Microsoft Buys Skype, Adds To Hype
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
By Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence
When NPD’s Mobile Phone Track became the first to report on Windows Phone 7’s U.S. market share in the fourth quarter, I noted that while Microsoft had done a good job of communicating the integration of Microsoft products and services, they were not all created equal, and that the company still had a long road ahead in terms of catching up in features and differentiating on hardware. For example, without support for 4G networks, none of the original Windows Phone 7 handsets had front-facing cameras.
With Skype, Microsoft acquires a service with a tremendous global user base to integrate into its handsets, a service that taps into a key driver of 4G and at the heart of communication, and gets back in the game with Apple’s promotion of Facetime, which has not launched a Windows client. As Facebook integration has been an important part of the Windows Phone 7 experience, Skype has been active with the mammoth social networking site as well.
Skype will also benefit other parts of Microsoft’s direct and indirect businesses. Integration into Outlook and SharePoint can facilitate office collaboration and extend naturally to the newer Lync product. Skype has been chosen as a key videoconferencing app for connected TVs from Panasonic and Samsung, and the product is a natural complement to the Kinect’s cameras already on the XBox 360 and coming to Windows.
Tags: Microsoft, Skype, Windows Phone 7
Consumer Technology, Wireless | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | 
May 11, 2011 10:52 am
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