Downloads are still rising spectacularly. Sometimes at speeds of about 2500/minute!

Strange, while I've been on Holidays, I didn’t check the concurrent users online neither the downloads. Some minutes ago I made an update of my numbers and...

Downloads have gone up dramatically as shown on the graph below.

Indeed, the number of downloads were 500 per minute in June. Now, since about July 14 (French National Day?) it is around 1750 downloads per minute!

The only sensible explanation I see is the "Pakistan and India campaign" Skype launched in July, cutting SkypeOut prices in half!

Will this be the next Skype boost?

If it were all new users interested in the promotion concerning Pakistan and India (see my previous post below), then I would have expected also an increase in the number of SkypeOut purchases.

The graph below shows this isn’t the case.

The temporary increase in the number of purchases at the end of June could be due to Europeans leaving for Holidays and putting some more amounts on their account (this is pure speculation on my behalf!). But, no sensible increase in purchase orders due to the mentioned campaign can be seen on the graph in July.

Then on one of the download pages I saw this:

And on the lower part of the page:

So, could it be that a lot of Americans and Canadians download the Skype application and register new usernames just to be able to make some free calls?

Or could it be that a lot of people in other countries are tempted by the free offer, and don't read the small grayed out letters on the bottom of the web page?

Again, pure speculation, but I am still wondering what the real reason is of the increased number of downloads! In the past it always had something to do with promotions or really innovating new features. And I don't see anything like that now ... unless it really is the free minutes!