Skype Technologies' strategy of welcoming third-party vendors is
spawning numerous extensions to its popular Internet telephony service,
which is beginning to branch into videoconferencing, data collaboration
and mobile wireless calls.

Santa Cruz Networks on Wednesday launched vSkype Beta, group
videoconferencing and collaboration software that lets Skype users meet
online with as many as 200 friends or business associates who also use
Skype. On Tuesday, a Norwegian company, IPDrum, introduced the Mobile
Skype Cable, a wire that connects a cell phone to a Skype-equipped PC
in order to link Skype to the cellular network for mobile calls.