Interesting advertising for the X-series by 3.
I have not tested any of these devices below. So basically I could not tell you anything hands on about these concept. But I love the advertising, especially the word FREE UNLIMITED INTERNATIONAL advertising.
I wish the guys from Hutchison / Whampoa and www.three.co.uk would pick up this blog and send me one of those fancy cellphones, so I could write something substantial on this matter. I read to many blogs stating that the Skype for Mobile does not really work, and honestly I have not 
seen it working myself. I tried with the Skype Mobile on my HP Ipaq and it sucked. I wish I could say something else, but I really would not dear to sell this concept right to any business-guy. Really not. Maybe I am biased, but even that will exactly be the problem that you will encounter in many businesses. You must convince the prospect by showing the real goods, the real system. Here and now. Slideshows and press-releases are useless on that matter. I have attended too much meetings and presentations already that are nothing more than the battle of slideshows.
Show me something that works, something that really works.
Current status : no sample. no report. all is marketing mystery and hear say. We need to see more real people in business running around stating : “hey look at this, my nokia is working with skype and I have less costs and the sound quality is good”.
On the 3's website they explain the "free unlimited international call with Skype " :
-Unlimited Data: Fair Use Limit: 1 GB each month
-Unlimited Skype to Skype(!) calls: Fair Use Limit: 5,000 minutes each month
About: Skype Mobile
Here (in Hungary) one guy tested the Skype Mobile with a PDA+GSM (Eten Glofiish M700) a few weeks ago with EDGE and WiFi connections, its works, (the sound quality was better on WiFi, just a small scratch and slide). His main problem was the energy consumption of the continuous online state with EDGE ( -80% after 10 hour, 1530 mAh). The article (only in hungarian), and the writer's mail here: http://www.pdamania.hu/blog/wyx/7621/
Posted by:Kobaljov | 04 February 2007 at 03:08 AM
Nokia N800 + spec Skype from CES:
"Wireless operator 3 is a rare case of a mobile network carrier which has opened up its fast network at relatively low prices. For 5 pounds ($9.69) per month, a subscriber gets unlimited Skype calls, as well as unlimited Internet access, Podcasts and Windows Live Messenger. "
[..]
"Even if consumers would want to use Skype on another telecommunications network, the software would not work on it. The reason is that it was developed to run on a specific part of the 3 network which requires cooperation from the carrier, Lagier said. "We use a voice channel as the bearer of the call." "
(http://news.com.com/2100-7352_3-6149309.html)
Posted by:Kobaljov | 03 February 2007 at 02:17 AM