News from MWC: Nokia will preinstall Skype on N97

The second day of the MWC 2009 is now over and we are particularly happy about Nokia's announcements. First of all, it wasn't a secret that there were going to be some introductions into Nokia's Nseries smartphones. So at the end of the day we have the N86 8MP announced for the second quarter with the price under 400 USD. But that is not all. Evenly with devices, Nokia and Skype declared they have arrived at the point, considering each other's success and future potentials, where world's foremost Internet communications experience can and should come together with up-to-date handsets. Which are initially downscaled computers in their view.

Of course, we are not fooling anyone and mobile versions of Skype can easily be downloaded and installed for a long time now. However it didn't stop Skype and Nokia to make some ballyhoo about preinstalled software. In my view the point of it is that Skype is looking forward to raise its funds on this move because required WLAN and 3G are now very common and widely spread. Anyway, the first handset with preinstalled Skype will be Nokia's Nseries flagship N97. This will happen in the third quarter and afterwards all Nseries and other models will come out with it. Policy with preinstalled soft will have few advantages for end users - primarily it means no bugs. Skype will feature address book adoption with contact info, status, chat and Skype-to-Skype calls. All free as usual. Calls to landlines, mobile phones and SMS still have to be paid of course.