Just two months after Grandstream announced plans to incorporate Skype (News - Alert) technology into its wares, Grandstream announced that its GXV3140 IP Multimedia Phone, which supports SIP, now features Skype support.
Yes - that means it's a dual stack Skype and SIP phone - and supports Skype voice/video calls in addition to making SIP-based voice/video calls. Grandstream.
The news from Grandstream coincided with Skype's release of its new "SkypeKit," an open software development kit that will help developers integrate Skype calls, instant messaging, video chat into more consumer electronics and computers. It initially will be available on an invitation-only basis.
Skype spent this week at the Consumer Electronics Association Line Show demoing the Grandstream GXV3140 IP Multimedia Phone (News - Alert), which uses SkypeKit to include Skype video calling on it. But virtually any advanced IP phone could have Skype built into it.
TMC's (News - Alert) own CIO and gadget guru Tom Keating offered some commentary on Grandstream's latest news in a blog posted earlier this week:
"The ability to support both SIP and Skype has obvious applications both for consumer and the enterprise markets," Keating observed. "The video conferencing support also makes this a very flexible and powerful IP phone."
Keating said he reached out to Grandstream who told him, "We are extremely happy to share with our worldwide customers that Grandstream's GXV3140 is the first desktop multimedia phone to be compatible with both Skype and SIP open standards for free voice and video calling. What this mean is consumers and enterprise customers can use Skype to send and receive free video calls between their computers, mobile devices and Grandstream's GXV3140."
Meanwhile, the SkypeKit for consumer electronic device makers available now is based on the Linux OS. For desktop software developers, SkypeKit will be available for Windows and Mac in the next few weeks.
"Now, we are taking Skype into new directions by empowering consumer electronic and desktop software innovators to embed Skype into their products through the availability of our new software development kit (SDK) called SkypeKit," said Jonathan Christensen, GM of Skype's Platform team, in a blog posting on Skype's website. "We believe that every connected device can become a communications device, with the addition of SkypeKit. Likewise, desktop applications everywhere can now include Skype."
Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Web editor, covering IP hardware and mobility, including IP phones, smartphones, fixed-mobile convergence and satellite technology. She also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet's gadgets and satellite e-Newsletters. To read more of Marisa's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri