Microsoft was originally scheduled to deliver a Skype application in 2011, but the debut could now coincide with the release of the Windows Phone "Apollo" operating system.
Despite
being owned by Microsoft, the company's mobile Windows Phone operating system
still doesn't have an application by voice over IP (VOIP) provider Skype, but
that will change soon, Microsoft's Skype division Vice President Rick Osterloh
promised in an interview during last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in
Las Vegas. Some analysts are predicting the announcement could be made sometime
during the Mobile World Congress convention in Barcelona, Spain, at the end of
February.
According
to a report
on the IT blog The Verge, Osterloh said the company is "working on a
Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon," without disclosing an
official release date. Microsoft was originally scheduled to deliver a Skype
application in 2011. However, it seems likely the debut will coincide with the
release of the Windows Phone "Apollo" operating system expected this
year.
Skype
applications are currently available for handsets running Google's Android
operating system and on Apple's iPhone devices. Microsoft completed its
acquisition of Skype in October 2011, paying $8.5 billion for the company.
According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet
& American Life Project, the combination of Skype, Google and Apple has
lifted the number of American adults participating in online video calls to
nearly 20 percent.
Windows
Phone is struggling for adoption in the face of significant competition from
Google Android and Apple's iPhone. Despite positive reviews from critics,
Microsoft partners Samsung and HTC just aren't selling many Windows Phone
handsets. In November, IT research firm Gartner reported Windows Phone market
share slid to 1.5 percent from the 2.7 percent share it secured a year earlier.
Even more worrying for Microsoft, it fell behind Samsung's Bada operating
system, which captured 2.2 percent of the market in the third quarter.
Skype,
which has over 600 million registered accounts, compared with 160 million
active users, is also due to be blended with Microsoft Lync, Office 365 and
Xbox Live. Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of U.S. adult Web users, or 19
percent of all American adults, have made calls online using Skype, Vonage or
some other VOIP service, according to a 2011 report from Pew Internet.
Founded
in 2003, Skype was acquired by eBay in September 2005 and then acquired by an
investment group led by Silver Lake in November 2009.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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