Microsoft owns Skype, one of the most popular voice and video over IP services that’s ever been released, so one would think then that Windows Phone would have the best Skype integration of all the smartphone platforms, right? Not so, in fact there isn’t even a Skype application available to download for Microsoft’s fledgling mobile platform. What do the folks at Skype have to say this? According to Rick Osterloh, Skype’s Vice President of Products, the company is “working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon.” That’s about as specific as the man wants to get. Now to be fair Microsoft did close their deal with Skype just three months ago, but still, there’s no excuse for not being more transparant with the progress being made on brining Skype to Windows Phone.
Speaking about Windows Phone, forget about Skype releasing an app, when is Skype going to baked into the platform? According to The Verge that’s not going to happen until Windows Phone Apollo, which we know isn’t going to hit the market until the end of this year. Hell, we’re still waiting for Tango, the next-in-line update to Windows Phone that should enable lower cost devices. We expect to see Tango at Mobile World Congress next month, along with a slew of devices from Nokia that will show off the new features and capabilities of the OS.
If you are a Skype addict, and desperately need your fix, then may we suggest you pickup an iPod touch or just another smartphone all together. In fact, if you’re daring enough to enter in some manual settings, you can get a pretty good deal on a used Symbian device, pop a data only SIM card in there, and configure a SIP client. Not for the faint of heart, but there are those of you out there looking to save every little penny that you can.