The current iPod Touch supports the microphone on Apple’s new earphones; which makes for a very exciting possibility – namely that it should be able to function as a Skype phone. It is not a perfect solution, indeed it would have been much better for Apple to have incorporated an onboard mic, but it is certainly an interesting development.
I would say that the development of Skype for the iPod Touch will only be a matter of time. The iPhone Skype software will need a few modifications to function in the iPod Touch environment, but if the hardware capability exists, you can bet people are going to make use of it. Depending on how easily other mobile Skype software can be adapted to the Touch, I would say that we could see it within the next six months.
People have been speculating about this sort of thing for over a year, but it is the next generation Touch that has made it an inevitability. There were hacks to incorporate a microphone on the original Touch, but to get the mainstream support that would motivate developers to produce the software, it needs to have native capability – as that provides the potential market to make it worthwhile. Voice over IP capability would be a selling point in its own right and would attract buyers that might not otherwise be prepared to buy an MP3 player, or for that matter, an iPhone. [Various Sources]