Motorola and Skype join forces

Motorola and Skype Technologies have announced their intention to work together on a co-marketing collaboration that will provide greater connectivity options and access for Skype’s more than 25 million registered worldwide users.

The alliance will explore opportunities broadly across both companies, leveraging Motorola’s strength in seamless mobility, advanced technologies, mobile devices and accessories and Skype’s rapidly-growing global user base and rich voice and messaging communication tools. The initial focus of the collaboration will be on co-marketing of new optimized Motorola ‘Skype Ready’ companion products, such as Bluetooth® headsets, dongles, and speakerphones, as well as delivery of the Skype Internet Telephony experience on select Motorola mobile devices.

“By making Voice over IP truly mobile and easily accessible, we can make communications seamless for consumers as they travel throughout the environments of their day – at work, at home, in the car, or out in the world,” said Liz Altman, vice president of business development, Motorola Mobile Devices. “With over 68 million downloads of their client in the last 18 months, we believe Skype is a natural fit with our vision of simple and seamless connectivity for our consumer customers around the globe.”

Skype takes communications to a new and global era with its free, multi-faceted and rich communication tools, enabling users to make free voice calls and rich messaging connections via the Internet. Skype is the leading VoIP-category product worldwide, with more than 25 million registered users.

Motorola ‘Skype Ready’ companion products are expected to be available in the first half of 2005.

Skype, allows people everywhere to make free, unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its award-winning innovative peer-to-peer software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC platforms. Skype is available in 22 languages and is the fastest growing voice communications offering worldwide. Since its launch in August 2003, Skype has been downloaded more than 66 million times. Skype Technologies S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg and is growing its offices in London and Tallinn.

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