Microsoft may be the unofficial owner for Skype, given the acquisition has yet to receive European antitrust approval. But that has not been a roadblock for Skype to innovate around with new products and updates in the interim. One might notice that on the Windows front, September 13th saw a quiet update of Skype which was an update to Skype 5.5 for Windows that adds support for Windows 8. The software giant had on display, its first “Developer Preview” test build of Windows 8, as it made a provision of Samsung i5-based Windows 8 tablets for the paid attendees of its Build conference.
Talking about the update, the version is 5.5.0.117, wherein Window 8 support has been added. One can download it from the Skype Web site. However, Microsoft officials had not much to talk about Skype during the Build Conference, held last week. Build Conference was held for developers who had shown interest in writing apps and building hardware for Windows 8.
Noting an update from Istartedsomething.com, where it was stated that the software giant might be attempting to have Skype integration as a key piece of Windows 8. This assumption was on the basis of a screen shot, which showed a Metro tile featuring missed phone calls. During the Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting on September 14, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had a note on how Microsoft sees Skype complementing its Lync unified messaging software and service. Ballmer was all praise for Lync, when he was addressing the Wall Street analysts as he said, “Lync’s a fantastic product for communicating with folks who are inside your enterprise, in your directory, inside your security boundary. You can set Lync up nicely so that it also connects with the PS(T)N phone system, and you can make outbound calls and the like.”
He continued saying that as they went deeper into the scenarios, he considered one of them to be the most interesting and that was, being able to go consumer-to-consumer, consumer-to-business, business-to-business, and give the enterprise appropriate kind of control and security and auditing. Along with it, allowing people to open up to different circles, may it be of their friends, their families, their professional contacts, their suppliers, their vendors or any other.
Ballmer even had a few points to note for Skype, which he said that in a few respects, there were a lot of drivers behind the Skype acquisition. But the main ones were, as expected, real-time conferencing, voice and video. Video is a completely new segment for Microsoft out of the above mentioned points.
Ballmer had a lot to say about Lync, which had its link for even providing most of the same capabilities as Skype and it included messaging, Web-based audio and video conferencing and VOIP. The officials however said that the company had plans for future to have an integration of Skype into a variety of Microsoft Products, ranging from Lync, to Xbox Live, to Windows Phone. The only roadblock mentioned for this integration was the approval which is pending since the Microsoft Skype acquisition was penned down.