Microsoft’s assault on the smartphone market has been dealt a blow after Skype’s Asia-Pacific VP Dan Neary announced the internet telephony giant had no plans to develop a native app for Windows Phone 7.
Neary, who was speaking at an event in Sydney, said Skype are “not developing software for the new Windows Mobile software due later this year” instead deciding to concentrate its efforts on developing new offerings for the iPhone, iPad and Android powered smartphones.
The news will be the last thing Microsoft will want to hear, especially as it has already admitted that the Windows Phone 7 operating system will launch without many core features, potentially limiting potential demand for Windows Phone 7 handsets that haven’t even launched yet.
Even though Neary has indicated Skype isn’t going to develop a Windows Phone 7 at this current moment in time, there hasn’t been an official announcement to rule out that the company wouldn’t consider future app development.
Should the new Microsoft operating system and its associated handsets emerge a market success, one would expect Skype to extend its customer base by developing for the new platform, much the same way as it did when Android was an emerging platform.
Skype has released a “Lite” version of it’s Skype client for Android and Java-enabled phones, we imagine its Skype’s intention to concentrate on developing a fully featured app much like the app it has available for the Apple iPhone.
That isn’t to say third-party developers won’t offer Skype functionality inside their Windows Phone 7 apps either – IM+ and Fring brought Skype to smartphones way before official apps were released.
[Source – TechRadar]
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