Is Fring a new Skype?

It will be a couple of months since I became the proud owner of an iPhone. I am really happy to be able to check my email on the move, read news and navigate around town using features of my new gadget. One of the things missing would be IM support...

Therefore I was very happy to see that Fring has released its iPhone client that does not require jail braking. It is really great to be able to be in touch with my MSN Messanger and Skype contacts.

There is plenty of space for improvements, as the iPhone application is in its early days. But it can not only serve as IM (apart from aforementioned including Twitter, GoogleTalk, ICQ and Yahoo Messanger). It will also allow you to talk using VoIP with third party services and own clients on platforms like Symbian etc. It is quite impressive.

My main concerns are related to security and privacy. I am always uneasy when I am asked to share my user credentials across services. Would not it be great to use common well established and secure third party proxy for authentication? Thinking how many user accounts I have opened with various service providers, is it not time to unify all this? Are Microsoft Live ID or OpenID valid alternatives?