Google takes on Skype with Gmail phone service

Not content with treading all over Apple's toes, Google has declared war on another technology giant - Skype - by unveiling a new feature that will enable its Gmail users to make calls to telephones from their email accounts.
 
Although Google already allows users to talk over the internet, both parties must be sat at their computers and signed into Gmail at the same time. The new feature will allow users to call landlines and mobile phones from their inbox.
 
Google announced its new service on its official blog, and said it was being rolled out across the US over the next few days. The feature is not yet available outside America but the company said: "We're working on making this available more broadly."
 
Google is also claiming that its service will undercut the competition. Calls to numbers in the US and Canada will be free, at least until the end of the year, and a price comparison chart - against the 'leading internet telephony provider' - shows that using Gmail to phone the UK, Mexico and France will also be cheaper, with the biggest savings on calls to landlines.
 
Skype will not only be put out by the fact that Google has entered the internet telephony market - it will also be smarting at the timing of the announcement. It comes a fortnight after Skype announced it was going public and would be listed on the Nasdaq later this year. Now there are fears that the sudden arrival of Google in the market could affect the IPO.
 
However, Skype currently dominates the market. Last year it became the leading carrier of international voice calls and it has more than 560 million users worldwide - a figure that increased by 163 million in the year to June. However, only 8.1 million are said to actually pay for the service. Gmail, by comparison has 200 million users.
 
Web analyst Ray Valdes told the Financial Times: "Google has huge resources, both technical and financial. At the same time it's very, very early for this to be a significant threat." ·