Updated Yahoo Messenger app now live in App Store, 3G video calling bonanza awaits you
Not stoked on Skype or FaceTime? Looks like you've got another option, bub. That overhauled Yahoo Messenger app we told you about 48 hours ago is now live in the App Store, offering multitasking …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is Yahoo's second run at turning its desktop messenger into a voice-and-video product — back in December 2005 it added Skype-style voice calling to the IM service, and the overhauled iOS app now extends that playbook to 3G video on the iPhone, complete with multitasking support.
The timing puts Yahoo squarely between two rivals: Skype had just widened its mobile footprint with an Android app on October 5, 2010, after offering free PC-to-mobile voice and video calls since mid-year, while Yahoo explicitly frames its release as the third option next to Skype and Apple's FaceTime.
First-order effects
- iPhone users gain a 3G video-calling client outside Apple's and Skype's ecosystems, giving Yahoo Messenger a direct consumer hook beyond plain texting.
- Yahoo now competes feature-for-feature on Apple's own storefront with FaceTime, which ships only on Apple hardware — Yahoo's app can chase cross-platform audiences Skype already courts.
Second-order effects
- Skype, fresh off its October 2010 Android launch and preparing a public offering, faces pressure to defend its mobile video franchise against a free rival embedded in an existing IM base.
- Carrier 3G networks absorb another high-bandwidth video-calling workload at a moment when India's security agencies are already scrutinizing Google and Skype over encrypted online communications — a signal regulators are watching this category regardless of which app carries the traffic.
Third-order effects
- If every major messenger bundles video calling over carrier data rather than dedicated services, mobile IM shifts from a text utility to a communications platform layer — and the regulatory attention Skype and Google drew in August 2010 suggests any player routing video calls becomes a policy target.
- The pattern points toward messaging clients being valued less for chat and more as distribution vehicles for voice/video, forcing incumbents like Skype to compete on ubiquity across devices rather than on the call itself.
The trend: Mobile instant-messaging clients are absorbing voice and video calling, turning Yahoo, Skype, and Apple into direct competitors on carrier data networks rather than adjacent services.