By James Wanless
President & COO of Talkster
Skype just announced that they would be pre-installing their mobile application onto some Nokia devices, beginning with the N97, some time in Q3 2009 to be followed by other (high end) devices from the N Series. TechCrunch has more details here.
I think that Skype has already broken ground with their lite version that runs on J2ME but the difference here is the pre-installation. If it’s in there and running then it’s going to be easier to start using it and will take some share by default when compared to 3rd party applications. The question for me is whether the voice calling is going to be over IP using the 3G or wi-fi connections or using the same access number system as the lite version. If they intend to use the 3G connection then don’t they run into the same carrier by carrier policy problems that have been implemented by the likes of T-Mobile to purposely block out calling methods that circumvent their network? If 3G is blocked, then that leaves wi-fi. Assuming (and it’s a leap of faith here) that you have always available access to a wi-fi connection on the move (oh, and if you are in the office, why would you use your mobile phone to make the call?) then how convenient is that going to be? From my experience, using wi-fi for anything on the Nokia phones kills the battery in a very short space of time and if I use it for voice calling makes being tethered to the outlet on the wall a must.
I do see more merit in the IM/presence angle of this as noted in the TechCrunch article. Having this alternative pre-installed will be of value to the very large base of Skype users. Of course, I have a vested interest in the space. At Talkster, we are delivering mobile solutions but have taken another view on the use of IM from a mobile device. I find that most communications on a mobile device are to other phones, and typically to mobile phones. For this is use SMS and not IM. I don’t have a great need for an IM aggregation application on my mobile device. The way we approach this at Talkster with our talki application is not to create a parallel text communication channel like IM. We create a channel where you can communicate within the network with others who are running the application or, without having to take any extra steps, to any person on any phone using SMS. It’s not limited to just text either. You can push images through SMS and even initiate voice calls. The voice calls are not using 3G or wi-fi, but the regular voice channel that is available on any device and is not restricted by the carriers. We started out calling it the “evolution of SMS” but let’s be bolder. It’s the “REVOLUTION of SMS”!
I am positive on this move by Skype and Nokia. I think that it raises awareness of the possibilities within mobile communications aside from the standard offerings being served up by the mobile carriers. I don’t expect them to embrace it, rather that they will try to stifle it. It’s very difficult to stop change though when it has this kind of building momentum.
