Skype poised to release hybrid Wi-Fi cell phone
Skype is great and all, but what happens when you decide to leave the comfort of your local hotspot for uncharted waters? Bye-bye Skype. Sure, there are mobile Skype clients that work on Symbian and Windows Mobile systems, but none of them are terrible graceful. Hoping to counter this, Skype has announced plans to release a Skype-branded mobile phone that will be equally comfortable on a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Working in conjunction with European company 3, the Skype phone will also feature 3G HSDPA connectivity for ultra fast data access. Nice! The phone will apparently be able to seamlessly handoff calls between the Skype and cell network. much like current UMA offerings from companies such as T-Mobile. No word on price, but expect this to be available sometime next month in Britain, Italy, Hong Kong, and Australia. U.S. availability isn’t looking too hot at the moment, though.
God if it weren’t for some of the limitations other companies have placed on their networks this might an awesome option. And if the specs are good enough it would be a replacement phone for lots of people.
A phone like that would almost make me drop my blackberry….I’m still waiting for that google phone though