[UniversalMind]

Hey everyone,

I just stumbled upon a German article at ComputerBase.de from March, 1st. In the article, the author talked to a marketing person called Linda Summers from Skype's marketing and operations team at MWC in Barcelona, Spain. There are no verbatim quotes in the article, but the author who interviewed the woman suggests that she told him a native Skype for the new BB platform is planned, but taking a while and thus the Android-port for now.

IMHO, ComputerBase.de is a pretty solid tech website I visit on a regular basis. I like that they are not all for speed and getting the news out, but tend to be more thorough and on average offer a more in-depth look than your typical tech blog. Anyways, being a German myself, I decided to translate the entire article for everyone:


Messenger to receive support for BlackBerry 10
Insights into the future development of Skype

"Accompanying the Mobile World Congress, which ended yesterday in Barcelona, Skype could share news as well. It seems Microsoft is quite up to something with it's popular messenger, but information regarding the discontinuation of MSN in favor of Skype were mentioned as well.

In a conversation with ComputerBase, Linda Summers, responsible for the marketing & operations division at Skype, stated that the software maker will come up with several improvements surrounding its messenger in the next months. Like Microsoft having especially improved the background process of Skype for Windows Phone 8 in the last months making it work a lot more reliable and consuming significantly less battery power.

Simultaneously, Summers stated that Skype should gain an easier alternative to share files and especially images. Goal in this will be to forward images by swipe gestures from one Skype account to another � no matter what device and platform. This could especially pay off in productive areas, should they tend to work a lot with graphics and images in a team. But this feature should be made available and be optimized on their own mobile OS first, should it work smoothly on the platform, the feature should appear on other systems as well.

At this point the question emerged regarding the future of the integration of Skype and the new BlackBerry OS. Microsoft watches this area very closely, said Summers. Because on BlackBerry the Android version of the messenger should outright work, a native application will be a long time coming � but will definitely appear.

Another project further illustrates the reasons why Microsoft discontinues its own messenger MSN worldwide but in China and prefers Skype: At the bottom of this is the realization by Microsoft that Skype enjoys a considerably bigger reputation in the IT world than MSN could ever eventually achieve. That is why Microsoft decided for itself to concentrate the available resources and not halfheartedly waste them for two projects, which could both be in danger of vanishing into irrelevance. Thus the decision for Skype at the end of the day, with the goal of further establishing Skype in enterprises. Here, problems regarding acceptance occurred sometimes mainly in security critical areas. In these Microsoft now likes to use its knowledge regarding IT security, to attract Skype in these domains as well and strengthen the position."

Insights into the future development of Skype - ComputerBase

[CairnsRock]

Very interesting, thank you for this and the translation.

[sydsam]

Thanks. Very interesting

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[Knightcrawler]

great news, but they says its gonna be "a long time coming". Im not really expecting native skype in 2013.

Maybe we'll have it in time for the product refresh next year.

[ddlax22]

Eventually I hope.

[greatwiseone]

Hopefully this is really the case.....

[ClaireSallisbury]

Great effort. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[filmgirl]

What Skype told me is that it would depend on demand and usage. To its credit, Skype will be making sure the port doesn't totally suck, but whether or not they go native will depend on usage and demand.

But yes, the idea is that as long as they meet x users, a full native version is planned.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

[Joy1980]

What Skype told me is that it would depend on demand and usage. To its credit, Skype will be making sure the port doesn't totally suck, but whether or not they go native will depend on usage and demand.

But yes, the idea is that as long as they meet x users, a full native version is planned.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

Which means that for us to get a native and well integrated version, we have got to get people to download and use it.

[Camelhmpz]

Which means that for us to get a native and well integrated version, we have got to get people to download and use it.

+1

[araskin]

I don't care if it's native or port. Just give it to me all ready!

[sexybabe88]

will it come to the pb?

[RubberChicken76]

Thanks. Hope it comes to the PlayBook

[sleepngbear]

will it come to the pb?

If the PB gets BB10 and a native Skype is developed, I expect it would.

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