iPad owners who have been waiting for a native version of the Skype Internet phone service got their wish on Monday night. 9to5Mac.com reports that the app was available to download from the App Store and goes into detail about its various features. However just a few hours later the app was removed from the store. Skype"s Twitter feed has a couple of messages addressing the removal of the iPad app, saying that it was taken down "to ensure your best Skype experience". There"s no word on when the app will be made available for download again.
For iPad owners who were lucky enough to download the Skype app before it was pulled, the app works much like a previous video that showed off the features of the Skype iPad app. That includes using the iPad"s touch screen to scroll through your contacts and tap onto one of them to call them with Skype"s video phone features. You will be able to enable full screen video chat with your Skype contacts and also text chat and dial directly from the app"s interface. All of these features are free but you can also pay some money to contact any phone number in the world with low rates.
As we have reported in the past, Skype is set to be acquired by Microsoft in the very near future. The acquisition was announced last May with Microsoft paying $8.5 billion. Microsoft has already pledged to support Skype on non-Microsoft made products and services when the deal closes, hopefully later this year.
Update: The Skype app for iPad is now available to download again.