Skype on Microsoft Smartphones

This is a big deal in the world of Skypeland. First; this week they announce a Partnership with a Japanese landline and infrastructure provider called HGC - to offer a cobranded Skype client and voice communication service to its user base. I applaud HGC as they "get it" delivering the pipe is much more important than the services that run on it, or I should say delivering the pipe is a much more compelling (and profitable) business to be in. Other telco's should heed this trend, the more prolific broadband becomes the less profitable voice service is. It is pretty basic reasoning.

Now it is rumored that Skype is going to be developed on a Windows Smartphone device. I wrote about an interview with Niklas Zennstrom, CEO of Skype, speaking of the plans to develop Symbian and Palm OS versions of Skype for mobile users, so it looks like it is moving forward quickly.

3GSM World Congress coverage: i-mate to announce partnership with Skype at 3GSM
February 08, 2005 [Pocket PC phone]
Jim Morrison, Founder & CEO of i-mate will announce partnership with Skype, thanks to which Skype will be integrated into i-mate branded Windows Mobile devices. i-mate devices are the first in the world to be integrated with Skype technology.

This announcement will take place on i-mate's yacht, the Bellissima at 06.00 PM on Monday Feb 14th. Aboard the Bellisima yacht Elec Cookie - a rising Korean electric violin band will play music for the enjoyment of press:

So in any wireless broadband coverage area, Wifi, 3G - you will have full voice and IM functionality on your handheld with no cost other than your data. This is very powerful and very disruptive at the same time.

The imate looks like a great unit as well.