Other web-based IM clients for the iPhone include BeeJive, Giz5, Meebo and Mundu. There are also various native IM clients such as Apollo and MobileChat that can be installed on jailbraked iPhones.
There is currently no big name native IM client such as Skype for the iPhone and iPod touch, though this may change after Apple's Apps Store opens later this month.
An advantage of having a big name native IM carrier on the iPhone or iPod Touch is the large existing user base. Skype has more than 300 million users, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger together have even more users.
However, Apple has indicated that VoIP-capable software won't be accepted for the Apps Store, apparently because this would affect the voice revenue of its carrier partners.
Which IM network you choose is largely determined by whatever is being used by the people you want to communicate with. Consequently, many people favour unofficial clients capable of connecting simultaneously to multiple IM services.
Google has aimed to bring as much of the look and feel of the desktop version as possible to the iPhone/iPod implementation. The main limitation of Google Talk for the iPhone stems from the iPhone's architecture: only one browser window or application can be active at a time, so if a user navigates away from Google Talk the status changes to 'unavailable' and Google Talk must be restarted on return.
To try Google Talk, go to www.google.com/talk.
Why will some carriers welcome Google Talk while others will fear it? The answer is on page 2.
iPhone and iPod touch now talking with Google Talk
Google has released a version of its Google Talk IM product specially optimised for the iPhone and iPod touch. Google Talk runs in the Safari browser, so no installation is required, unlike native IM clients for Macs and PCs that must be downloaded and installed before use.
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