Quietly ending its support for the mobile operating system from the world’s largest maker of software, Skype has pulled the Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile applications from its site. Users who had already downloaded one of the mobile clients, which allow them to make Skype calls from their Windows Mobile phones, can continue using it, but the software will no longer be available for new users.
“We’ve chosen to withdraw Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile because we want to offer our new customers an improved mobile experience – much like the version that has proved so popular on the iPhone and which is now available on Symbian phones,” the company said in an FAQ on its site. “We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience.”
Skype on Windows Mobile phones has been plagued by glitches, including a bug that made calls come through on the speakers of certain devices, rather than the earpieces.
Coming the week after Skype struck a major partnership with Verizon Wireless, to supply Skype software over Verizon smartphones, the move could be seen as a step away from the free downloadable-client model for mobile phones, and toward more one-off deals with carriers.
“Whenever Skype can work with a mobile operator to make the mobile Skype app work well – which is what they’re doing with Verizon – they’ll do just that,” a spokesperson for the company told InformationWeek in an e-mail. “Finally, where the company can make downloadable mobile Skype apps truly great, they'll shout from the rooftops."
Skype released a version of its software for the iPhone a year ago. Last October, AT&T, which had previously blocked VoIP applications on its cellular network, said it would begin allowing the software, including Skype.
