Today it was announced that the Skype client is now available on iPhone via the apps store.  Given the significant success of the iPhone apps store will this become one of its top applications, or will it be consigned to the ‘long tail’ of the store?   On the face of it combining the success of the store, the high utilisation of web browsing on the iPhone device (despite the recently published Zogby survey on mobile browsing) and the success of Skype on the web the future looks bright.

However Apple places its device in the market subsidised by the network operators and therefore it is not a surprise that (for now) Skype to Skype calls or Skype to mobile (and landline calls) require a Wi-Fi connection, thereby protecting network operator revenue.   In any case the consumer would have already had to sign up to a £35-£45/month contract from O2 in the UK market, (unless they had secured an unlocked device) giving them a ‘big bucket’ of calls and little incentive to look for free. 

However a couple of thoughts will act to counter this. Firstly not only is Wi-Fi now prevalent (O2 having helped the market on its way by signing a deal with the Cloud and Openzone in 2003 to offer Wi-Fi to O2 customers), but many users can also run up hefty call costs and may well look to offset call charges (in particular those making international calls).  Additionally and here’s where I think we potentially will see the biggest impact, the client also works on the iPod touch.  So, free calls on a popular non network tethered device with few ongoing call costs – I can see a significant demand for that.