Microsoft purchased Skype in May 2011, and the update has been long awaited by Windows Phone customers mystified by the delays and lack of information forthcoming.
The Beta version can now be downloaded from the developers blog here. Unfortunately it is only available to Windows Phone 7.5 users (the latest version most prominently featured on the new Nokia Lumia range) and only available in English.
The release date has been pushed back several times, which hasn’t helped the fledgling platform, as competiting Apple and Google Android products have had Skype functionality for years.
As CBR reported back in January, it was originally thought that the Windows Phone Skype delays were due to Microsoft and Nokia doing a comprehensive integration of its functionality into the core of the operating system. It now appears it will be a stand-alone app, similar to its aforementioned rivals, until the next generation of Windows Phone launches.
Rumours are now also swirling that the next Windows Phone platform may be merged with Windows 8, as with its app stores.
Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum believes the Skype launch fills one of the obvious application gaps for Nokia and Microsoft.
"At least in its initial guise, Skype for Windows Phone offers a fairly typical Skype experience on smartphones running as a standalone application. We expect this to change in future iterations with Skype becoming a more pervasive part of the Windows Phone software platform and experience, with its functionality integrated tightly with applications and services across the phone increasing its utility," he said.
Cripps believes Skype is an important step for Microsoft, making it an unavoidable part of its product portfolio.
"A pervasive Skype has much greater potential to disrupt existing models of communication than one that is dependent on users proactively choosing to install it," he said.
"In this capacity it could begin to act as a social "glue" helping to drive usage of the service and furthering sales of Skype-enabled Microsoft products considerably in future. It could eventually help blur the lines between business users and consumers with Skype increasingly seen as simply a convenient tool to communication available anywhere."
Microsoft and Nokia also announced a fourth Lumia device, the 610, which will be a cheaper smartphone model for emerging markets. This sits along its high-end device, the 4G Lumia 900 – which Nokia announced this morning will be available worldwide. This includes markets such as the UK who don’t have 4G capabilities, where it will operate using only 3G functionality.
