Skype suggests app users lack loyalty
Skype has labelled app users ‘fickle’, claiming there is little brand allegiance as consumers jump in and out of different free services.
With the giant of desktop video calling continuing to pursue a more mobile-orientated future, a Skype spokesperson has suggested that as consumer move to mobile platforms and easily accessible app-based services, they become more inconsistent in what services to use.
“People tend to go to an app for one feature that they like but they tend to be quite fickle,” Lara Kingwell, Skype’s Product Marketing Manager for Mobile said speaking with TrustedReivews.
She added users’ individual service choices “tend to be about where groups of people go,” more than sticking which brands and platforms they used in their desktop days.
Despite this ‘fickle’ mobile user persona, Kingwell has stressed that mobile is integral to Skype’s future.
“For Skype to succeed in the future, it’s critical that we get mobile right,” she told us.
Although putting much focus on increasing its mobile standing, Kingwell has suggested Skype is being extremely wary of the fickle nature of users.
“The market feels so dynamic to us and it feels that even where we deliver a feature that is great for a user, there is still loads of scope [for users] to shift between different apps.
“We don’t think by any means that users are settled and if we did have that view I think we would become quite complacent.”
One of the reasons Skype has highlighted in its need to improve its mobile standing is the rise of rival messaging services such as BBM and WhatsApp.
Discussing the impending WhatsApp takeover by Facebook, Kingwell claimed the move could be beneficial to the wider industry.
“We think [the WhatsApp takeover] is really exciting,” she said.
“For the industry as a whole it is really dynamic and things are moving really fast. We think it is a very exciting time and it is putting more importance for us on the fact that we have to get mobile right for Skype.”
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