Skype For Windows Phone Due First Half Of 2012 – Full Integration With Apollo Update

Paul Thurrott brings us plenty of good (and finally more) news of Skype coming to the Windows Phone, in any form. Via his SuperSite Blog, Thurrott gives us a little insight on why Skype on Windows Phone was never released by the end of 2011 as expected, what Microsoft is planning in the end with Skype on Windows Phone, and how a Skype application would be the only thing coming.

Thurrott ‘now confirms’ that the Skype application for Windows Phone will release within the first half of 2012. He brings this confirmation from Microsoft documentation which he also used to acquire some other recent information such as Microsoft’s marketing and LTE plans for Windows Phone. Skype did make a small appearance at CES 2012, Thurrott mentions a video interview where Skype’s vice president of products, Rick Osterloh, made a simple statement that they are working on a product that will release on the Windows Phone soon.

Paul Thurrott also brings some clear information on why the Skype application, or anything of the like, was never released ‘as promised’ by the end of 2011. Thurrott has no information on Microsoft making such a promise. He does mention to readers that the documentation he is getting the present information from states that Microsoft had always had the intention of releasing anything Skype related before mid-year 2012, and not before the end of 2011 as many expected and came to believe. However, Thurrott does side with the masses and doesn’t know why the Skype product has been delayed past the end of 2011, regardless he can now confirm Microsoft’s plan at the moment is to tie in the Windows Phone Skype release with some heavy artillery marketing.

Paul Thurrott closes off the very informative Skype post with the following marketing plans for Microsoft with Skype on Windows Phone (along with other applications):

Skype, as you may realize, is just part of a broader range of Microsoft products whose integration with Windows Phone forms a key part of the software giant’s overall strategy. These products include Xbox, Internet Explorer, Office, Windows, Hotmail, Bing, and, soon, Skype.

Promotion of Windows Phone to Skype’s enormous user base will be tied to the app’s availability, the documentation notes, in the first half of calendar year 2012.

Looked at another way, the addition to Skype to the Windows Phone apps market will help Microsoft “bridge the gap in top apps” between Windows Phone and the competition, and the overall goal is to ensure that all “top 25 apps” (from both iOS and Android) will be available on Windows Phone before the end of the first half of 2012. And Microsoft is also investing tens of millions of dollars over three years to promote competitors of key apps that will never, for whatever reason, be ported to Windows Phone. Pandora is cited as an example, alarmingly.