Skype Excluded from Ovi Store in the US Because of Verizon Deal

March 6th, 2010 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

When I couldn’t find Skype for Symbian at the Ovi Store here in the US after the announcement, I thought there was probably a temporary delay. However, a Skype representative told Venturebeat that the app was intentionally excluded to drive more attention to a recent deal with Verizon Wireless. Read on for the quote.

Verizon Skype

“Skype has made a decision in the United States to not promote the Skype for Symbian app through the Ovi Store. We did this so that we could drive more attention to the recently announced Skype and Verizon Wireless agreement. This was a marketing decision — plain and simple.

“Skype users in the U.S can still download Symbian by going directly to Skype.com.”

The Verizon/Skype service still says “coming soon,” but more information was promised this month. If you’re looking to download Skype for your Nokia Symbian phone and you’re currently in the US, head over to their website instead of the Ovi Store.

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  • Verizon/skype will be great. WE are all using skype because it's free and we want to save money, but not all of the time because sometimes there's no connection and no computer when going out of town so we still need a prepaid.
  • Juka
    Anybody know if Skype is gonna be updating the Maemo version, I used skype for Symbian recently and it looks like they get more functionality with the skype app i.e send photos and files thru skype.
  • Rex
    Quote:“Skype users in the U.S can still download Symbian by going directly to Skype.com.”

    iPhone users, pay attention:
    If the same thing had happened with the Skype app on the Appstore (assuming that there's already one- I don't know)- you would have no way to install the Skype app without resorting to jailbreaking.
    This is what flexibility's about- for any non Apple device.
    You can install any application from anywhere on Nokia, Ovi Store is not the only option.
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