
Fring’s mis-use of Skype software was damaging to our brand and reputation - rpledge
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/07/fring.html
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petercooper
The comments are the most interesting part there. It's OK for Skype to defend
itself against erroneous claims, but if they're not going to step up and
produce the clients that their customers want, their customers are going to
remain ticked off.

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tptacek
Reading between the lines, one take: "we didn't block them, but we told them
we were going to."

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TallGuyShort
I do think that's a fundamental difference though. Skype claims there was a
ToS violation, and they had been trying to resolve the issue with Fring. If
that's the case, hypocritical or not, it's unfair of Fring to announce that
they were blocked, implicitly with no warning. Admittedly, there's two sides
to every story, and it's pretty hard to see the facts through either side,
here.

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Malcx
Android user since day one here and had skype lite on my g1. I upgraded to the
HTC Desire and while it's a great phone, the official skype app is unavailable
in the uk marketplace for this specific model - I've no idea why, so I've been
using fring, but now I'm starting to have my first gripe with the Android
experience...

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redorb
Why is your gripe with Android and not Skype or Fring?

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Malcx
It's with skype primarily - and certainly not with android, but with the
"android experience" I.e. in this case, upgrading my phone means LESS
features.

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risotto
Fring sucks. It shows a lot of promise but its buggy as hell and it killed my
battery.

I hope it's not representative of other background VOIP apps.

Next question: where is the official Skype iOS4 app?

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woodall
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this like Twitter telling Tweetdeck that
their application is horrible- I have never used it, just an example- and that
they will no longer allow them to use their API?

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ja27
Maybe, but only if Brighthouse Cable was paying Twitter to only offer the
official Twitter client to Brighthouse customers.

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paul9290
Skype sold it's soul to Verizon with their crippled Verizon mobile app.

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drivebyacct2
What a joke:

"On Friday, for example, Fring withdrew support for video calls over Skype on
iOS 4 without warning, again damaging our brand and disappointing our
customers, who have high expectations of the Skype experience."

Right, which is why Skype on Android is abizmally bland, has no support for
any sort of video chat, is only available on Verizon, and doesn't work on
Wifi. Oh, and your iPhone client has a great video experience right?

You blocked fring because it doesn't support the Skype experience, which
you're defining as including video support. Hypocrite much? XMPP and Facetime
need to get with it.

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dcurtis
This has nothing to do with features or platforms.

Fring said it was based on Skype, it provided a bad experience, and therefore
damaged the _brand_ of Skype. Skype has every right - an obligation, really -
to protect its brand.

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Pengwin
Fring for android wasn't that bad, i found it quite alright to use. I used
Fring for one main reason: Skype has no Android client.

Now that Fring doesn't do Skype there is no way for me to use Skype on
Android. That is probably hurting their business just as much.

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eli
Maybe true, but it's Skype's call to make not yours.

