For more than a year, now, Skype has been recruiting accessory makers to its partner programs. Late this Christmas season we're seeing the first results. The RadioShack distribution deal. A new US online store operated by the sophisticated Brightpoint. And enough Skype Certified partners to fill a small retail display.

Consumers pay for that "Skype Certified" process and sticker. Skype's challenge is to create value for the consumer, the manufacturer, the distribution channel and itself. It is still early, but let's take a quick look at all four sides of the equation. [Legs 2,3, and 4 of the table later this week.]

First, the certification process is supposed to comfort buyers.

At minimum certification is supposed to be a "bozo filter," screening out the useless, crappy, inconfigurable products, the ones that leave us miserable.

John Hammink, who championed the idea within Skype of "user centered requirements," believes the Skype brand has to stand for more than that. So he set the pattern that each product had to create a nice user experience, from packaging, through installation, and into daily use. That's different for each product category; you expect different things from headsets than from speakerphones. You can see most of the requirement and test documents online.

Various sources tell us when about half the products submitted for certification fail on their first pass, a rate that has been steadily improving (up from a third this summer) without lowering standards. Reasons often include failure to install correctly in a few minutes, no or poor documentation, and software that doesn't work. The ultimate aim: avoid partners that contradict the "It Just Works" brand note. At a minimum, testing is a preventive, defensive strategy.

If the program proves successful for manufacturers, Stuart hopes Skype may actually be able to induce/coerce/guide them to dramatic improvements in usability, functionality, and convenience. At its best, testing and certification serve to improve product quality in ways that bring products, and partners, closer to Skype. Will Skype have channel power comparable to Apple and its ecosystem, or Microsoft and its channels? What will Skype have to offer to earn that much influence? Skype must prove to manufacturers ready access to its users, and the promise of growing access and buying power.

Is the "Skype Certified" label worth a few extra bucks to Skypers?

Yes, if I'm buying a Skype-differentiated product; I want to know that this product works with Skype's software.

Maybe, if I'm buying generic (analog headphones, for example) but I appreciate Skype's "It Just Works" message.

Shoppers will have the final word.