Instant messaging and video calling service Skype will soon be fully integrated into the Windows phone.
The Internet application was to have been built into windows Phone by the end of the year, Windows Phone boss Joe Belfiore had said. Vice-president of the Skype division at Microsoft Rick Osterloh said it will be available “soon”.
“Skype was working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon,” The Telegraph quoted Mr. Osterloh, as saying.
According to the paper, the move is controversial partly because Windows Phone, despite being owned by Microsoft, is the only mobile operating system to lack a fully-fledged Skype client. Mobile networks, additionally, make much of their profits from voice calls, but Skype turns voice calls into data traffic, which is often less lucrative and places a burden on network infrastructure. According to the report, Osterloh also said that integrations with Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows 8 technology would be made available in due course, and that the company was working on integrating Facebook contacts into the main Skype interface.
