Will There Be A Skype Client on the iPhone?

Rumors of a Skype client for the iPhone made the rounds at both MacWorld and CES last week and one has to figure where there's smoke, there's fire.

With Skype Lite released for many mobile phones, and now a lightweight Android client that is mostly a clone of iSkoot, the iPhone remains the biggest market that Skype doesn't have their own client on (Truphone and Fring beat them there) so one has to figure the lure is too great to pass up.

But Skype is an app that is really about persistant availability, not simply for calling. The iSkoot client and the new Android Skype Lite both provide that, but the iPhone's SDK doesn't permit that (yet) so how Skype works around that will likely require the use of Skype Out and forwarding. Also, Skype is an IM based platform so expect there to be some IM to SMS functionality when the client isn't in the foreground.

One big issue though that Skype has to get around will be the simultaneous log in and consistent real time updates of the contact list on the iPhone. What I'm seeing with various Skype devices from Belkin, Phillips, the Nokia N810 client, Linux, Mac and PC, plus  iSkoot and Fring is that no two other than the Linux, Mac and PC versions seem to show the same contacts state being the same all the time. Then there's the Mylo, which has a 1000 contacts limit, making it useless for Skype power users.

These are all issues that can be solved, but until they are, Skype on the iPhone will be best handled by others who have already figured most of it out.