Global IP Sound

To end the current Skype saga, I wanted to tell you about the company that stands behind Skype. It's the Global IP Sound (GIPS), a small company from Sweden. They provide voice engines for both Skype and Google Talk. There must be something unusual about GIPS codecs, as the most successful VoIP company and the most successful Internet company, both use the GIPS technology in their products.

Interesting developments can be revealed when you look at the Newsroom section on the GIPS web site. On December 13th, 2005, they released the latest versions of the Voice Engine for both Pocket PC and Symbian 9 platforms. A couple of days later Skype released a new beta for Pocket PC (I believe the latest Skype is based on the latest GIPS engine). What is even more intriguing, GIPS claims they have Symbian version as well. Does that mean we should expect Skype on Nokia phones soon? That would be something, especially when there are plenty of Nokia models for UMTS, and it has already been proved, UMTS is a great match for Skype.

By the way, I wonder who will be the first with a Symbian VoIP product - Skype or Google? And you probably know my bet :)...