well the extra drain on my battery doens´t make me to happy.

[jakem @ Mar 30th 2009 10:45AM]

@cg0def: Whether your claims are correct or not (the 1st gen iPhone was a featurephone and the iPhone 3G is barely a smartphone) is beside the point. Crap apps are crap apps and the AppStore is full of them. There's no point crowing that your platform has more apps than another if few of them are worth buying. A more telling statistic than the one PAC Man is banging on about is the average lifespan of an iPhone app. Most of them are used once or twice and then discarded which is hardly an indication of quality.

Also, I don't deny that my N95 doesn't have issues and that comment wasn't meant as a dig at the iPhone. I was simply pointing out that Skype works over 3G on other platforms and probably should on the iPhone as well. Presumably this is an artificial limitation imposed by the iPhone SDK but hopefully one that will be overcome some day.

BTW, I'd happily argue that the N95 was just as innovative as the iPhone (if not more). How many other dual-slider phones are out there because there were a hell of a lot of touchscreen phones available when the iPhone came out and most of them didn't lack the most basic features.

[Paul A. Chapel @ Mar 30th 2009 11:07AM]

@jakem, who said: "Crap apps are crap apps and the AppStore is full of them."


Remember that argument the next time someone claims that Windows is better than OS X because it has more apps. How many apps do you use in Windows more than once?

The simple fact is that no matter what hurdle that Apple jumps with the iPhone, you Apple haters will still find some way to skew the argument.

[jakem @ Mar 30th 2009 11:39AM]

Thanks for proving how silly you are Paul. I didn't say that iPhone Apps are crap because there are a lot of them. In fact, I didn't give any reason why so many of them are crap. All I said was that a large number of apps in the app store are crap and that PAC Man's gloating was misplaced.

You obviously agree with my assessment or you wouldn't be so keen to try and use it to attack Windows. Be careful, your fanboy is showing and your arguements are weak.

[Frankenstein Black @ Mar 30th 2009 12:16PM]

MEH! Where are the Sling and SiriusXM Apps? I sense an Apple Cock block coming since these apps could "potentially compete with current and future Apple offerings" (i.e. Apple TV and iTune store). Watch...

PS Well Sling and SXM, there is always Android. Just sayin...

[Chris @ Mar 30th 2009 3:21PM]

@ P.A.C Man/Paul A. Chapel:

I don't know how many times you're going to bring up this argument, but I have one question - Do you keep all of those "stats" on file, simply for the sake of arguing on Engadget? That's...pretty sad. Whatever, if that's what you'd rather do than enjoy your iPhone, then I've gotta wonder who exactly you're trying to convince here...

[Mark Anderson @ Mar 30th 2009 3:24PM]

@PAC Man

Sure, the iPhone has tons of apps but what's that got to do with the fact that Skype's been out for WinMo and S60 for months?

[collide007 @ Mar 30th 2009 4:46PM]

@JZ You can have apps developed and distributed to just your companys iphones through the Ad Hoc system.

Nobody can refute the success of the app store, but it must be said that these number fights are getting rather tiresome. True there is a lot of crap, but there is probably the same amount of crap for other phone platforms. It's just that the app store is the only place theyre available so its more visible. Equally there are some really high quality apps aswell and I havent seen any mobile platform with the same quality of games as there is available for the iPhone. Okay, so other phones can do more than the iPhone, but that's not why is popular. It's doing what it can do well that has contributed to it's success. I've used winmo phones, and the experience just does not compare, and symbian doesn't even enter the ballpark.

[VanillaSpice @ Mar 30th 2009 8:38PM]

The number fights are indeed meaningless ... except as a mildly interesting indicator of dev support and slash or ease of development. But mostly meaningless.

But the claims that the App Store is 'full of crap' are far more meaningless and betrays a prejudice. EVERY operating system can be said to have a collection of applications that, in entirety, is full of crap. OSX, Windows, any smartphone OS you like to name, the vast majority of apps are just crap. But of course there are plenty of good ones, too.

Anyway, there is no objective measure of crapness, so banging on that the App Store is full of crap, is *precisely* the same as saying that while I know everyone has their taste, blue is objectively the best colour.

[liv @ Mar 30th 2009 7:58AM]

Finally... the iPod touch can fully replace the iPhone as a phone... my life is complete *yawn*

[From My Cube @ Mar 30th 2009 8:48AM]

except that we still need wifi for it to work...i still want to know if an external GPS will work with the new bluetooth

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 30th 2009 8:06AM]

BREAKING: Skype App coming to Windows Mobile one year ago, iPhone on Tuesday, Blackberry in May.

[LJKelley @ Mar 30th 2009 8:09AM]

Actually Skype for Windows Mobile has been out for more than a year. More like almost 3, as I remember putting it on my Windows Mobile PDA. In addition no limitations to only WiFi with Windows Mobile.

[atm @ Mar 30th 2009 8:14AM]

Thanks for being so informative, we all really needed to know that. /sigh

[Paul A. Chapel @ Mar 30th 2009 8:14AM]

BREAKING: Skype App coming to Phones that have operating systems that don't suck monkey balls like Windows Mobile. The iPhone on Tuesday, Blackberry in May.



There, I fixed it for all the Apple Haters. Enjoy.

[Hamidxa @ Mar 30th 2009 8:18AM]

Paul.

And the version for the iPhone is still crippled, just like everything else iPhone-related.

All a dumbed down, watered down, version of the superior WinMo version.

Then again, no one claimed the iPhone was a smart phone, because that would be an injustice to the name.

[Geoff @ Mar 30th 2009 8:24AM]

what I find funny is that hamidxa comment is that he almost seems to take offence to the statement an iphone is a smartphone and while I'd agree with anybody saying apple limits what you can do with smartphone... and that is wrong of them in maybee most cases a typical smartphone limits you to what you can do also. Which is why there are additional software available; eg. instant messenger, voip

I'd also like to know how the iphone/ipod version is a watered-down version of the smartphone one and not, perhaps, the first version of something that could be expanded in future.. Not that I find alot limiting in the details I've seen?

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 30th 2009 8:26AM]

Guys, don't reply to Paul's comment, please. I sure will still ignore him like a disease, I wish he would ignore me too.

[Paul A. Chapel @ Mar 30th 2009 8:35AM]

It is interesting to me that this post talks about the Blackberry too, and yet, not one of the Apple Haters, besides Saad even mentions RIM. I guess they're okay with Blackberries being better than Windows Mobile, just not the iPhone.

Anything BUT THE IPHONE!!! Oh no, where's my crucifix and silver bullets! Hamidxa to the rescue!



And to everybody that doesn't understand, I embarrassed Saad a while back when he was defending the Pre in a post about games. I dugg up an old quote where he was talking about how much he liked his games on his Zune and totally owned him. Now he's obsessed with me.


It's ironic that Saad thinks I'm a troll because he's one of the biggest trolls to ever grace this forum.

[phobic99 @ Mar 30th 2009 8:45AM]

@Paul

I'd say you and Hamidxa are probably the two biggest trolls/fanboys on this site. You for Apple and Ham for MS (especially Windows Mobile).

You guys on the respective payrolls or what?

[GB @ Mar 30th 2009 8:56AM]

Forum? Where?

[cg0def @ Mar 30th 2009 9:19AM]

and how is the fact that a 3rd party application got delayed for years Apple's fault? It's not like you can write your own client for a closed network ...

[Paul A. Chapel @ Mar 30th 2009 9:20AM]

Sorry, try again, I'm not an Apple or Microsoft Fanboy. I have one MacBook and about three working PCs. I currently don't own a working iPod, but I think the iPhone and iPod touch are fantastic and just find it hypocritical that the the PC people try to bash it so much. Even people who work at Microsoft like the iPhone.

I also hate Vista, but love XP. I've been using Windows 7, but really ain't impressed. It's what Vista should have been, if it were released five years ago.

[Martin @ Mar 30th 2009 10:21AM]

I don't see why any of you are bashing any of these products, as they're all excellent. We just have different tastes. Grow the fuck up.

[Paul A. Chapel @ Mar 30th 2009 10:37AM]

@Martin

Dude, you're speaking to a bunch of people who sit at home all day waiting for Engadget to post positive articles about Apple so that they can rush in and bash Apple users and accuse Engadget of bias. They're not the most rational bunch of people.

[bryanapa @ Mar 30th 2009 8:14AM]

Too bad you have to have the app running to receive calls. Guess I'll have to keep my wi-fi skype phone around for the time being.

[cg0def @ Mar 30th 2009 9:21AM]

yeah that really sux but the problem should be resolved with the introduction of the new OS provided that the Skype developers chose to use the push notification service. We'll see in a couple of months.

[Paul @ Mar 30th 2009 11:21AM]

Funny that you're the only one posting about this MAJOR issue. This makes the app almost worthless for anything but casual outgoing usage. Since the WiFi disconnects after a while when in standby, you can't even activate the app and put the phone to sleep and expect to receive incoming calls/messages.

WRT using notifications in iPhone OS 3.0, perhaps this will work (assuming it is actually released this year). Depends on the latency time (how long it takes for the notification to travel from the Skype servers to your phone) and how quickly the phone can switch to Skype, activate wifi, sign in, and receive a call. Probably not quickly enough for voice calls, I'm guessing, but undoubtedly find for texts.

[BeyondtheTech @ Mar 30th 2009 8:16AM]

Ever since the much beloved "Skype To Go" feature ever came out from these guys, I don't even have a need for an app, let alone a mobile device for it, as it works over landlines and any cell phone. However, if I see traces of video conferencing in the application, I'll be stoked - it'll have to be for the next version of iPhone when it comes out (this summer?).

[Geoff @ Mar 30th 2009 8:17AM]

YES, finally this is happening. Not saying that im+ isn't ok, but official skype support is AWESOME!

[Geoff @ Mar 30th 2009 8:18AM]

well bryanapa.. There are ways of backgrounding lol
but I think apple should have included this in fw v3

[skyblaze @ Mar 30th 2009 8:27AM]

but where are the blackberry screencaps?

[cg0def @ Mar 30th 2009 9:23AM]

the blackberry version probably still doesn't exist outside of the lab ...

[Macca @ Mar 30th 2009 8:27AM]

The only thing that could impress me is if they released a jailbroken version with online video call support. Sure, it would be a tad annoying only being able to have a one way video chat [them see you or you see them] but nonetheless a very welcome feature.

[Martin @ Mar 30th 2009 10:24AM]

I'm sure someone would come out with an iPhone case that has a built in Video Chat Super Mirror on it, so you could have it both ways :)

[inteller @ Mar 30th 2009 8:31AM]

can't wait until this is hacked to allow skype over 3G.

[Geoff @ Mar 30th 2009 9:24AM]

eh. I'm sure a newer version will be released to allow that... I have an ipod so either way I'm good
lol sorry

[NoAndThen @ Mar 30th 2009 10:29AM]

I can't remember what it's called right now, but look around on cydia and there's an app that tricks "wifi only" apps into working over edge/3g. Doesn't work 100% of the time, but it's better than nothing.

[Temmy @ Mar 30th 2009 11:40AM]

It's called VoipOver3G. Works like a charm with Fring!

[MikeWard1701 @ Mar 30th 2009 8:38AM]

Posting from a Touch HD.

So.... you finally got here?

[insignificance @ Mar 30th 2009 8:58AM]

boring...

[Kelmon @ Mar 30th 2009 9:16AM]

Meh, might as well copy/paste my comment from the CNet article in case anyone cares...

This is definitely an application that is going to benefit from Push Notifications when they finally arrive later this year. Until that happens the application is going to be of relatively limited benefit since people will be unable to call you (Call Forwarding to your iPhone's phone number can be used but will cost you Skype Credits). Further, if the application cannot run in the background then you'll be unable to access you iPhone's other functions during a call, which definitely puts it at a disadvantage when compared to the normal phone application.

[jakem @ Mar 30th 2009 10:50AM]

I presume you didn't post from an iPhone then.