During our testing overall call quality seemed to be very good, although clearly it is dependent on the connection being used. You will get the best results over a good WiFi connection. At times the client application can be a little slow, especially when starting up or dealing with processor intensive activities (e.g. processing a chat history). However it does match nearly the key desktop features (with the obvious exception of video), which is impressive for a mobile application.
It's interesting to note that Skype has also recently chosen to withdraw their Windows Mobile and Skype Lite (Java) clients stating that they were unable to provide the full Skype 'experience' that the company wanted to provide to its users. It is clear that Skype sees significant advantages in Nokia and Symbian's global reach, especially in markets where there is strong price sensitivity around telecommunication costs.
Incidentally the Nokia press release mentions in passing that Ovi Store downloads have now passed 1.5 million a day. With release like Skype becoming an increasingly common occurence that number is only going to increase as time goes by.
From the press release:
"Symbian enables us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and compelling services, such as Skype. We're seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day on Ovi Store now and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones will have wide appeal to Symbian users," said Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President for Smartphones, Nokia.
Russ Shaw, General Manager, Mobile at Skype said, "With Skype for Nokia smartphones, more than 200 million smartphone users worldwide will be able to take the Skype features they love with them on the move. Alongside Skype's relationships with operators and handset manufacturers worldwide, making Skype available direct to consumers will help millions of users keep in contact with the people that are important to them without worrying about the cost, distance or whether they are away from a computer."
Skype for Symbian can be downloaded through the Ovi Store or from the Skype website. There are a number of third party applications that enable access to Skype including Fring (which adds video support) and Nimbuzz.
Skype for Symbian is compatible with the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.
Postscript: Interestingly enough, the version being served up is 1.0.0.4, an update, although existing installed copies appear not to be checking for updates - so users have to go through the complete hassle of uninstalling Skype and then reinstalling, just to get the latest bug fix. Very disappointing. Skype needs to fix this.