Netgear and Belkin WiFi Skype Phones: Running Late

Gizmodo asks why the pre-announced WiFi Skype phones from Netgear and Belkin are taking so long? Well, the answer seems to be that integrating the Skype application is not as easy as they first thought. According to Gizmodo:

“The only issues holding it back are delay when calling Skype-out, intermittent sign-offs, crashing during calls and call dropping. Some significant problems there.”

Well, those aren’t exactly the most insignificant of problems to have! So they took it upon themselves to get in touch with Belkin and ask them about the delays, who replied:

“We’re set to ship our Wi-Fi Phone for Skype in October. The reason for the delay is that there a number of complications involved with making an embedded Skype device communicate correctly with the Skype network.”

And what about Netgear, whose WiFi Skype phone has garnered many fans already? Well, they didn’t reply.

So they’re still working on getting the software to work properly, and they have very little time left to get it right. Ah well, at least there’s the Philips VOIP841 (although it isn’t a WiFi phone) and the yet unannounced, pre FCC-approved Linksys WIP320 WiFi Skype phone.