Skype now available for Android phones
You've been asking us for it - and now it's here. Skype is now available on a wide range of Android phones, so you can save money and stay in touch when you're out and about. Visit skype.com/m on your phone to download, or read on to find out what's inside.
Context & Ripple Effects
Skype first put a client on handsets with its October 2007 mobile push, and the intervening three years have been spent following the smartphone market rather than leading it. The platform it is now chasing is ascendant by every measure in the corpus: Gartner had Android at the top spot among US smartphone operating systems and third worldwide by August 2010, and Quantcast's August data credited it with roughly a quarter of US mobile web browsing against iOS.
The launch arrives during a busy stretch for Skype itself: a confirmed executive exit ahead of its planned public offering, and confirmed scrutiny of both Skype and Google by India's security agencies as that country's crackdown on online communications firms widens. Syndicated coverage flags the launch's most telling wrinkle — US users are confined to Wi-Fi calling while much of the rest of the world gets calls over 3G.
First-order effects
- Android owners gain free Skype-to-Skype calling plus cheap international rates outside their carrier's billing system, distributed via skype.com/m rather than an app store — an immediate dent in carrier international-call revenue wherever 3G calling is permitted.
- The US Wi-Fi restriction keeps American carriers' networks out of the equation, sparing Skype the confrontation it would face if the same build shipped with 3G calling stateside.
Second-order effects
- Carriers in markets where 3G Skype works now face VoIP undercutting voice minutes on their own networks, forcing them toward tiered data plans or VoIP-blocking terms to defend revenue.
- With Android holding the top US position per Gartner, rival VoIP providers are effectively forced onto the same platform to stay visible, turning Android into the battleground where mobile calling margins get competed away.
Third-order effects
- The split between US Wi-Fi-only and global 3G availability shows carriers still shaping what 'open' platforms actually permit — nominal openness on Android filtered through operator economics.
- Government scrutiny of internet communications, already visible in India's treatment of Skype alongside Google, points toward VoIP being regulated and monitored as core telecom infrastructure rather than a fringe application.
The trend: Voice is migrating from carrier-controlled minutes to internet-delivered services that ride whatever handset OS wins, with operators and regulators — not the platforms — deciding how far that migration can go in each market.