Update: Nokia phone with Skype

Funny that this announcement came on the same day I wrote my previous article:
Nokia providing Skype access through WiFi Internet connection on the N800 Internet Tablet.
Actually, while I was Project Manager for the N770 (its predecessor) already in 2005, this was something planned. I say, it's coming one year late! But anyway, it seems Nokia is leading the way in making operators obsolete! Cut the middlemen!

First of all: the N800 is not a mobile phone. It is an Internet Tablet. Well, after having the Skype possibility, it will be a mobile phone, for all that matters! So implementing such features in the "proper" mobile phones will be a necessary step.

This is expected: GPRS connections on mobile phones are reminders of dial-up modem connections... slow, slow, slow.
Still 5 years ago many people had no other choice; now, when DSL is norm, people want fast Internet connection.
Always. In every device! Not to mention that GPRS access costs a lot!

Actually, this move by Nokia is also a reaction to what I was writing before: when you use Internet to make most of your calls and download multimedia, you use your mobile phone as a videocamera, music player, and agenda. Which means, primarely not as a phone anymore. So the only way to keep people buying a new mobile phone every 18 months (like they want) is to make them able to... access the cheap access! Yes, fast Internet!

Make your bets, gentlemen:
when are the operators going to lose the majority of their business customers?
I say 2008. Because I am cautious.