Microsoft announced their intent to purchase Skype almost a year ago. The deal closed in mid October, which is over six months ago. Why are these dates important? Because it’s only now that Microsoft has released Skype for Windows Phone. Version 1.0 does many of the things you’d except Skype to do out of the box, things like video and voice calls, even messaging, but there are two things that don’t work. First, Skype can’t run in the background. Meaning if you open Skype, login, and then go to check your Facebook or something, people will not be able to call or message you. Now this isn’t Skype’s fault, it’s Microsoft’s fault. That’s how Windows Phone 7.5 is designed, sadly. Windows Phone 8 will hopefully fix things, though we currently know very little about that OS. Second, Skype will not run on devices with less than 512 MB of RAM, otherwise known as devices running Windows Phone Tango. The type of people who use Skype are usually the ones who want to save some money, so … there’s not much more to say there.
Other than that though, Skype looks brilliant, fully complying with Microsoft’s Metro design language. It’s a shame that there’s no live tile support, but hey, it’s version 1.0 after all. Other things of note: Skype supports 18 languages, it’ll run on 3G, 4G, or WiFi, and it’s certified to run perfectly on all of Nokia’s Windows Phones.
What we want to know is will Microsoft have the courage to integrate Skype into a future release Windows Phone? As an operator, Skype strikes fear into your heart. Unlimited calling, unlimited texting, video calling, all for the price of a data plan. Some operators, such as TeliaSonera, are being impacted so severely by applications like Skype that they’re thinking of charging customers to be able to use the service.
Watch this space.
[Via: The Verge]