Skypephone 2 at 3 August 18?
While I can find no press release from any of Skype, iSkoot or 3, it appears there was some 3 media event yesterday where it was announced that 3 will be introducing a new Skypephone 2 on August 18. Key new features include:
- 3G mobile broadband supporting HSDPA
- a 3.2 Mpixel camera (vs the current 2.0 Mpixel)
- integration of Skype contacts into the phone's address book
- support for email (post-launch date)
- software to allow the Skypephone to be used as a modem when plugged into a PC (tethering)
- slightly larger screen (2.2 inch QVGA)
- RSS feed support
- a built-in Facebook application
- pricing of £69.95 on Pay-As-You-Go or free for contract customers
Chris Dawson at TameBay saw one yesterday:
The Skypephone however is the only handset in the world that has Skype built-in as an “always on” embedded tool rather than as an add-on application. That means it doesn’t eat into your data allowance and 3 allows a generous 4,000 Skype minutes and 10,000 Skype chat messages a month for free on the Skypephone.
At this same event it was also confirmed that 3 will be carrying the Blackberry Bold (where you have a full QWERTY keyboard for handling email and other keyboard-intensive activities).
Not exactly a quiet summer for smartphone introductions!
Tags: Skype, Skypephone, 3
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Comments
The real question is: has 3 un-crippled the phone for this new release? The current 3 SkypePhone does not allow receiving calls from a SkypeIn in number, nor does it allow you to use SkypeOut to place calls. *You can only make Skype calls to other Skype user IDs.* Thus, when you make international calls with it, you are paying 3's international rates, rather than using SkypeOut (possibly with the worldwide flat-rate plan Skype now offers). Thus, the "money saving" attraction of Skype is simply not there. The people I knew that all purchased this to have a "truly mobile Skype experience" all returned it within the first 30 days when they discovered the phone had been crippled by 3.
None of the enhancements listed here would do anything to make the new version more attractive than the existing version, if the phone is still crippled when it comes to SkypeIn/SkypeOut.
Posted by: Chris Wichura | July 24, 2008 07:28 AM