Nokia and Google launches a mobile Skype-competitor

The unveil took place at a joint press conference for Nokia and Google, in the centre of Stockholm.

Voice over IP has now turned mobile, said Ari Virtanen when introducing Google Talk in the Nokia PDA 770.

Nokia 770 has no built-in mobile phone, but you can browse the Internet via a Bluetooth connection to a compatible mobile phone. Nokia 770 also supports w-lan/wifi that fastens up the Internet speed.

The news is that the software from Google now is integrated in Nokia 770. The chat client is Google Talk and there is a option to have free IP-telephony via w-lan.

-This isn't a competition with Skype. We would like to see Skype or any other program at Nokia 770. It's an open platform. Skype is already suitable for Linux, so it's possible to just adapt the source code, says Erich Hugo at Nokia.

Nokia 770 is the first one in a serie of Linux based PDA's. The system is called Internet Tablet OS 2006, and Nokia has even started the site Maemo.org with the purpose to gather software for downloading to Nokia 770.

The new version of the system (Internet Tablet OS 2006) can be downloaded for free at the site.

Besides the news with Google Talk, the function to input handwriting directly at the display is much improved.

Will the co-operation between Nokia and Google continue with other projects? That was one of the questions at the press conference and was asked the representatives from Nokia and Googles and it was answered with avoidance. At the question if Nokia will add on Google Talk at their smartphones, series 60, they gave the answer ''no comments".

Nokia 770 is retailed via Nokia.com and other webshops. However it hasn't yet reached the usual telecom retailers.

-The product is delivered in small volumes so far. But of course we want to attain large volumes for this product as well as we want for other products, said Ari Virtanen, at Nokia.

He pointed out that the Internet telephony probably isn't the main area of usage at the present, for Nokia 770. The options with the other features, such as the web browser, RSS-reader, e-mail and so on is probably the centre of attraction for the users, in addition with the option to download extra software to Nokia 770.