Skype for iPhone now with video calls
It's as simple as that: our iPhone app now comes with video. Download it now from the App Store, or read on to find out more. — Skype for iPhone lets you make and receive free Skype video calls on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, and works over both WiFi and 3G connections*.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands six days after Engadget reported Skype was bringing video calling to iPhone 4 and confirmed a slate of video announcements for CES, so the release reads as the first shoe dropping ahead of that stage moment. The timing is delicate: it comes barely a week after the peer-to-peer network outage that Skype recovered from by deploying dedicated supernodes, restoring roughly 90 percent of normal user volumes.
The pickup was fast and broad — Engadget ran hands-on coverage the same day and 9to5 Mac measured the cost of the feature at about 3.4MB of data per minute over 3G, which matters because this is one of the first mainstream video-calling apps allowed off WiFi onto carrier networks.
First-order effects
- iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners can place and receive free Skype-to-Skype video calls without a computer, over both WiFi and 3G.
- Every 3G video minute shifts roughly 3.4MB of traffic onto mobile carrier networks, turning consumer video calling into a measurable data-plan line item.
Second-order effects
- The still-unconfirmed expectation that video extends beyond iPhone 4 to other mobile platforms puts rival handset makers and messaging apps under pressure to match before CES 2011 sets the agenda.
- Carriers now face app-level video demand on their 3G networks, sharpening the tension between flat-rate data plans and measured usage that 9to5 Mac's per-minute figure makes concrete.
Third-order effects
- If mobile becomes Skype's primary surface, the December outage is a warning: scaling video on a peer-to-peer architecture required falling back on dedicated supernodes, suggesting reliability engineering will decide who can carry mobile video at scale.
- The move deepens Skype's closed-network strategy — like its non-interoperable chat, video stays inside Skype's own garden — extending the lock-in that persistent group chats already create for users.
The trend: Consumer video calling is migrating off the desktop and into the pocket, with Skype using CES 2011 as the showcase for making mobile video a default feature rather than a novelty.