iSkoot Puts Skype Calling (And More) on Your Mobile

I love Skype for its free Internet calling services, complete with IM and SMS and conference calls that make it easy to keep up with friends and colleagues and new business contacts around the world.   With a user base of over 300 million people, chances are good that I can make a Skype connection rather than pay for a phone call — as long as I’m on a computer connected to the Internet.  But making mobile calls with Skype has been a challenge.  So I took another look at iSkoot (www.iskoot.com)  a San Francisco-based company that offers free software to run Skype on mobile phones.

iSkoot does its best to make it easy for users to download and install the Skype software.  Once you sign up with your name, phone number and Skype address on their web site, and select your phone model from a drop down menu, you can get the software delivered right to your mobile via SMS.   The list of supported cell phones is growing fast, but Blackberry, Palm and other smart phones still dominate.   The web site also makes it clear that while the Skype software and iSkoot features are free, you will still be using airtime minutes while you are talking on a mobile Skype call – the savings come mainly from turning expensive international mobile calls into local calls.

I spoke with Jake Martin, Senior Director of Marketing at iSkoot to find out more about how iSkoot is reaching users and what other mobile services are in the works.   Here are some highlights from that discussion:

Q:   About how many people are using iSkoot around the world and what are your plans for growth?

A:  We have hundreds of thousands of users today, including individuals who download our software from the web site and consumers who buy a phone that has iSkoot already built in (like the Skypephone offered by 3 in the UK).   Obviously getting phone manufactures and carriers to build iSkoot into the handset before it is sold makes it a lot easier for consumers to take advantage of the service, so increasing the number of phones that come with iSkoot is a big priority.   We are definitely committed to making iSkoot downloads compatible with more and more handset models and spreading the word to individual users as well.   Everywhere in the world, we see a lot of room for growth based on the number of active Skype users.

Q:  Do you have plans to offer new services beyond what is available from Skype?

A:  Absolutely. iSkoot software and our network technology platform lets mobile phones take advantage of some of the most popular features of social networking services like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or Twitter.  We expect to have a lot more services coming out soon.