Alliances in the mobile world are sometimes fleeting, but they can also be strong enough to break other partnerships. Take Skype’s recent partnership to bring VoIP calling to Verizon Wireless customers, for example. Verizon and Skype announced that they had joined forces to create a Skype mobile app that would allow free Skype-to-Skype calls and VoIP calls over Verizon’s 3G network. The company more recently launched its Symbian app on Nokia’s Ovi Store, giving millions of Symbian smartphone users a chance to easily download the app and make unrestricted VoIP calls. Unfortunately Skype has, in the spirit of promoting their new carrier partner, decided to keep the app from hitting Ovi Store shelves in the US.
It doesn’t really take too much brow furrowing to figure out what’s going on here. The two companies are now buddy-buddy, as well they should be – locking down a carrier deal like this is big news for the likes of Skype. And, it makes perfect sense that they’d want to give Verizon as much traction on the Skype app.
Well, today we need speculate about the absence of Skype on the US Ovi Store no more. VentureBeat managed to get word from Skype employee Sravanthi Agrawa that:
“Skype has made a decision in the United States to not promote the Skype for Symbian app through the Ovi Store. We did this so that we could drive more attention to the recently announced Skype and Verizon Wireless agreement. This was a marketing decision — plain and simple.
“Skype users in the U.S can still download Symbian by going directly to Skype.com.”
Now, before you throw your arms up in outrage, you should know that the Skype Symbian app is still readily available for US download through Skype’s website. The only thing Americans with a Nokia smartphone have lost is the convenience of downloading the app through the Ovi Store. You can download Skype for Symbian by going to Skype.com.
In the end, business is business, and the Skype-Verizon deal matters a good deal more to Skype’s bottom line than having the app in the Ovi Store. Sure, the Ovi Store gets something like 1.5 million downloads per day, but only a small fraction of that number comes from the US – Nokia isn’t exactly a big player in America. Nokia’s Symbian platform can only lay claim to about as many customers as the newcomer Android platform in The States. Comscore says that number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.2 million users. Compare that with the double-digit millions of Verizon customers potentially receptive to a Skype app, and you start to see why Skype did what they did.
Oh, and just so you know, Skype has killed off their Windows Mobile app. Now there‘s something you might want to get worked up about.
[Via: VentureBeat]