Microsoft, Skype Could Prove to Be a Match Made in Heaven

Think about what you get when you integrate Skype with Microsoft's existing platforms. Assuming that Microsoft continues to support the breadth of computer operating systems and mobile devices that Skype currently supports, you right away have a global, peer-to-peer communications network unlike any other. If Microsoft is able to integrate Skype with its full range of products from its video games to Microsoft Office, you hurriedly have something that neither Apple nor Google can match.

The picture is something like this

The picture is something like this. Skype is integrated into Microsoft Lync, which is the new corporate messaging system that replaces Microsoft Communicator. This gives Lync the ability to do video chats, instant messaging and voice connections with over 100 million Skype users just in case to all of the Lync users out there. During Lync provides other capabilities just as desktop sharing and multiparty conferencing, along with PBX (Private -Automatic- Branch Exchange) integration, the reach provided by Skype is something that nobody else can do.

Then think about the potential integration with Windows Live Messenger, and you right away expand Messenger's reach to as a matter of fact vast numbers of people. And when you consider that most of those Skype Mobile users aren't currently using Microsoft's platform, at that time suddenly there's an entrée into mobile communications that Microsoft couldn't get any other way. During Skype will be integrated with Windows Phone 7, it's already available on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Symbian devices globally. The only real restriction is that some carriers don't promote the use of Skype. In return, some, just as Verizon Wireless, do.

Skype, in the meantime, gets something too. Skype users will find themselves able to connect to millions of people who were earlier unavailable. Depending on how Microsoft decides to integrate Skype, those Skype users on Linux computers will find that they can have video chats with a much broader variety of Windows users. Now it's only Windows users who download and install the Skype client. In the near future it could be everyone.