David Flynn21 May 2009, 8:00 AM
The popular VoIP software moves a step closer to the BlackBerry, while Yahoo takes a giant step backwards and kills its Yahoo! Mobile client.
Skype for BlackBerry turned out to be a no-show at last month’s annual BlackBerry lovefest in Orlando, Florida but at least the software is on the way. Sources say that Skype has begin a ‘closed beta’ test among a select set of BlackBerry users.
At this stage we believe the client works only over Wi-Fi, as is the case on the iPhone – a situation which has led to a
legal stoush between carriers and customers in Europe and the USA.
Skype for BlackBerry is expected to tie into the BlackBerry’s address book so there’s no need to keep a second contact list. Calls between Skype users will be free, regardless of if the called party is on a BlackBerry, iPhone, or PC. Calls to landline and mobile phones will be charged at Skype’s existing rates.
The BlackBerry will be the third major smartphone platform to receive a Skype client this year, alongside the iPhone and
Nokia.
Skype for BlackBerry is certainly going to be more popular than the Yahoo! Mobile software, which the beleaguered Net company shuttered yesterday. The decision to axe the made-for-mobiles client which provided a widget-style front end to Yahoo’s portfolio of online services comes less than three months after a much-hyped launch.
Yahoo! Mobile – blink and you missed it. Yahoo is shifting its efforts to the iPhone and mobile Web browsers
An email sent to Yahoo! Mobile subscribers said the company would instead be “focusing our efforts on the newly-launched Yahoo! Mobile experience for browsers (available at new.m.yahoo.com) and for the iPhone (available via the Apple App Store).”
Chalk that up as a win for the iPhone and a loss for, well, every other mobile phone platform.