Skype last week released a beta version of Skype for Java-enabled mobile phones, designed for devices from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

"The ability to make Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handset is limited to eight markets: Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Poland, Sweden and the UK," notes ZDNet's Matthew Broersma. "Users in other countries can use chat, group chat, presence and receive Skype and SkypeIn calls."

According to the company, the beta testing phase is expected to last several months. "While Skype for your mobile is in beta, it is an important time for us to listen to our users' feedback, be it through surveys or user forums," says Gareth O'Loughlin, Skype's general manager for mobile and hardware devices. "We need to hear what delights them and where there is still work to be done."

"What's hard to understand is why it's taken Skype so long to do this," writes The Register's Bill Ray. "IM+, from Shape Services, has been offering the same capabilities for quite a while, and with Fring, users can even make (genuinely) VoIP calls for free - though that's better restricted to when Wi-Fi is available."

More here from VNUnet ... more here from PC Advisor ... more here from OneCompare ... more here from TelecomTV ... more here from eNews 2.0 ... more here from VoIP News ... and the press release is here.