Skype and Nokia announce Skype for Symbian

You may well have seen this morning that Skype and Nokia have announced Skype for Symbian, which allows over 200 million Nokia smartphone users access to the service. Users can now use Skype on the move, over either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G) and it’s downloadable for free from the Ovi Store, Nokia’s one-stop shop for mobile content.

Lee Williams, the Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, has just offered further comment on this announcement:

"It’s great to see two of the most innovative and disruptive software solutions come together to extend options for consumers. The Skype VOIP and communications solution is unprecedented in its capability to allow consumers to take advantage of the power of the internet as a communications medium, and the types of products that you can build on Symbian that harness the power of the platform’s imaging, content, and internet capabilities is unprecedented. I cannot wait to see how quickly consumers realize the benefits of this combined solution."

This is clearly great news for Nokia users but its not great for users of some other platforms and here is why:

Last week Skype was pulled from Windows Mobile and I think Skype Lite for Android may have been pulled too? I didn’t post this news last week as I was too upset (sob, sob)!

Apparently it doesn’t offer the same modern user experience as Skype on other platforms, mainly the iPhone and Symbian. Well I think that’s a load of cobblers as I always use Skype from my Windows Phone when I travel overseas and it works a treat.

What I actually think is happening is that they are now working on Skype for Windows Phone 7 Series which is a good thing but as Windows Mobile is going to continue as Windows Phone Standard Edition they could do with getting it sorted ASAP.

There is also talk of Skype being restricted to carriers which I hope does not happen. I think I read somewhere that in the USA, Verizon will ne a partner, so only their phones will have it installed and you cant get it if on another carrier. If this is true its a sad state of affairs.

Posted by: James