Russ Shaw, Skype’s general manager for mobile, has let slip that Nokia and Skype are working together on a dedicated Skype phone. Read on for more.
Shaw was stopped before giving away too many tasty secrets, but the Nokia Skype phone’s place on the companies’ “joint roadmap” was revealed. Exactly how would a dedicated Skype phone work though?
To be truly useful, the phone would still need access to 3G Mobile Internet, to make calls on the go rather than just when in range of a Wi-Fi network. So, Nokia would still need to have a network on board, but VoIP – which is the technology Skype works off – cuts out the network, removing its call charges. So they wouldn’t be too keen on signing the device up for distribution.
ElectricPig has suggested that this Nokia Skype phone might work as a hybrid device, switching between standard mobile calls and Skype calls depending on which method is preferable – effectively making the Skype element invisible to whoever’s using it.
It’s a very neat idea, and one we’d love to check out first-hand, but there are a few stumbling blocks Nokia and Skype have to climb over before getting this phone in the hands of the average mobile user.
via ElectricPig
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