Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd and Skype announced last week that Skype will now come embedded on Samsung's LED 7000 and 8000 series models of high-definition televisions. The embedded Skype software allows Skype users to make video and voice calls through the TVs.
Samsung, the global market leader in televisions, will begin shipping TVs with Skype software in the Korean market today, and worldwide in the first half of 2010.
The Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series televisions include Samsung’s free Internet@TV service, which allows access to select online content. Consumers who connect the TVs to the Internet can easily attach a FreeTalk TV Camera for Samsung provided by In Store Solutions (ISS), available at www.skype.com/store, making it possible to place and receive voice calls and High Quality Video calls. Voice calls will use Skype’s SILK audio codec, which enables super-wideband audio quality.
Samsung is not the first TV maker to announce the inclusion of a Skype client with its television. In the early January, LG and Panasonic revealed they would embed Skype in their latest generation of Internet-connected HDTVs. At the time, Skype launched high-definition video calling with the latest beta of its PC client.
It seems that the Skype client on the Samsung TV will also include Skype Out capabilities, meaning that not only can it make free Skype to Skype video calls (providing it has the relevant TV camera), but it can also allow for calls to mobile phones and landlines, at a much cheaper rate than other service providers.
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