Accesories Certification Program

• Test specifications
• Submit a product for testing
• Certification test fees
• What to submit to Skype
• Test results
• Pre-certification

Test specifications

Testing is primarily focused on audio and video. The second area of consideration is the user experience.

Submit a product for testing

Submit a Test Request

For each product you plan to submit, please complete a Test Request Form

Please complete the whole form including the information about invoicing and contacting you. You can expect us to reach back to you with access to our partner portal and further information about sending the product in within 1-2 days.

Pay the testing fee

Skype charges a fee for certification testing - details are below.

See the progress of the test in the partner portal

After you have received the login information to the portal from us, please log in here: Partner Portal.

Any further instructions on how to use the portal can be found on the home page of the portal.

Complete the Partner Accessories Agreement

For each product you plan to submit, please create a separate project under the My Projects section under My Tools & Downloads on the Skype Developer site.

• Under the My Tools & Downloads menu click My Projects
• Click "Join for free" under the "Desktop API for Hardware" program
• Click "Create a new project" under the the "Desktop API for Hardware" program
• Fill out the form for the project
• After you have filled out the form, you will be directed back to the list of projects and programs, where you will see your newly created project
• Click on the title of the project to open it
• Under the project you will see various links to help you get started, click on "Partner Accessories Agreement" to fill out the agreement
• After you have filled out the agreement you will receive an e-mail from Skype with the agreement details and information about the invoice.
• Once you have paid the invoice, the product will be considered certified and you may begin the process of submitting the product to the Skype Shop. Also, the product will be listed on our certified products' list

Certification test fees

Skype will issue an invoice after receiving your test request.

A test costs US $2000. It will be tested on Windows only unless you also specifically request tests on other operating systems.

Operating systems categories

• Windows = Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
• Mac = Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6
• Linux = Ubuntu

The fee for certifying laptops and netbooks is US $2000.

What to submit to Skype

The Skype certification process assesses the whole out of the box experience. We inspect your product packaging, manuals, quick start guides, as well as the actual hardware, and, where applicable, the associated drivers or software.

Packing, manuals and quick start guides can be sent in an electronic format by uploading them to the partner portal (see the submission process outlined above).

It's also a good idea to test your product against the specifications yourself, and include a copy of your log in your submission to Skype.

For a more detailed breakdown on submission requirements, see the 'Entry criteria for testing' section of our test specifications.

Test results

When the certification testing process is complete, you can expect to receive a notice of whether the product passed or failed, as well as a commented test report which describes the errors found in testing.

Pre-certification

Are you concerned your product will not pass the certification test requirements? Has your product recently failed our testing? Are you having problems with component selection? Does your team need clarification on the specifications?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, or if you require any other assistance related to your hardware or our testing process, our pre-certification service is for you.

Pre-Certification Services

Service	Length of time	Cost	What's included
Consulting time	Four hours	US $2000
Onsite lab tests	One day	US $7000
Onsite workshop	One day	US $4000	A certification specialist will clarify the certification process, and review the specifications, planning tests and timelines, design recommendations and lab demonstrations.

To purchase pre-certification services, please complete Step C in the certification submission process outlined above, but select Pre-Certification from the Selected HW Service drop-down in your test request form.

We have also published a list of pre-approved components and ODMs that can help you during the development.