New skype app for the iPhone is out. Will it change mobile calling forever?

A friend just told me about the new Skype iPhone app that launched recently.  I just took it for a spin and it works great.  No video yet as the iPhone is still not equipped with the hardware/software to capture video, but audio calling works great and provides the usual mute, pause, and speaker buttons available during regular phone calls on the iPhone.  A great feature is the fact that the app pulls in all your Skype contacts and provides you an integrated address book including search and user thumbnail pictures.  The call quality is good — in my test I was not able to tell a difference to regular cell calls.  The app also shows if your contacts are logged in and available on Skype.  The biggest drawback of the application is the fact that it does not show you as being online unless the app runs.  I am not sure if the 3.0 version of the iPhone OS solves this issues, but currently, apps can’t run in the background.  So you can only receive Skype calls on your iPhone if you actively and purposefully run the app.  Not good.  Anyone know of a workaround?

Generally, this is a development that was inevitable and finally makes wifi calling on a data equipped cellphone a breeze to set up and use.  In the world of the not too distant future in which free public wifi will be everywhere, apps like this have the potential to change mobile calling forever.

Imagine free, global calls (skype to skype) from your cell phone: from any country to any country — something that mobile carriers still charge you as much as $8 a minute for (depending on country, distance, plan, and so on).

Wifi based video calls from your cell is the next step which is still a novelty today — I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of my tech savvy friends do a video chat on their european, video call equipped 3G (or faster) mobile phones via cell or wifi data channels.  Somehow it always seems that something is not quite working — either the connectivity is not there, or the network settings are not set up, or the plan not enabled, or the person being called is not equipped properly… whatever.

Earlier tonight I had a skype video call in my office on my mac with my colleage Mike.  I was at my office desk and he was on the bus on his way home — with his 3G data modem providing the bandwidth to his MacBook.  It worked great.  Now, replace the MacBooks with iPhones, add video, and use public wifi or wimax instead of expensive 3G connectivity, and the world of mobile communication just met the equivalent of what the CD ripper and MP3 format did to the music industry.

Can you see me now?