Skype coming soon to Windows Phone, later to Xbox Live

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Skype can be used to make voice and video calls over the Web using PCs, a number of TVs and Blu-Ray players, Facebook and via smartphone apps found on BlackBerrys, Androids, iPhones and iPads.

Yet, despite Microsoft buying Skype at a price of $8.5-billion in October, you still can’t make a Skype call on a Windows Phone handset. However, that will change soon, Skype and Microsoft said in a YouTube video produced at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.

If you’re feeling a bit skeptical, you’re likely not alone. Skype has been promising a Windows Phone app since April of last year. But a higher level of integration between Skype and its new owner Microsoft is inevitable, if not late.

Rick Osterloh, Skype’s vice president of product, said in the company’s CES video that the online calling service is working on apps for not only Windows Phone, but also for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console and the in-development Windows 8 operating system.

Osterloh also said that Skype is on an upswing of growth with the service recently passing 200 million monthly users who use more than 1 billion minutes a day. Also on the way is group-calling with up to 10 people on a single call, he said.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+
Twitter.com/nateog