Yesterday, I put up a piece on how Skype has come to the iPhone platform. Thankfully, nobody here thought that it was an April Fool’s joke. But the good Canadian folks have to do without the service due to the complexity of licensing software in Canada. A spokesman for Skype addressed the issue:

There is a vague restriction in one of the standards-based technology licences and Skype is looking into it

Canada has had these issues before. It even had to wait a while to get the iPhone. Skype and iPhone are not the problem here. It’s the regulation in Canada. Many analysts are claiming that the wireless carriers in Canada are not ready to allow Skype get on the iPhone, while others claim lack of consumer interest as the reason Skype is not coming to Canada. Both claims have their shortcomings. Skype has been available on Windows Mobile devices in Canada before. So I am not sure the first argument is that valid.

Lack of consumer interest is another dubious claim. Skype is a global phenomenon, and I am sure Canadians do make International calls as well. I do believe that Skype will catch on in Canada, and it helps that Rogers Communications Inc has made no effort to “prevent” iPhone users from getting Skype. Maybe it just takes a little bit of time. Am I being too optimistic?

We all knew Skype was coming on iPhone, but who knew it could top the best sellers chart in such a short time. I guess it wasn’t that hard to predict that an application that allows you to save big money on international calls was always going to be a hit.

Skype allows you to call landlines and mobile phones around the world, and you can also keep track of who’s online too. The app is free as well. The software still needs some work. People have complained about dropped calls and crashes. And while I haven’t experienced that many crashes with this app, there is no question Skype needs to make some changes to make the app even more stable.

Overall, if you are looking to save money on your international calls, Skype for iPhone is a winner. It’s not perferct, but it works. And iPhonians seem to like it too!

Your Take: have you experienced any issues with Skype for iPhone?

I reported a few weeks ago that Skype was indeed in the process of coming up with its own very iPhone application. That is going to be exciting news for folks who want to make cheap international calls with Skype right on their phones. So what has taken Skype so long?

We have to make sure the call quality is there and the application works really well before we can announce the software for any device

Says Skype’s COO. Skype is very attractive to folks who want to save money on their land-line phone costs (long-distance & international). The long-distance costs may be covered in your cell phone contract but not the international calls. So Skype can actually provide some value. But as with some other top audio and video applications on the iPhone, you can expect a catch. As the guys at CNET suspected, Skype features will probably be limited to Wi-Fi. Still, that’s a low price to pay to finally get Skype on our beloved iPhone.

It seems there is some good news for iPhone fans in January. Skype has just announced that they are introducing a version of their service for Android phones. You can pretty much make local and long distance calls using Skype on your phone. Now, it’s a bit more complicated than that. But where things get interesting is the assumption by many experts that Skype may be targeting the iPhone.

This is a huge opportunity for Skype to lure more folks to its side and get them hooked on its excellent service. The iPhone fan-base is huge and even if Skype doesn’t make anything from its iPhone application, it can still manage to get those folks to try out the service and continue using it in their every day lives. Let’s hope Skype goes ahead with their plan.