Skype First big mobile move with Verizon

Today at Mobile World Congress, Skype and Verizon announced that Skype will be made available on Verizon Wireless smart phones in March. What this mean is that users with data plans can make Unlimited Skype-to-Skype call, send messages and see each others presence. So Users with unlimited data package can pretty much call other Skype users on mobile for free unlimited. Iam sure there is some kind of revenue sharing between Skype and Verizon or Skype could be using Verizon network for PSTN /Mobile termination. So this should generate additional revenue for Verizon.

The Skype client on Verizon Mobile can be used for following:
• make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
• call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
• send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
• remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

So this is quite big news for couple of reason. Verizon which is more conservative when it comes to opening up their network has chosen Skype to be part of their network. In addition, They are allowing Skype client to use their data network for Skype to Skype calls, sending messages and presence. All these years, operators made sure Skype was not eating into their lunch. Now, things have changed. As Om suggest , the landscape of mobile is changing and operators don’t call the shot anymore. It’s the consumers who call the shot (That’s Right!), so allowing subscribers to make Skype calls from mobile is giving some incentive to the existing subscribers to stay with Verizon. With iPhone, AT&T is growing crazy and lot of new subscribers signing up everyday just to own an iPhone. I don’t think Verizon has any handset that can directly compete with iPhone. So the new strategy might be to provide more useful apps than compete with iPhone directly. Maybe Apple will work with Verizon in future, till then they will surprise users with some cool new apps.

Initially, Skype mobile will be available on following 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

Is this an exclusive deal with Verizon or Will AT&T follow suit, don’t know yet. Stay tuned, will dig more.

Nokia: Sorry Apple we beat you by a mile

Sorry folks, you won’t believe this but it’s true that Nokia’s handset sale is way ahead of any other competitor in the world. Last year alone, Nokia sold a total of 432 million handsets, which is 17 times more than what apple sold last year. Apple sold a total of 25 million handset last year. It’s sad to see Motorola loose the ground, they stand at number 5. In fact the faired poor compared to the year 2008 in which they sold 8% of handset.

According to Communities Dominate blog , Here are the TOP 10 Handset makers.

ALL HANDSET MAKERS TOP 10:

1 - Nokia . . . . . . . 432 Million 38 %
2 - Samsung . . . . 227 Million 20 %
3 - LG . . . . . . . . . . 117 Million 10 %
4 - SonyEricsson . . . 57 Million 5 %
5 - Motorola . . . . . . . 55 Million 5 %
6 - ZTE . . . . . . . . . . 50 Million 4.5%
7 - Kyocera . . . . . . . 45 Million 4 %
8 - RIM . . . . . . . . . 35 Million 3.5%
9 - Sharp . . . . . . . . 29 Million 2.6 %
10 - Apple . . . . . . . . 25 Million 2.2 %
Others . . . . . . . . . . 56 Million 5%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . 1,130 Million (1.13 Billion)

From the above data you can see where Apple stands. It has a total of 2.2% market share compared to 38% share by Nokia. From a revenue standpoint iam not sure if Nokia made more than Apple considering the high price of iPhones. In addition, Steve jobs claimed they made more money than any other handset vendor in the world. Sounds like a stretch.

Nokia leads the pack even in the Smartphone arena, Apple stands at Number 3.

From a Smartphone standpoint:
1 - Nokia . . . . 68 Million 39%
2 - RIM . . . . . 35 Million 20%
3 - Apple . . . . 25 Milllion 15%
4 - HTC . . . . . 8 Million 5%
5 - Others . . . 35 Million 21%
Total . . . . . . 175 Million

So looks like all those people who doubted the capability of Nokia to withstand the newcomers like Apple and Google, you are wrong. Nokia is ready for the game and is doing good compared to all their competitors. In addition,Nokia is all set to open source their flag ship Symbian OS this Thursday

For more details, check out this blog