EBay-owned Skype has finally managed to release a beta version of its VoIP client, covering 50 different models of mobile phones from Motorola , Nokia , Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. The beta version’s objective is to gather consumer feedback that will eventually lead to product improvement.

The service will only be made available inside the U.S. For the time being, the "package" for callers in Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and the U.K. features the ability to receive Skype calls and instant messages, and to see which contacts are online; anywhere else, service users will only be able to receive calls and instant messages and see the online contacts, but they won’t be given access to call making.

The price for calling a non-Skype customer is made up of two separate fees: the first goes to the carrier and the second covers the SkypeOut, which is charged for the destination that is being called. Therefore, depending on the user's regular international fee plan, calling non-Skype users abroad this way may be cheaper than when done regularly. In order to keep prices as low as possible for the different types of customers, several SkypeOut versions are being offered.

This comes after, earlier this month, Israeli company Fring has made its VoIP application (also known as Fring) available on the iPhone and on the iPod Touch. Users will now gain access to Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, ICQ and SIP (both voice and chat) plus Twitter, Yahoo and AIM (chat only).