Skype, PDA Maker Ready Dual-Mode Handsets, Free Phoning

The PDA maker--i-mate, a unit of Carrier Devices--will formally introduce PDAs with Skype software pre-loaded at next week's GSM World Congress, in Cannes. The two companies said users will be able to use Skype immediately when they use their PDAs for the first time.

Kelly Larabee, spokeswoman for Skype in the U.S., said the PDAs are scheduled to be introduced in the U.S., Europe, and Asia in March. "You get your PDA and you'll be able to use it absolutely free with Wi-Fi," she said.

The handsets, expected to have a retail price of $850, are enabled in dual modes--GSM/GPRS and Wi-Fi--and come with Skype software loaded. Larabee said the two firms have worked for several months to integrate the software with the PDAs. In some circumstances, calls made over GSM and GPRS technology could be free, while others will be subject to small charges.

Skype users can call other Skype users for free, and another service, called SkypeOut, enables users to call to public-switched telephone networks for slightly more than two cents a minute. At any give time, there are said to be more than one million users talking on the Skype service. Skype is headquartered in Luxembourg.

Headquartered in Dubai, Carrier Devices' i-mate unit has supplied a family of PDAs and wireless handsets to several mobile-telephone service providers around the world. The company said it is completing plans to launch i-mate PDAs in the U.S.--a new market for the firm. The firm's PDAs usually have different model numbers and names in different countries, from New Zealand and Australia to the U.K. and Italy. The company said it has been introducing its PDAs in the Middle East recently.

The two i-mate models that will initially carry the Skype software are the PDA2K and the PDA2 handsets. All models use Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, and some models utilize Intel's Xscale PXA263, which operates at 400 MHz. Some models have a back-lit pull-down keyboard and come with 128Mb SDRAM and 96Mb ROM. Also available is an expansion slot for flash memory.

The announcement was made by i-mate's founder and chief executive, Jim Morrison, and Skype's co-founder and CEO, Niklas Zennstrom.