It’s good to see iSkoot for Skype on the big screen. First stop: YouTube. Next stop, Times Square?
Believe it, people! This is what you call some serious visibility.
That’s PR Newswire’s digital billboard introducing the world to the first-ever mobile VoIP application for Google Android.
Our little program looks good all grown up, huh? 
Seeing is believing. 
The folks at AndroidApps.com have posted a quickie video demo of iSkoot for Skype running on the new Android-powered T-Mobile G1. Feast your eyes, iSkoot Fans:
In a VERY big day for iSkoot, we finally got to spill the beans: iSkoot for Skype is featured in the brand new Android Market!
For those of you who might have missed the buzz, the first and long-awaited Android-powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1, finally hit stores today. And one of just a handful of cool apps made available right out of the box in Android’s Market (the only mobile VoIP app the Market currently offers) is none other than everyone’s favorite mobile Skype solution, iSkoot for Skype. Of course, it’s always been a big priority for us here at iSkoot to get iSkoot for Skype working across a wide variety of mobile devices; and designing our solution for one of the slickest new platforms around just makes our job that much sweeter.
We’re also fairly giddy to report that people are already liking what they see! The folks at Techcrunch –concluding after a week of testing the G1 that for them “it’s all about the apps”–gave kudos to iSkoot as one of their Top 10 Android Launch Apps this morning. As early as last week, before the T1 had even hit the shelves, early reviewers at jkOnTheRun and Switched were sizing up the new device, running test calls via iSkoot for Skype, and declaring that “it’s the third party applications that will truly set the device apart.” ZDNet also highlighted iSkoot as one of the Market’s cool new apps to try.
Guess there’s only one thing left to do…go grab yourself a G1! In the meantime, we’ll keep you posted as the buzz continues to unfold.
…Particularly when Mark Jacobstein is running the show. Mark zipped down to San Jose yesterday to moderate a panel at the Mobile Content and Marketing Expo. The subject? How To Mobilize Existing Content.
Alongside panelist execs from Skyfire, Hollywood.com, and New Media Broadcasting Company, Mark led discussion on the various avenues for bringing current Web and TV content over to the mobile realm. MobilizedTV.com posted a great recap on the event, so we’ve pulled out a couple of highlights to share:
Topic 1: “Best Examples of Mobilized Content”
Hollywood.com’s Kevin Davis points to Flixster on the iPhone. an application that lets users find movie show times, watch trailers, get maps to local theaters and tap into Flixster’s database of 70,000 movie listings.
Highlighting the the natural fit of mobile and dynamic media-centered social networks, Russ Lujan of New Media Broadcasting volunteers Twitter for mobile as his mobile conversion of choice.
Skyfire sports junkie Nitin Bhandari admits ESPN’s mobile goodies are his personal favorite - where he tunes in for the scores but usually sticks around for all the additional interesting content.
Topic 2 (and arguably Mark’s favorite): “IS the mobile phone a PC in your pocket?”
Davis: Has his doubts, but understands that the inevitable shift into mobile isn’t something to be ignored. “This is a fundamental question. We went through a major re-design [on Hollywood.com], and even on this most amazing device that changed my life [the iPhone], it doesn’t work. We have to decide where this fits into our business model.”
Lujan: Acknowledges the overlap, but points out that it isn’t one-to-one. “We’re nearing earlier generation PC platforms on the handset. It does have the mobility factor…We’re probably a generation or two out from the mobile phone being what the PC can provide.”
Bhandari: Argues that the “PC” comparison doesn’t do the potential of the mobile handset proper justice. “The technical answer is that the mobile phone is absolutely a PC. It’s not as good as the PC of today that we’re all used to. But then part of me thinks that thinking of it as a PC is a failure of imagination. It’s so much more. It’s always on, always with you, nobody else uses it. It’s way more than a PC.“
As the conversation shifts to the future of mobile, Bhandari speculates that the mobile browser will become central to the mobile media experience. Naturally, Mark is all over this one with some ideas of his own.
Countering Bhandari, Mark contends that even PC-based browsers are still limited in terms of what they can access, and that mobile browsers won’t be ubiquitous in the foreseeable future.
“I would argue that the most interesting services that people will build will be completely integrated. The coolest thing on iPhone is that level of integration, and that takes more than a browser.”
Another point scored for iSkoot’s “VoIP via voice” approach to mobile Skype this past weekend! Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal was tinkering with a data channel-based mobile VoIP app for the iPhone on Friday, and in a virtual side-by-side comparison with iSkoot, the result was, well…read for yourself!
“The benchmark in call quality would be my experiences earlier this week where twice, when my home office cable was disconnected due to “cable plant” improvements in my neighborhood, I used iSkoot on the Blackberry Bold to call into SquawkBox via the CalliFlower voice conferencing service over the Rogers 3G network.
Let’s just say in the iSkoot calls, the technology was transparent to the discussion and I could lay the phone on my desk while still actively participating.”
As it should be! In this day and age - mobile Skype shouldn’t be about what you can do, but what you can do well. Thanks–as always–for the positive plug, Jim!
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