Skype's iPhone app is finally coming to Canada.
As of Wednesday, Canadian iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to join the 6-million-and-counting users who have already downloaded one of the most popular applications in the world.
Skype's iPhone app (iTunes download) is essentially a slightly more stripped down version of its desktop software that allows users to make free or relatively low-cost phone calls over the Web. The app allows users to make “Skype-to-Skype” calls – essentially, one Skype user calling another – for free. The app also enables calls to land lines and mobile phones at a rate lower than that of most major carriers.
There's a catch, though. You need to be in a WiFi zone to make a Skype call.
While the app lets you send and receive instant messages over a 3G network, the calling features require WiFi. (Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped plenty of industrious hackers from trying to get Skype to run on 3G, even before Skype officially became available in Canada).
Here is the features list from Skype's press release:
* Free Skype-to-Skype calls from any Wi-fi zone to other Skype users worldwide
* Call landline or mobile phones (Skype's normal rates apply) from any Wi-Fi zone
* Send/receive instant messages to/from individuals or groups via 3G, Wi-Fi or EDGE (a digital mobile phone technology)
* Receive calls to a personal online number on Skype
* See when Skype contacts are online/available to IM or talk
* Call Forwarding
* Voicemail retrieval
* SMS messaging
* Availability in other languages, including Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish and Traditional Chinese.
The app itself, available from Apple's app store, is free. Skype's regular rates apply to land line and mobile phone calls.
Tom Yeung, Skype's director of market development for the Americas, told The Globe and Mail Tuesday that the company was slow to bring the app to Canada because of a licensing issue involving a codec (software used to encode and decode digital information). That issue has now been settled.
Mr. Yeung said Skype will be focusing heavily on software for mobile devices. Next up is likely to be a Skype app for the BlackBerry. However Mr. Yeung couldn't say when that's likely to launch.
