Skype integration in Windows Phone coming our way

Microsoft is understood to be close to launching a Skype app on its Windows Phone platform, four months after the firm completed its multi-billion dollar takeover of the internet telephony service.


Skype was meant to be integrated into Microsoft's mobile operating system at the end of last year, coinciding with the big push around the Windows Phone-powered Nokia Lumia 800. But an app for the service has yet to surface.


According to The Daily Telegraph, Microsoft's Skype division vice president Rick Osterloh has now confirmed that the service will launch "soon".


In an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, Osterloh said that Skype was "working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon".


Skype was actively banging the drum for its service at CES in Las Vegas following the completion of its $8.5 billion (£5bn) takeover by Microsoft last October.


The firm, previously owned by eBay, claims that it has more than 200m users worldwide consuming 300 billion call minutes over the past year. Skype now accounts for a quarter of all long distance minutes worldwide.


Microsoft has pledged to bring Skype to 1bn people worldwide in the future, and while a launch on Windows Phone would bring only modest growth, it would be an important part of the firm's integration strategy for Skype.


It is expected that Skype functionality will be introduced to Windows Phone as part of the launch of "Apollo", the next major Windows Phone upgrade after last year's Mango update.


Alongside the Windows Phone app, Osterloh also said that Skype is working on integration with Microsoft's Xbox and the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system.


The company is also working on a way to more closely mesh Facebook contacts into the main Skype interface.