We knew it’d be a hit, but not that much of a hit. The official Skype iPhone application, announced earlier this week, hit the iTunes Store last Tuesday and since then it’s seen an astonishing one million downloads to the popular Apple devices, which is nothing short of amazing. That translates to approximately 6 downloads per second.
In the blog post announcing the milestone, Skype blogger Peter Parkes says he’s “confident that it’s one of the fastest-downloaded iPhone apps ever”, which means he’s not really sure.
And since we don’t know either, we’re reaching out to you, dear readers. Does Skype now hold the record for reaching the million download mark fastest for a free app, or not?
(Hat tip to Pat Phelan).
No idea about your question, but is there a way to get this from outside the app store?
I’m on a first gen, unlocked, jailbroken iphone.
Currently using the Fring workaround, but it’s buggy.
Thank in advance.
– impressive numbers by the way
Terrorists/extortionists will love this. No tapping by authorities.
I’m sure they’re quite busy patting themselves on the back. Most ridiculously arrogant company ever.
Contrasts the image, that’s for sure. When you find the time, can you explain yourself a bit?
mostly i’m just tired of them delaying opening up the service via a true API. But in general I think the ebay way of doing things has rubbed off on them too much.
They have a good service, what would an API do to benefit them?
If you dislike them so much, you probably want to write about the fact that they may lose the license to the Joltid P2P technology that the Skype Founders did not sell when they sold Skype to Ebay. Looks like Zennstrom may get rich twice off eBay depending on how the lawsuit goes.
Not available in canadian app store. Great.
At least I have an excuse now not to talk to my folks in Germany.
I wrote a quick blog post to show how to get Skype for iPhone in canada. Check it out here:
http://patdrybu...hone-in-canada/
Pot, kettle, black…
It has such a high download rate because most of us are afraid it is going to be taken down like so many amazing voip like applications.
Yeah that makes total sense.
Why would it get pulled? If Apple didn’t want it on the iPhone, it wouldn’t have been approved. And unlike other VOIP apps, Skype is well-known enough that it wouldn’t have just slipped in under the approval process.
Just being annoyingly sarcastic
Robin, I think what Martin is trying to say is maybe Apple didn’t notice Skype had launched an application that was available on the iPhone?
That’s amazing. Way to go, Skype!
Yeah I agree, that is a lot of downloads in 2 days. Way to go!!!
shame it hasn’t hit the Canadian i-tunes store….love hearing about all the cool apps in the US but I guess the virtual border is just too hard to cross at times.
Apologies in advance:
Skype for iPhone had some pretty bad reviews
It also received huge tech blog coverage exceeding any other app that I’ve seen released for iPhone.
I know it’s SKYPE but c’mon! I’m pretty sure if an app was released that when you opened it allowed you to light a steamy pile of dog crap on fire AND IT WAS FREE and Every single tech blog covered it, the app would reach 1 million downloads just as fast.
I’m not surprised at all. When thousands of blogs have previews, teasers and day of reviews with links to download this app adding to the fact that this was a free application, of course it reached that many downloads. Anything less would be a failure in my opinion.
Well it may happen that ‘today’s’ Skype guys are arrogant bastards. I have however met the original crew (Nicklas etc) and they are some of the nicest and most humble guys you will ever meet.. even after the Billion dollar sale!
Love skype too though!
No que no Apple?
I dont think it is worth it to download. First you cant make any skype call through 3g connection. second it is only skype. Why dont people use Fring. It is free and it integrates almost all popular im, including skype. I use it and make a skype and msn phone call. it works perfectly fine. Why only skype???
What am I missing?
The odds are that when one is around a dependable wifi signal they’re also near their PC, no?
why would one use their wifi enabled phone rather than their likely broadband connected PC?
Plus, with a simple pricing decision, skype-out rates can be met by any carrier. As i’ve said many time in these forums, the VOIP kludges have a very short lifespan.
And ignore the desperation of the Fring posters here. Hey TC, see of all the Fring logrolling comes form the same IPs?
Found on http://tinyurl....om/iskypereview
Important solutions to the COMPLAINERS:
Complaining that you can’t use Skype on 3G?
Just Jailbreak your iphone and install voipover3g app from cydia. Jailbreakers will be able to save their minutes whenever they want because this app makes the iPhone think that it is on wifi all the time.
2. Complaining that you can’t run skype in the background while using another application?
Just install backgrounder app from cydia on your jailbroken phone.
Read the rest on http://tinyurl....om/iskypereview
What was the point of launching a Skype iPhone app after such a long time and not have 3G based VoIP calling enabled?
If IM is the only thing then they are a day (or maybe a year ) late and definitely a dollar (or a few dollars) short.
SG
Truphone just offered a descent deal yesterday with unlimited free package tied to 3G with an upfront monthly payment.Looks like theres a competition with Skype here.
To me this skype deal just sounds like “promote me please I know I don’t do much but please write about me”
ah…
Still waiting for canadian version. And I’ve been waiting for ever for skypein in canada. Man! Those guys make me wait.
Downloaded doesn’t mean using. I also have it but have had few chances of using it…
1 M downloads in 24 hours amounts to > 11 downloads/s.
6 per s. would amount to only 0.5M.
Just because Skype screwed up their numbers, you should probably double check yours.
Ok, brainiac, you should probably read the post and headline again.
Shoot me now
1/10 of folks who downloaded Skype for iPhone updated there Skype Status with something like: Skype on iPhone, I’m playing with iPhone Skype etc.
I have 3-4 folks in my contact list with similar status messages.
Now consider this to be a great viral marketing – your friends post about it. You will definitely check AppStore if you got an iPhone.
@Karan Bhangui
Surely 2days is 48 hours not 24hours?
Maybe you are on a weird time zone ;-P
The sum looks good to me..
48h x 60min x 60sec = 172800 seconds
1000000 downloads/172800 seconds = 5.78 downloads per second?
oops
More amazing since Apple does not feature the app anywhere in the app store home page, not in “new and note worthy” not in ” what’s hot”.
You have to really search to find the thing.
lol that is a huge number
Impressive download numbers, but the app is nearly worthless for two reasons:
1. You can’t call people directly out of your iPhone contacts because you have to have “+1″ in front of ever number. So you have to manually enter any phone number you want to call.
2. The disconnect button is easily pressed by your face when you are using it, constantly disconnecting the call.
The site was also down for the first day and wouldn’t let you buy skype credit to actually use the app. And no 3G is lame.
Very poor roll-out considering they are a well established company.
Its interesting that skype is categorized as a free app. Although you can download it without paying a cent, you still need to pay to make phone calls (assuming you don’t use skype chat).
So that’s an interesting business model. Skype is using the complete Appstore infrastructure and making money without paying Apple even a cent (or did they?).
Skype to Skype calls are completely free, it’s only when you call to international landlines or mobiles that you pay a very small per minute fee.
DO NOT BUY SKYPE CREDIT
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