2009-04-09

2 million downloads of iPhone Skype app!

Skype announced it yesterday: 2 million downloads of iPhone Skype app!
This represents 12% of iPhone users or 7% of the combined iPhone and iPod Touch users. Impressive! I still believe that most of the Skype apps are downloaded for the iPhone, therefore, bold guess, 10% of iPhone users downloaded the Skype app.The download speed (right scale of the graph) went down from more than 400 per minute to 100 now, but this is quite normal!
This will certainly have an impact on the total number of Skype users, as some of these iPhone users are new to Skype, and will also install it on their computer, but I guess the effect with be quite marginal because:
  • iPhone users are usually “wealthy” and have also money to make expensive calls, therefore their “need” for free or cheap calls is lesser.
  • The Skype app can’t run in the background on the iPhone!
  • And, like all free applications, a lot will try it, but won’t really use it.
But … the launch of the iPhone app has made a lot of publicity for Skype, therefore the “viral” growth will get a boost again!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

iPhone users are also techno-savvy and value value over price. Additionally, I bet the vast majority of first-weel app downloaders are ALREADY skype users.

Jean Mercier said...

Hello Anonymous,

Thanks for the comment.

I agree with your first phrase.
Concerning the second phrase, i would not bet on the "VAST" majority. There always a lot of downloads "just to give it a try". But ... i have no data, so, this is only "belly feeling".