Essentially, this is an exclusive to Verizon (and only available in the U.S.) for now. The download is found on the Verizon tab of the Android Market on an Android device — Microsoft has specified it to be only available on a single carrier for now. How is that not exclusive?

And if this were actually true, there would have to a huge uprising amongst Android users, we would never hear the end of it, because I know when Apple does something they don’t like, there is an endless whining about it. If something like this happened on their own platform, then of course Android users would be even more vocal about it, right? Because it’s not like Skype and Bing broke built-in features of the phone like Google Voice with iPhone, this is just a pure dollar deal, just screwing over Android users for bucks. That is much worse. And yet we haven’t heard hardly a peep about it.

So I simply can’t believe any of this is true. Users who cannot run Skype and Bing just must not know how to use their Android phones.

15 minutes spent playing with a Droid X reminded me just how backwards is the carrier’s approach towards its customers. Widgets and icons strewn everywhere, with no consideration given to how they would be used. Really useful apps (Gesture Search) just missing.

And now, as Dilip points out, Skype is along for that ride. Only on Verizon. Then you have to turn WiFi on or off before you use it. Nuts.

The guy who owns the Droid X is around 70 years old. Smart, competent and curious, but unwilling to allocate a lot of time to solving other people’s stupid moves. He has this great tool in his hands, but he has to wade through an interface designed for short-term press releases, not utility. It’s hard to watch his frustration, hard to forgive the product team that configured that phone.

As a Canadian, I can’t even sign up for Verizon, but Skype is still not available to me. When I asked about it, Skype told me that they will continue exploring partnership deals.

These deals may help the carriers, but unless there’s an exclusivity payment to the service provider, I don’t see who really wins. Do people actually say “I like Skype, so I’ll get a Verizon phone?”