One of the worlds largest free online audio and video chat services is now
by corporate giant Microsoft.
As of yesterday Tony Bates (CEO of Skype) agreed to sell Skype and all it's divisions and servers to the corporate giant Microsoft for a whopping
$8.5 Billion USD!
Skype, one of the top applications on Apple's iPhone and on smartphones powered by Google's Android software, has some 170 million users who will now be able to "Skype" using Windows-powered phones or even Xbox game consoles. (Good news for you X-Box Gamers!)
Former CEO of Skype as been appointed President of the Microsoft Skype Division. Also Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said in a statement "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world, and together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."
Also apparently Skype users will be able to make low-cost or free telephone calls using their computers or Skype enabled smartphones.
It seems that this may have been a very good strategy move on Microsoft's part because over the past few years Microsoft's Bing search engine has been no match for Google and also Microsoft's Windows powered devices have been losing sales to Apple's iPhone.
Questions:
1. So is this to be a major turning point for Microsoft products now that they have full right's to the software?
2. Will the Skype app remain on the Apple iPhone now that it's under Microsoft's control?
3. Will Microsoft be adding a registration fee of sorts?
4. Could this be an omen that the X-Box 720 is closer then expected?
Once again, I guess we will have to wait and see...
- TwistedMind33