3 and Skype make Skypeing from mobiles dead easy

Stuart Corner
Monday, 29 October 2007 15:24

Your IT - Home IT

Skype and 3 in the UK have introduced a mobile handset with a button that provides direct access to Skype software enabling users to make free Skype to Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages  to other Skype users. 3 Australia is expected to announce the local launch at a press conference, purpose not disclosed, scheduled for Tuesday 30 October.

According to Michael van Swaaij, acting CEO at Skype, “This new handset is incredibly easy to use...It takes an innovative operator like 3 to challenge traditional thinking and offer the kind of product other operators are still shying away from.”
 
The handset was developed by Skype and 3 in partnership with Qualcomm. It uses Qualcomm’s BREW mobile application platform to enable Skype to work with core handset features such as address book and messaging.

0.    Skype and 3 said that the  Skypephone would be available this year in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. In the UK, the service will function so longas the user is  on contract or their prepaid credit is topped up monthly.  In the UK, the 3 Skypephone cost £49.99 ($A112) on aprepaid deal or free on a contract. It comes with at  2-megapixel camera, mp3 player, mobile TV and Internet. It is available (in the UK at least) in black or white, with blue or pink trim. It weights 86g, measures 100 x 44 x 13.6mm, has a claimed battery standby of 320 hours an  270 minutes talk time. It comes with 16MB internal memory and can take up to 1GB microSD external memory.