Skype Hype: One Million Downloads and Counting

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It was just three days ago that the new Skype application for iPhone became available for free on iTunes. Within 48 hours, it surpassed one million downloads making it one of the most popular downloads ever.

I don't know about Apple; but Skype has clearly hit one over the back fence on this deal.

Deep thoughts on this one:

- Skype has kind of just skipped along for a few years picking up users, pardon the pun, mainly by word of mouth. Here's how it goes: someone signs up for Skype and then immediately is enticed to persuade others to do the same. Phone calls among Skype users are free. Now iPhone users are downloading it like crazy; as in one more customer downloading it every six seconds. I smell critical mass for Skype, at last.

- What does this mean, in the long run, for telcos. Will Skype become the new way of getting around cell phone bills? Cell phone carriers are setting themselves up for a comeupance. They frequently over price features, screw up billing and use complex plans to bamboozle customers into accidently running up higher bills by accident. Frankly, I wish Skype well.

- What does this mean for eBay? Everyone laughed (except eBay stockholders) back in 2005, when eBay bought Skype for a crazy 2.6 billion dollars.

I wonder how AT&T, the iPhone's official and exclusive cell phone carrier, feels about all of this.

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Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio