Windows Phone Gets Skype:
Ok, we are perhaps a few weeks early on this news but it has come to our attention that Skype will indeed be available on Windows Phone devices in the not too distant future.
And why not?
Microsoft after all own the damn VOIP company anyway, so it does seem slightly odd that they have even taken this long to bring their own technology to their devices.
I wonder if this is Microsoft steadying the networks who must be shi***ng themselves that once the penny drops that all we need is a data connection to connect to VOIP services, we can do away with our phone packages once and for all!
4G could be the death knoll for traditional mobile networks:
I have said this before, it is possibly only a matter of time before we simply have a VOIP type client such as Skype running in the background all the time on our mobile devices with no need to ever use our minutes and have the ability to call anywhere in the world for free or pretty damn cheap.
Is this the reason that the 4G network may well go for much less money than the 3G spectrum sold for, because we will not be prepared to pay the amount of cash we do for minutes if all we really want is data, leaving the obvious question of how to subsidize our shiny new devices up for grabs after per month costs are slashed.
I also suspect Skype as a service will become advertiser funded, where it will be free in principle but you will have to go through a short message for calls or video for using video conferencing, obviously this would go away if you paid a subscription or similar to Skype’s coffers.
Skype will kill networks dead in time:
I think that networks in the UK will look to consolidate and possibly muscle out the languishing Three network and if my predictions do hold true, there will likely be some call from the remaining few to push out far reaching WiFi on “health and safety grounds” as one wise commentator on the guardian blog pointed out:
ImperfectRex:
*After the other networks get rid of 3, expect them to start trying to get rid of wide-broadcast wifi. Either through legislation on health & safety or simply buying/bribing cheap or free wifi providers.
There are talks that Skype will not be fully featured until Apollo late this year but a version may well appear at the MWC in Barcelona next month.
Anthony Munns