New iPhone Skype app was among the top 5 most popular for 2010.
The newly released app allows users make video to video calls on 3G and WiFi as 40 percent of all Skype calls are now video, as revealed by the company at CES.
On the first day of the release of the iPhone app with video, it was downloaded approximately 4.2 million times and Skype was one of the top five free iPhone apps in 2010 according to Apple, as it popularity reaches new heights, it was also revealed.
Available to download from Apple’s App Store since the end of December, it allows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 4th generation with i0S 4.0 or above, allowing owners to make video internet calls for the first time.
The iPod touch 3rd generation is also video compatible.
Internet calls are now said to be double that made over fixed line as consumers banish traditional telco services.
“With video calling representing approximately 40 per cent of all Skype-to-Skype minutes for the first six months of 2010, our users have been eager to get Skype video calling on their mobile phones,” said Neil Stevens, general manager of Skype’s consumer business.
“By bringing video to mainstream users at their home or work via their desktops, on the go with their mobiles, or into their living room via their TV, Skype has made it possible for millions of people to share video moments wherever they are.”
A video call evolves communication beyond transactional experiences to a shared experience where people can share any occasion with others wherever they are.
The internet calls company also just announced group video calling at their CES 2011 exhibition, as part of their new Premium offering which brings together groups of three or more on a single video call, costing $5.49 per day or $9.99 per month.
“But ever more people are discovering that they can communicate without the services of a telco,” according to TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert.
Skype have not released any specific figures on Australian user numbers, although 25 million users are said to be logged in at any one time around the world and there were 145 million Skype users on average per month in the close of 2010.
