Easy come, easy go — Bohemian Rhapsody
A day after his company announced that it had struck a distribution deal with Nokia, Skype CEO Josh Silverman took the stage at the Mobile World Congress to declare that it’s “application providers like Skype that are driving demand for the next generation of access,” reports MocoNews.
Skype will pre-load its software on Nokia’s N97 handsets. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson announced it would be offering a Skype “panel” on the Windows Mobile Xperia1 device (right).
This is seen as a threat to carriers, says MocoNews. The challenge for Skype has been getting users comfortable with downloading applications onto their phones. When the software is on a device, uptake climbs. Last year UK carrier, 3, boldly introduced a phone with a huge Skype button (below). But, said Silverman, the UK Skype phone actually benefited carriers.
Silverman claimed 79 percent of those who bought a Skype phone were new customers to the UK carrier; 75 percent of those buying a Skype phone saw the application as the main reason they stayed with the network; and, more importantly, average revenue per use (ARPU) among Skype phone users was 20 percent more than the network’s average customer.
But Sol Trujillo, CEO of Australian carrier Telstra, was unconvinced. When asked if Telstra would be adding Skype as a service, Trujillo said: “It probably worked well for the carrier involved, but I have a responsibility to make money.” Trujillo said that Telstra already offered Skype-type services such as video calling.
Trujillo, incidently, is still looking for his phone. It was stolen by a pickpocket.
Other Mobile World Congress articles on Dailywireless include; Vodafone Announces Android for Europe, Verizon: LTE in 25 to 30 Markets By 2010, Samsung WiMAXes MWC, Mobile World Congress: Handsets, Mobile World Congress: HSPA, WiMAX & LTE Faceoff, Nvidia: Turbo Boost for Android and WinMobile, The 8 Megapixel Phone, Handsets: Open, Open, Open, TeleNav Does Turn-By-Turn on Android and 2009 Mobile World Congress.
