except for voice call. it work 10 times better than mobile skype and yes it is very popular in latin america almost no one uses mobile skype. mobile skype sucks it is laggy you get messages a day later or not even at all some times. skype has not done a good job of working mobile and pc version at the same time.
I have both on my phone because I live in Panama
why tied to phone number well thats the way they did it you can run it on pc with virtual android app but still have to verify it with number.