Telstra releases Nokia N85, sans Skype

The Nokia N85 device, which boasts a slider design, a five megapixel camera and 8GB memory card, comes pre-loaded with Skype on the Hutchison 3 network.

Skype is a voice-over-IP service which allows Internet and mobile phone users to make free or discounted phone calls over the Internet.

At Mobile World Congress last month Nokia and Skype announced that the Skype application would be pre-loaded on Nokia's new N-series devices, with Skype contacts being integrated with the Nokia address book.

The strategy has met some opposition by European telcos that run a closed mobile device strategy.

Telstra's mobile strategy promotes its own BigPond-branded content and applications over any application with the potential to divert income away from its network.

Telstra's Nokia N85 phones will come with content links to Mobile Foxtel from Telstra and BigPond TV, plus location-based GPS services from Telstra's Whereis Navigator and the Telstra MyConnect service which integrates Telstra BigPond e-mail, voicemail, picture messaging and SMS.