Skype for the iPhone will be available for download from the iTunes AppStore tomorrow (Tuesday, March 31). In the meantime, the Twittersphere has been, er, atwitter with links to reviews from the telco luminaries at CNET and GigaOm with reviews that have been universally favorable. For those, like me, who found the most value in using Skype from the PC to make inexpensive international calls, word is that “it’s all that!” and much more. So it is that a wide variety of both enterprise- and service provider-oriented infrastructure vendors have accelerated introduction of solutions sets that integrate screen-supported handling or origination of voice calls, voicemail, chat, conferencing and related call processing.

For the likes of Siemens, Avaya and the cohort of IP-based and hybrid CPE vendors, this is a matter of survival as the likes of Microsoft, Skype and (to a lesser degree) Google strive to virtualize their core call processing and CTI resources. Siemens, for its part, has reconfigured its product portfolio to make it more affordable and easy to install and operate. There is simplified, competitive pricing for OpenScape Xpressions V6 (which is a Unified Messaging–>Unified Communications upgrade for the installed base of HiPath 4000 switchign systems) and a new set of OpenScape UC Applications (V3 R1). The secret sauce in Siemens packaging — aside from the fact that it was the “first-in” to the UC marketplace with groundbreaking products for multi-vendor environments dating back five years — is low-cost “per-user” pricing.

For its part, Avaya has put its stock in Aura, which puts new Session Manager software in the enterprise network to take charge of Avaya’s Communications Manager, Presence Manager and other applications servers, including those from other vendors. It is offered in conjunction with Avaya’s professional services which are required in many instances. The distributed contact center (supporting multiple sites, including home workers) is bound to be the first set of applications to be supported in the form of the SIP-based Avaya Intelligent Customer Routing, that enables companies to route communications and information to the correct agents and experts, regardless of the equipment in use at that location.

Over in the service provider “cloud” Alcatel Lucent has taken a major swing for the fence with the Rich Communications Manager that it will showcase at the CTIA (Cellular Telephone and Internet Association) convention in Las Vegas later this week. Alu’s RCM reportedly uses a Web-based portal to enable both mobile and desktop users to drag-and-drop photos, video and text across voicemail, SMS, MMS, email, fax, calendars, and address books. Like Google Voice, it puts all messages (voice, text, transcribed voicemail) into a unified inbox that can be managed on the desktop.

This introduction of communications innovation in rapid succession is a great sign for the industry as a whole. There may be some technology overhang as the customers take their time to install the new services and platforms. At the same time, vendors are making sure that the new stuff doesn’t totally obsolete the installed base of working solutions.

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