It’s been no secret that Skype has been working on an iPhone application for some time. We first told you about their plans in January following an announcement made by Skype’s COO at CES. We were skeptical at the time, but now it looks like all is well and that free and/or very cheap calling for iPhone and iPod touch users is but hours away.
According to new stories at the CNet and PC World web sites, Skype for the iPhone will launch on Tuesday, March 31, in the iTunes App Store as a free download. The app will allow users to call other Skype users for free and to call out to traditional landline and cell phones with SkypeOut (though this feature requires a small monthly or yearly fee). Skype for the iPhone will also allow chatting. Another huge plus, Skype will use your existing contacts for making calls, along with the assigned contact photo, if available.
Unfortunately – and unsurprisingly – you won’t be able to place regular Skype or SkypeOut calls using 3G; voice calling over Skype will require a Wi-Fi connection. Users will be able to chat over a non-Wi-Fi data connection, however.
We’re fairly sure the regular Skype calls will sound pretty good on the iPhone, particularly since Wi-Fi is required. But how the app will perform for SkypeOut calls remains to be seen, but we’ll be back with our review after the app debuts tomorrow. We also assume that when iPhone 3.0 hits later this year, you’ll be able to receive notifications of incoming Skype calls even when the app isn’t running. This feature alone will add great value to the Skype service on the iPhone.
