Skype on the Iphone – A Missed Opportunity? My Review

Finally its here!  Skype on the Iphone.  I downloaded the app straight to my handset from the app store.  They have managed to keep it free which surprised me I was expecting a 59p download charge to placate the people at Apple.  It it sure to be the top free app within hours if not already.

The Look & Feel

As always the app looks great, warm and fuzzy with a cool web 2 feel. The navigation is intuitive and makes you want to use it and If you already use Skype getting started is very straight forward.  Just add in your accounts details and you are presented with your contact list.

One thing I would say is its easier to register for an account at Skype.com rather than through your phone. However if you do decide to sign up on your iPhone  you can use the phones camera to take a picture that can be used as an avatar, or alternatively you can  choose a picture from your camera roll.

Features

All of the standard Skype features that you are used to on your PC are present.  Voice & chat options are the core of the Skype offering and what has made it famous.  Giving the customer the ability to make cost affective calls online.  This brings me onto the first major fault.  As we all know Skype calls work over the web. This voice section of the app is for use on a wifi connections only.  If you try and make a call using a 3g network (like we all want to) you get the message below.  Yes you read that right, you cant use the mobile network!

You would have thought Skype and the voice carriers could have come to some deal to allow voice calls over the cellular networks.  This one feature would have made this app awesome but as far as I am concerned the lack of cheap and free calls on the move (the main reason people use Skype) is a big minus point. You can message your buddies however on 3G but that is available on most other messenger apps so is nothing new.

Call Quality

I made my first call to my wife and I was very impressed with the quality.  Connection was quick and smooth and I was able to use Skype Out, which of course offers a competitive calling rate.  A UK to UK call produced no delay or break up and I would go as far as to say produced a better call quality than standard cellular networks.

As with the PC system, your connection quality plays a large part in the quality of your call.  If you get good broadband speeds your call quality will be good, if you have broadband speed issues you make receive delayed calls with break up.

Calling Features

During a call you you can get to the onscreen number pad allowing you to mute or put someone on hold, or activate the speakerphone function as with standard IPhone dialing.  

The contact list shows who is online at the time just like the PC app and displays them in alphabetical order and on the number pad when making a call you can also access your IPhone contact list which is useful.

Conference calling facilities have always been popular on Skype. I promptly discovered that you can use the conference facilities on your Iphone as long as you are invited to a call, you cant initiate a conference which is frustrating.  Other annoying absences is the ability to send files or use SMS.  I presume they have been left out for billing reasons.
There was one thing left to surprise me however.  I quickly discovered that the app must be live to use it . If you don’t have the app open at the front of your phone it logs itself out so if a Contact pings you whilst you aren’t using Skype itself, you don’t get notified.  This means you cant surf the web or use other apps rendering the other great Iphone features  useless if you want to use Skype as your preferred calling method. A major oversight from the developers and something that should definitely be looked at when the first upgrade comes.

Conclusion

I don’t know why anyone would use this app regularly to be honest. It seems a half hearted attempt to have a presence on the Iphone rather than hammering out all the commercial deals necessary to make it useful for its users.  I would go as far as to say that the developers either wanted to go home early on a friday or they had their hands tied by the commercial aspects of Skypes features. Given a free rein I am sure they would have given this app the functionality both it and the iphone deserves.  As it stands is just makes your Iphone into a glorified PC microphone!
I am in my office on my wifi network in front of my mac. Can someone tell me why  use the iphone over my airbook?  I cant think of a reason why.  I look forward to your opinions!

David Hobart
Purecontent.com