IPEVO Teams With Skype To Offer A Range Of Skype-Enabled
Devices in US
IPEVO launches Skype-enabled corded and cordless USB
phones, speaker phones and mobile devices
Taipei 12 October 2005 – Skype, the
Global Internet Communications Company, which makes it possible for
anyone worldwide to make free high-quality phone calls via the Internet,
has teamed with IPEVO?, a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of PChome
Online specializing in Skype-enabled devices, to offer good design and
affordable Skype devices in the US through IPEVO’s website.
IPVEO designs and develops a wide range of easy-to-use
and affordable Skype devices, including corded and cordless USB phones,
speaker phones and mobile devices, which can be purchased at its online
shopping website
www.ipevo.com.
PChome Online launched the first co-branded website with
Skype in July 2004 in Taiwan. This collaboration helps make Taiwan one
of the most successful markets for Skype. PChome-Skype has attracted
7.5M downloads and 2.4M people have registered with Skype, a number that
continues to grow. PChome also offers Skype’s premium services such as
SkypeOut, Skype Voicemail and SkypeIn and has attracted around 200,000
paid customers throughout Taiwan since November 2004. PCHome Online has
established IPEVO to develop innovative and user-friendly Skype-compatible
products for the US and Taiwanese markets.
"We are delighted that PCHome Online has taken the step
to expand its success with Skype in Taiwan to launch in the US under the
IPEVO brand. We believe that US callers will appreciate the convenient
and simple-to-use Skype-enabled products that IPVEO will be offering. We
feel that the collaboration demonstrates the success of our developer
program and will help Skype continue as the most popular choice for free
Internet calling throughout the country,” said Niklas Zennstr?m, CEO and
Co-founder of Skype.
Skype accounts for 46% of all North American VoIP traffic
(Sandvine, Aug 2005) and already has 20 times more active users than its
nearest competitor.
“Skype and IPEVO have established a strong and mutually
beneficial partnership,” said Hung Tze Jan, Chairman of IPEVO. “Skype’s
developer program has facilitated our ability to address customers’
needs for well-designed and competitively priced devices. IPEVO will
team up with Skype to develop a wide range of consumer electronics
products in order to serve our users in the best possible way.”
With the launch of the collaboration, IPEVO releases
Free-1, a Skype-enabled USB phone with shortcut functions for Skype
callers and available from
www.ipevo.com.
IPEVO, Inc. a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of PChome
Online specializing in Skype-enabled devices. PChome Online Inc. is
Taiwan’s leading Internet portal and online-shopping company with over
10 million subscribers. PChome Online has teamed with Skype Technology
S.A. since July 1st, 2004 to offer the first co-branded version of Skype,
PChome-Skype (http://www.skype.com/company/news/2004/pchome.html).
PChome-Skype has attracted 2.3 M registered users (as of Sep. 2005) and
continues to grow. Taking advantage of PChome's Skype users experience
and Taiwan's state-of-art IT/PC technique with highly competitive
manufacturing cost, PChome further expands its partnership with Skype
and its presence with Skype-enabled devices (http://www.skype.com/company/news/2005/pchome-products.html).
Bearing this heritage from PChome Online and teaming up with Skype,
IPVEO designs and develops a wide range of good design, easy-to-use and
affordable Skype enabled devices like cord/cordless USB phone, speaker
phone, mobile devices etc. In order to serve Skype callers in the best
possible way, IPEVO also operates a friendly online shopping environment
to make purchasing Skype devices and services easy and fun. |