Nokia N800 to arrive in Europe with baked-in Skype

From the curious timing department (see today's top story): Nokia says it will add full Skype functionality to its upcoming smartphone, the N800, which will launch this month in Europe. Nokia says this is the first time it has made a Skype installation link available on a handset. Carriers sometimes block services like Skype, and U.S. carriers have not announced plans to support the N800 with Skype functionality at this time. Carriers are looking to offering their own wVoIP services as a means to offloading traffic from their networks in the future, however. "With the growth of mobile devices and Wi-Fi, consumers expect to be connected wherever they are, at the office, at home or on the move," said Eric Lagier, Skype's head of business development for mobile.

For more on the Skype-Nokia tie-up:
- read this article from the WSJ
- and this press release
If you missed our in-depth feature on Skype's battle to get on wireless handsets:
- check it out here