Skype Takes Aim at iPhone
Skype app goes live Tuesday
By SAJID FAROOQ
Updated 3:19 PM EDT, Mon, Mar 30, 2009
AT&T might want to keep an eye on what apps Apple allows onto the iPhone. Some of them might cost the cell phone provider major money.
On Tuesday the wildly popular Internet calling service, Skype, will give iPhone users everywhere the chance to use WI-FI to make cheap calls across the globe, according to The New York Times.
The free software will be available for both iPhones and the iPod touch and it will also become available to BlackBerry users in May.
The mobile service will work exactly the same as the computer service, which boasts more than four million users worldwide. Users will be able to send instant messages for free and pay a low rate when they call other phones. But Apple will limit the service so it only works over WI-FI and not over AT&T's data network, according to The New York Times.
The move is still seen as a direct threat to cell phone providers everywhere, according to several experts.
“The carriers are in the business of selling voice minutes," Ben Wood, director of Research at the London-based CCS Insight, a market research firm told the Times.
"For a long time they saw products like Skype coming along and they were concerned. But it turned out a little bit different than they expected.”
First Published: Mar 30, 2009 2:11 PM EDT
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
