During the iPhone OS 4.0 event Apple announced that the new OS will support multitasking for 3rd party applications and one such app is Skype, which can now apparently run in the background waiting for incoming calls whilst you do other things reports an article over on wired.

Skype on the iPhone without being able to run in the background is basically limited to outgoing calls but is a convenient extra to the iconic handset although not reliable for day to day communication, but with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 in the summer that could change.

During the iPhone OS 4.0 press conference, the head of product development for Skype, David Ponsford said that it was simple to implement, “just a dozen lines of code.”

However without Skype being able to take advantage of AT&T’s 3G connection it still remains limited to WiFi even though Skype release an updated version of the app which was presumed would work over 3G and Skype did say 3G calling would be “coming real soon.”

Apparently back on March the 22nd a post by Dragev on Skype’s forum claimed that he had spoken to “Peter” and that he has stated that Skype had scrapped 3G on the iPhone due to signing an exclusive deal with Verizon Wireless to offer 3G service or due to the AT&T network not being able to handle it.

This means, for the moment anyway, if you want to make 3G calls over Skype you will still need to jailbreak your iPhone to do so.