Google’s Android mobile OS has been around for some time, and keeps getting better.  This morning I discovered the wonderful news that Skype had finally arrived for Android.  I immediately downloaded the new app – it installed beautifully but alas, it would not connect.  At first I thought it had something to do with my phone’s internet connectivity, but I quickly checked and had no problems opening the phone’s web-browser and surfing.  Hmmmmm.  What could be the issue I wondered.  I’m running version 2.1 of the OS, so that can’t be it.  So I checked Skype’s website.  As it turns out, Skype for Android is not universally compatible across hardware just yet.

What, what?

A check of the Skype website (http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/10/android.html) provides all kinds of exciting information about the new Skype app in bright, colorful images and text.  Then however, in dull, smaller sub-text” come the disclaimers that Skype is aware of problems with using the app on Samsung Galaxy S model phones. Again – what, what?  Of the two top-selling Android phones on the market, HTC Android phones have no problems – yet the more capable Galaxy line does?

Why even release the app then if it is still in a “Beta” stage and cannot be used by half of the Android-based users out there???  This is a great disappointment for all of us who have been waiting quite patiently for Skype to become available on the Android platform.  Kind of like getting a toy for Christmas only to find out you can’t play with it for a few months.

While Skype works to correct this apparent lapse in development/release judgment, the rest of you out there with a non-Samsung Galaxy S based Android might have better luck.  Go ahead, check it out!  Despite the grumblings of those disenfranchised users, Skype truly is an incredible business tool for communication and collaboration.  For us here at Technology2Reality, Skype on a mobile phone represents the promise technology offers to un-chain us from the desk.  It allows us to be more productive, more efficient, and more accessible.   I guess I’ll just have to wait a little bit longer…

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