That’s 8.5 billion dollars, with a “b” for those keeping count. Microsoft has purchased Skype, the internet video conference software company, for an obscene sum that makes me wish I made some different choices during my college career. Bloomberg has the story. Read the comments for more.
Microsoft offers web calls through its Windows Live Messenger service, but upgrading with Skype’s functionality (and removing Skype as a competitor) should help the Big M latch on to the internet calling market like a facehugger on an opera singer.
I also can’t help but notice that Kinect and Xbox Live would probably work with Skype. You know, for all those people who use the Xbox 360 to keep in contact with their friends and family. Bolted together as a package, that might be enough to sell the 360 to the “Your Parents” market that Nintendo’s Wii is dominating so handily. Just a thought.
Perhaps Microsoft can make Skype profitable with their 8.5 billion dollars.
They do have a ready audience with the Xbox community and the video camera built into the Kinect. They’re also preparing the Kinect to interface with PCs as well (and not just for homebrew hackers.) As a teleconference concept, the Kinect could be excellent. Permitting people to control the software without leaving their seats, augmenting presentations with objects, locking sub-screens onto particular faces, and the ability to move the presentation along through context menus only the presenter can see.
Who knows, it might even have applications in the Deaf community for communication between hearing and deaf folks (or other disabilities) when it comes to teleconference.