Skype Beta for your Mobile Phone
Following recent moves to extend Skype™ conversations to a wide variety of new mobile and wireless devices, Skype is taking another major step as it continues to merge its internet communications software with mobile phones. Today, the company released a beta version of Skype for your mobile, a mobile “thin“ client that works on about 50 of the most popular Java-enabled mobile phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
The beta version of Skype for your mobile is available worldwide with a feature set that includes chat, group chat, presence (seeing when your contacts are online), and receiving calls from Skype users, and through SkypeIn.* Additional features, which include the making of Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handsets, are initially supported in seven markets: Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
“These are still the early days for making Skype calls on mobile phones, but we’ve already made great strides in this space,” said Gareth O’Loughlin, general manager, mobile and hardware devices. “Among other things, we have a great relationship with 3, the mobile operator, which has brought the mobile Skype experience to eight markets through the 3 Skypephone and a range of other packages and phones. Skype for your mobile will expand the available options even further.
“While Skype for your mobile is in beta,“ O’Loughlin added, “it is an important time for us to listen to our users‘ feedback, be it through surveys or user forums. We need to hear what delights them and where there is still work to be done. But this product underscores our commitment to innovation and to putting Skype conversations in the pockets of today’s mobile masses.”
With its beta version, Skype for your mobile enters a public testing phase that will help Skype gauge the response of technology-savvy users whose feedback will help tweak the offering. This phase is expected to last several months, after which a public version of the application will be made available to millions of mobile phone owners around the world.
Skype for your mobile beta means you can call your contacts whenever you need to – no computer, WiFi zone, or special phone needed. With Skype on your mobile phone you can make calls to anyone on Skype while you’re going about your daily business, on the bus, queuing for tickets, sunbathing in your back garden.
- • Works on almost 50 handsets, with a data plan.
- • Costs just a little to make and receive calls.
- • See when your contacts are online.
- • Instant message or call them using Skype.
- • Save on mobile calls to friends and family overseas.
Great for all mobile Skype users, but we S60 users are still waiting for a non Java version for S60!
There are two ways to get the beta version of Skype for your mobile: as a direct over-the-air download to a compatible mobile phone, or it can be downloaded to a computer and then transferred to the phone. For instructions, please visit
www.skype.com/go/mobiledownload. This Web page also includes a directory of currently supported mobile phones and the list of markets where the full feature set is available.
Source:
Skype Blogs