Philips launches PC-free Skype phone

AMSTERDAM: Dutch Philips Electronics said that it would introduce the world's first cordless DECT phone that can make Skype Internet calls without being connected to a personal computer.

The product will be available before the end of the year, Philips chief of consumer electronics activities, Rudy Provoost, told journalists at the IFA electronics fair here.

Skype, which popularised free phone calls between computers over broadband Internet connections is a unit of eBay.

Philips is the world's biggest lighting maker, a top three hospital equipment maker, Europe's biggest consumer electronics producer and the region's number three in semiconductors.