Microsoft Eyes FaceTime-Like Option for Windows Phone

At last week's Consumer Electronics Show, a "key WP7 employee" disclosed to the Web site that Microsoft was hard at work on a FaceTime-esque feature that could be bundled with Microsoft Live, allowing video chatting across platforms and devices. The new feature might as well link with MSN Messenger. When asked why not use Skype, the anonymous employee recommended that the new service would extend beyond the reach of the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service.

The launch of iPhone 4 last June

Apple announced FaceTime with the launch of iPhone 4 last June, and brought the service to the desktop last October. Skype recently brought videoconferencing to 3G with its updated client for the iPhone and iPad. And Google has already flashed its tablet-based video chat feature for Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

When the FaceTime competitor will arrive remains to be seen. During it's possible that Microsoft's FaceTime will come bundled with the Windows 7.5 update, codenamed "Mango," it's more likely that it will arrive alongside "Windows Phone 8."

Correspondingly, the feature could surface as early as at once month, at Mobile World Congress 2011, or as late as the second half of the year. Whatever it is, Microsoft had better work quickly to recapture a bit of the media spotlight, which seems, at present, singularly focused on Apple.