Google's Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs, and analysts and industry experts have different takes on how these services match up. - When Google launched its Gmail calling service Aug. 25, the top question was how the VOIP service would impact Skype. Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. However, Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs, and analysts and ...

A Skype app for BREW-based Verizon Wireless handsets, such as the Samsung Reality and LG enV Touch and Chocolate, is now available. Verizon already offers such an app for Android and BlackBerry devices. - Verizon Wireless and Skype are expanding the handsets options on which Verizon customers can download and run Skype's voice-over IP (VOIP) mobile application. Following the launch ofthe Skype app for BlackBerry and Android-running handsets, the two have announced the availability of the Skype ...

Fring, which has enjoyed interconnectivity with Skype for four years, called the VOIP provider "cowards" for allegedly blocking Fring from offering video chat on smartphones. Skype said it didn't block Fring. - In a nasty war of words between VOIP providers, Fring accused Skype of blocking it from letting users make video calls on Apple's iPhone 4, Google Android and other smartphones and applied the quot;c-word quot; to the company. Fring, which has enjoyed interconnectivity with Skype for four year...

The number of mobile VOIP minutes will double every year, according to Juniper Research, reaching 470.6 billion by 2015. Traditional mobile operators need to address the trend, the analysts say. - The number of mobile VOIP minutes that will be carried on 3G and 4G networks every year will double annually over the next five years, according to Juniper Research, which will be a boon to such companies as Skype and Nimbuzz. In a report issued July 1, Juniper analysts said the annual mobile V...

Skype's low-cost calling service may soon find its way onto a consumer electronic device near you. On June 23, Skype unveiled a feature that makes it easier for developers to weave its communications tools into such devices as picture frames and TVs.

The company rolled out its SkypeKit, which is a set of tools needed to integrate Skype into various devices. Initially, access to SkypeKit will be available by invitation only.

Until now, hardware manufacturers have had to ask Skype whether they can integrate its service into its devices. Skype would provide its approved partners with the software code necessary to build the feature in. Partners Panasonic and Samsung have already integrated Skype into their Web-enabled TV

Now, Skype is opening up this special code to anybody. Any maker of consumer electronics can take this code and integrate it into its gadgets. That should make Skype available on many more devices.

But there are drawbacks to this move as well. With the release of SkypeKit, Skype is relinquishing some control over the Skype experience. It will be up to hardware makers to make sure Skype users have no problems using the software. Poor implementations could, potentially, affect Skype's brand.

The upside could be substantial, however. The number of Web-connected devices that could, potentially, use Skype, is on the rise. Gearmaker Ericsson recently predicted there will be 50 billion Web-connected devices by 2020. "Our goal is to expand Skype across multiple platforms and empower third-party device makers and desktop software developers to embed Skype into consumer electronics devices and desktop applications," Jonathan Christensen, general manager for platform at Skype says in an e-mail. "This can go as far as the imaginations of our developers."

Skype's VOIP software will now run on Sony Ericsson's Satio, Vivaz and Vivaz Pro smartphones, which use the latest version of the Symbian mobile operating system. Skype is making a push to get its software onto more devices, from traditional PCs to mobile devices to consumer electronics such as HD televisions. - Skype is continuing to expand the reach of its video conferencing technology, pushing Skype software deeper into the mobile space. The VOIP (voice over IP) company June 15 announced that it is putting its Skype application on three Sony Ericsson smartphones that run the latest Symbian mobile o...

Skype will release a chat app with video in 2010 that will be available to all smartphones running Android unlike the Verizon Skype app for Android thats open only to Verizon customers. - Skype, a provider of VOIP (voice over IP) applications, plans to launch an application that can be used on any smartphone running Googles Android OS. “We will be bringing a direct-to-consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year,” Brianna Reynaud, with Skypes PR team, told SkatterT...

Google May 18 agreed to purchase real-time voice and video processing software maker Global IP Solutions (GIPS) for $68.2 million. Google may have targeted GIPS' assets to build a VOIP platform to compete with consumer VOIP market leader Skype, which has a loyal user base of over 400 million users. Looking at the entrenchment of Internet powers such as Google in search and Facebook in social networking as precedent, it will be nearly impossible to displace Skype from its lofty VOIP perch. - Google May 18 agreed to purchase Global IP Solutions (GIPS), which makes software for processing high-definition audio and video over the Web, for $68.2 million. The buy is a 27.5 percent premium on GIPS' closing share price from May 14. quot;The Web is evolving quickly as a development platf...

Skype is rolling out a Skype 5.0 beta for Windows that lets up to five people join a single video conference call. Other vendors such as Cisco Systems and Polycom are looking to expand their video collaboration capabilities. - Skype is expanding the capabilities of its video communications technology by enabling users to hold a conference with up to five people. The Skype 5.0 beta for Windows, which offers the group video calling capability, became available May 13. It is being offered as a free download. Currently, ...

Skype the week of May 10 will introduce a group video chat feature that will help it better compete with video collaboration offerings from the likes of Cisco, Polycom and LifeSize. The new Skype feature will first go into a free beta program, but the company will begin charging for it in the next three or four months, Skype officials said. - Skype reportedly will be rolling out a new function that will let up to five people participate in a video call at the same time, a capability that will let it counter the video conferencing capabilities of such vendors as Cisco Systems and Polycom. In an interview with the Associated Press, Nei...

The effort to let any Web service run over wireless networks may be dead.

On April 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Federal Communications Commission couldn’t tell the U.S.’s largest cable company, Comcast, not to interfere with certain types of traffic. This in effect reverses the FCC’s 2008 ruling, which allowed Web services like Web-calling provider Skype to run over most wired networks, and to grow and prosper faster.

Ever since, Skype and other services have lobbied the FCC to impose similar, so-called net neutrality rules on wireless networks of carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. The agency’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, has said he’d like to extend net neutrality rules onto wireless networks.

Now, however, Genachowski's ability to go ahead with the reforms may be severely crippled. While the FCC could appeal the court’s decision, that could be a drawn-out process. And it’s likely to halt any new net neutrality rulemaking and proceedings. That’s bad news for Skype, as well as a myriad of other Web services that depend on being able to run over various carriers’ networks to grow. These companies will have to work with the carriers to gain access to their networks via business negotiations – as Skype has already done with Verizon Wireless.

The effort to let any Web service run over wireless networks may be dead.

On April 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Federal Communications Commission couldn’t tell the U.S.’s largest cable company, Comcast, not to interfere with certain types of traffic. This in effect reverses the FCC’s 2008 ruling, which allowed Web services like Web-calling provider Skype to run over most wired networks, and to grow and prosper faster.

Ever since, Skype and other services have lobbied the FCC to impose similar, so-called net neutrality rules on wireless networks of carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. The agency’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, has said he’d like to extend net neutrality rules onto wireless networks.

Now, however, Genachowski's ability to go ahead with the reforms may be severely crippled. While the FCC could appeal the court’s decision, that could be a drawn-out process. And it’s likely to halt any new net neutrality rulemaking and proceedings. That’s bad news for Skype, as well as a myriad of other Web services that depend on being able to run over various carriers’ networks to grow. These companies will have to work with the carriers to gain access to their networks via business negotiations – as Skype has already done with Verizon Wireless.

Skype Mobile will be available initially on Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones, including the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630, as well as Droid by Motorola, Droid Eris by HTC and Motorola Devour. - Verizon Wireless and Skype announced at CTIA Wireless March 23 that Skype Mobile will become available March 25, quot;starting with nine Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones. quot; The deal allows Skype Mobile customers to quot;make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype con...

Seeking startup funding may soon get easier. A group of venture capital firms led by Andreessen Horowitz on March 1 unveiled a Web site www.seriesseed.com designed to streamline the way startups apply for seed funds, cutting the number of documents young companies need to fill out.

The Web site, formed with the help of startup lawyer Ted Wang, contains 30 pages of free documents entrepreneurs can fill out to apply for $300,000 to $1.5 million of initial funding. Typically, such documents run about 100 pages and have to be customized by lawyers. The 30-page term sheet would have to be customized as well, but it would dispense with some sections typically unnecessary for early-stage investments, such as those dealing with prior investors. The idea behind the effort is to “save start-ups time and money,” Wang tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “The negotiations process will also be shorter.”

Ten well-known venture firms have committed to accepting these so-called Series Seed Documents. They include Charles River Ventures, SV Angel, Polaris Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, which is an investor into Web-calling company Skype and social games maker Zynga. “We are committed to making deals on these terms,” says general partner Ben Horowitz.

The venture firms hope others will end up supporting this effort as well. “I think this will become a new standard, and people will be able to raise money more quickly,” Wang says. Bloomberg LP or one of its subsidiaries is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz. Bloomberg LP also owns BusinessWeek.com.