Computer world is converging very fast into mobile phone business. Apple led the way with its iPhone. Google followed with Google  and now, Skype is coming out with its customized cell phone developed jointly with 3 Mobile. 3 Mobile, owned by Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa,  is a wireless carrier in Asia, Europe and Australia.

Skype code-named the product ‘white phone’ and it will be released in Britain, Italy, Hong Kong and Australia by late October. Presently, there is no plan for North America yet.

The ‘white phone’ was developed by iSkoot and its equipped with multimedia capabilities and high-speed data access for mobile web browsing. It comes with a button for users to activate the famous Skype service for long-distance and international calls. It will also bring up a list of Skype buddies and regular phone contacts.

Presently, Skype is challenged to turn its popularity into profit by converting its 246 millions accounts to be active users of paid services. Only about a thrid of these accounts are regular users. The rest are using the free services.

Skype was acquired by eBay for US$2.6 billion two years ago.

The sales of iPhone is gradually hurting the revenue of handheld computer maker Palm. Palm has reported a three-month loss after Apple launched its own smart phone. The loss for Q3 2007 is US$840,000 compared to a profit of US$16.5m for the same period last year.

Palm handheld devices have been loosing out to its competitors like Apple and Blackberry. Palm has recently withdrawn its Foleo keyboard and monitor for its Treo smartphones.

But, it launched its Centro devices, which is lightweight and cheaper, to compete with Samsung’s devices.

iPhone was launched in US on 29 June 2007. Blackberry devices are made by Research in Motion.