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Skype to Launch a Mobile Phone Like Device

By Robert | October 21, 2007

Skype is facing some problems at the moment and the latest move the company aims to make stands to fix things a little. We are talking about plans to develop a new product that will turn Skype in a completely mobile solution. This basically means that we are going to have a device similar to a cell phone that will utilize Skype. On the other hand, we need to wonder why bother with this since VoIP was the concept behind Skype.3 Mobile is the UK carrier that is working with Skype on the project code named “white phone”.

It should launch at the end of this month in Italy, Australia, Hong Kong and Britain, with plans to market it in other countries later. We might also expect to see different deals with other carriers or special versions for US consumers.
Skype did not issue an official statement concerning this although the company did confirm that they are collaborating with a wireless carrier (no name was officially given) in order to deliver a new product. They also claim that this move will be a radical step in Internet call mobilization for individuals.

Various wireless carriers resisted the idea of implementing a mobile VoIP solution but this might soon change. We even noticed that some carriers asked manufacturers to eliminate Wi-Fi from mobile phones in order to step users from making cheap phone calls utilizing VoIP. On the other hand, we did not see this happening so we should not be surprised to see this project from Skype becoming popular among consumers. We are dealing with a touchy subject here but if it happens, many individuals will be happy. The US market does seem problematic as VoIP calling capability is disabled in many mobile phones that do have Wi-Fi capability. This fact is not noticed in Europe though, so it does make sense that Skype would launch the cell phone like device there!

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