After E-Plus and Motorola deals, Skype will now also be preinstalled on mobile phones from Hutchison 3.

Skype and Hutchison 3 Group Join Forces

Pioneering 3G mobile operator Hutchison 3 Group is expected to be the first to market the Skype-enabled mobile devices. Hutchison is running friendly user trials to optimize the user experience and plans to launch later this year, following its trials, in countries including Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden, the UK and Italy. Trials will be carried out using enabled mobile phones from leading phone manufacturers.

3 Sweden is already offering a Skype bundle with a 3G flat-rate subscription and 3G data card. With a mobile flat-rate data plan from Hutchison 3, users can make unlimited Skype calls.

And Nokia wants to launch a phone compatible with Skybe in the third quarter of this year. According to Zennström, the Skype founder, telcos have to switch to flat rates and deliver value added services on top of that.

Via Le Monde and Ollie

I recently talked about the problems telcos could face when they ignore businesses which are not direct competitors and that they should take these competitiors into consideration considering their own pricing (flat rates) and their future strategies. The quotes from Schwartz (see below) hint into the direction where Apple is going and sheds a new light on the iPod strategy. Apple naturally tells the they only make money with hardware and loose on iTunes, but that sounds similar to Nick Denton saying you can't earn money with blogs.

Ephraim Schwartz in Apple follows the money

[...] I quickly realized that Apple’s consumer strategy is not unlike IBM’s enterprise strategy; both see their future as facilitators, by which I mean each wants to be the premier middleware vendor for its marketplace.

[...] In essence, Apple is saying, “All of that consumer electronics gear is unimportant. Get the equipment you want at the best price. We’ll take care of the hard stuff that makes using it worthwhile.”

If Apple can convince consumers that the Mac is the link that allows them to easily access all of their electronic gadgets, they will have pulled off quite a coup. By blending high tech and consumer electronics like nobody else, Apple reduces vendors like Hitachi, Samsung, and Sony to mere hardware shadows, waiting to be commoditized.

[...] Like IBM, Apple appears to understand that in a world of cheap labor and commoditized products, service becomes the competitive differentiator.

Naturally this is already the case (see Craig David's ringtones), but that the stars are being present at 3GSM looks like a significant move.

International singing star Craig David headlined the awards dinner. Today he gave give a short performance in Congress. Craig is a huge mobile fan he was featured in Music Week, explaining why he was attracted to perform here at 3GSM: "It's the instantaneousness of it all. The immediacy and proximity it allows me to my fans-to convey music and news, images and messages in a creative way not available before."

Via Mobile content: stepping out of the comfort zone