Nokia today announced at CES that it will work with Skype to build mobile version of IM/Voice client for Nokia N800. Nokia N800, which comes as an update for N770, was officially launched at CES yesterday. I had written about this upcoming news last year/last month.
Making Skype work on the tablet is a great idea but a difficult sell ’cause of the prohibitive price($350) of the tablet. I can’t imagine everyone rushing to get N800 just for Skype. Gizmo had done similar integration for N770 last year, but we have yet to see any stats on the uptake or the count of people using it for serious calling. Broad device support is what is required from Skype to better compete with upstarts like Fring, Truphone, and Gizmo who already have 1+ year lead in development of the technology.
Links:
Nokia Press Release
January 19, 2007 at 9:32 am |
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February 20, 2007 at 2:41 pm |
[...] Vonage is looking to prevent its VoIP ship from sinking by making a switch over to wireless side of world. And this news comes with a new name for the cheap calls for all provider- rebranded as Vonage Wireless. According to a BusinessWeek report, Vonage is planning the MVNO route as it struggles with falling customer acquisition rate for its traditional business and competition intensifies from cable companies, bad-old telcos, and likes of SunRocket, Skype,… which are all eating into Vonage’s market share. And all this is happening while Vonage fights out with Verizon over patent dispute related to use of the core technology behind its system. The patent claims, which cover pretty broad part of Vonage service including fraud detection, billing, and features such as call-forwarding, threaten the very existence of Vonage service and other VoIP providers. [...]