Skype on the iPod

Skype on the iPod Touch makes an already useful device into a truly must have device. Skype gives the Touch the ability to make calls to cell phones, landlines, and more than 16 million active users. Besides making the Touch a much less expensive iPhone, Skype, and VoiP in general, hints at the future of mobile computing, and wireless communication.

With a simple free download to your iPod and a pair of 30 dollar headphones you can have an iPhone with out the hefty monthly price tag. Granted to make a call outside the Skype user network you need to have a monthly subscription starting at about 3 dollars a month, but overall Skype is probably the best 3 dollars you can spend on a communication service. Call quality depends on Wifi strength and speed but it is very comparable to cell phones. Besides the obvious convenience of having a mobile VoiP device, there are some cool extra features that users can leverage.

I use my Skype account in conjunction with a Skype In number to have a 406 area code number for my business. Having a 406 number instead of a 509 number may seem like a small thing, but I’ve noticed customers’ having more confidence they’re dealing with a large company instead of some kid with a cell phone. I also have it set up to forward call coming in on the Skype line to my cell phone. Which again besides the obvious convince of being able to receive calls whenever I’m not on my computer or have Skype on my Touch turned on, it sounds really advanced to customers when we say we have a phone system that automatically forwards calls to our referees when we’re in the field.

So what can VoiP, Skype, and the iPod tell us about the future of computing and communication? Well for starters before the iPod could make phone calls it was already a useful device for interacting with the web and increasingly the cloud. Devices like the iPod represent a new way of leveraging the cloud with the heavy computing done server side and the user interacting on small mobile device. Now, with the availability of VoiP and Skype on these devices you have a low cost web and communication platform that is only limited by the availably of wifi access. Which brings me to my main point, if there was a national broadband network not only would more people have access to a more necessary commodity, but also more people could use Skype and iPods to interact and communicate. This future may not be that far away with the release of the white space spectrum that the digital TV switch opened up. This spectrum’s ability to travel farther distances means that it’s becoming more cost effective and feasible to build such a network.