The picture on the left is an actual screen shot of the Skype start-up screen on my Nokia E71.

Pretty cool - is it not?

In December 2009, there was a posting on the Skype website announcing the first beta of Skype on the Symbian (read: Nokia E and N series) platform.

I have now taken the Skype client for a prolonged test-drive - this is a very good product.

Update after publishing this article:

What you read in this post is my experiences with the beta release of the Skype client - you can now download the release version from Skype For Symbian web page. The annoyances mentioned in this article is still present in the production version, and the main menu has a added feature. However, for all practical purposes, the behavior of the beta version mentioned in this article is the same as the released version.

One thing worth mentioning, is that Skype have added the ability to easily do Skype Out call from the main menu.

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Some good news from the read worthy Skype Journal: Skype SILK codec in the IETF standards process.

This IS major news. As Phil Wolff points out, one of the three obstacles for Skype is now being solved. In my opinion, the codec issue has been one of the most difficult for Skype - along with the Joltid issues.

From my perspective, one of the good thing about the SILK Speech Codec being put through an ITEF track is that the codec is now becoming open and usable for more than Skype users.

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Back in April 2009 I wrote about why I did not think that an IPO in 2010 is very likely for Skype.

One of the arguments I used was the issue Skype had with a patent with Joltid. Had is a very good word in this context, as Phil Wolff explain in The Skype's Not Falling.

What Phil, in my opinion, correctly states is that Skype has more than enough time to solve this issue by either license some other company's Peer-2-Peer technology - or - to code up their own.

Phil has been right on more than one occasion - and I doubt that is he is not right this time.

In a recent press briefing from ooVoo, the company state that they want a piece of the growing market for desk top communication software.

What's new with their service is their business offering, which enables desk top sharing, but also the ability to have multi-point video conferencing. Skype does not yet support multi-point video conferencing, but have desk top sharing for free in their current offering.

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eBay Inc. Announces Plan for 2010 Initial Public Offering of Skype.

Absolutely going to happen if you believe in corporate spin doctors.

I am not so sure eBay is going to IPO their Skype offering. Even if Skype did around USD 551 million in revenue 2008 this is really no reason why an IPO is going to happen.

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In my last coverage of the Skype beta client for Mac. In that posting I did note that it was now possible to buy access to WiFi networks with Skype credits - but only if you was using the Macintosh Skype client.

Now they have done it again in version 2.5.0.85 (and probably later).

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Is the real reason behind the court case between Joltid and eBay why Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis now state that they want to buy back Skype from eBay?

According to The New York Times this is exactly what the founders of Skype now want.

A very interesting fact is that Joltid was in fact founded by Zennström and Friis. I have not had the time to check the facts, but according to various rumors floating around on the Internet, Joltid is still owned by Zennström and Friis.

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