Skype products hit the market as free video calls loom

The latest version of Skype, which adds a web cam so that people can see each other as they tlak for free over the Internet, will go live at the end of this month.

Version 2.0 is currently on Beta, but officials at the Skype stand at CES Unveiled last night said this would soon end. Skype is the most popular service for making Internet calls, but despite many improvements over the past year it has been lacking a web cam feature. Rivals products, such as MSN Messenger have long had this ability.

Diana Braun-Csutak, business development manager – retail at Skype, admitted the company was late adding this feature but said: 'We didn't want to introduce video and have it so difficult to what people were used to using. We took a long time to do it in a Skype way that's friendly and easy.'

The video screen sizes can be altered with the new version, but in our tests to date on the Beta, Personal Computer World has found it to be slow to start.

We have tried it in several locations and found that from the point where the call is answered it takes up to 40 seconds for the video images to appear. Once running though, we have not experienced any problems.

There are now over 200 officially certified Skype add-on software and hardware products, and more will be launched during CES.

Among these was the new Netgear Wifi phone that lets users make phone calls over Skype whether or not their PC is switch on, which was not previously possible. Provided there is an access point in the house, it will make Skype calls.

Netgear's founder, chairman and CEO Patrick Lo said it would be out this quarter, and that the company was working on alternative versions that could cope with video calls and have flash media to record conversations. You can get more details here.

Other products on show included two from British company Voipvoice. These were Uconnect, which comes out in four weeks, and connects a household DECT phone via USB to a PC, allowing it to then make either traditional landline or a Skype calls.

Its Vtraveller is another USB phone aimed at travelling business people that don't want to use headsets when they make Skype calls. Both cost £30, but are targeting an already burgeoning Skype handset market.

Simon Crane, sales director at Voipvoice, believed USB handsets were still the most popular way of making Skype calls. 'People think that USB is a thing of the past but it's on the up,' he said.

Here more from Skype and Voipvoice on their products.