A break in friendly relation emerged between Nokia and operators over its scheme to include Skype onto its Nseries handsets, Mobile which was declared in Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona.
O2 and Orange are annoyed from Nokia’s move that it will equip its upcoming flagship Nseries device, the N97, with Skype.
It seems that Nokia is surrounded with many problems as the two operators may refuse to stock the N97 or any future Nseries handsets containing Skype unless Nokia strips out the Skype client. There was a high level discussion held between Nokia and operators in which The two operators are understood to have vented their anger in high-level discussions, which involved group level executives from Nokia.
A spokeswoman for O2 said: ‘We are currently working with Nokia to understand their Skype service and the business model around it. We continually evaluate new applications and mobile services for our customer base.’
So it seems very difficult for Nokia to end the current controversy.
The plan is for Skype services to be integrated into the N97 address book, enabling users to see when Skype contacts are online. It will also let people use Skype’s instant-messaging client. And of course, N97 users will also be able to make free and low-cost phone calls over the Internet whether they are on a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network.
