I imagine that in 2016 more people will be running Windows 7 than Windows 8 but despite this fact I doubt that Windows 8 will be a failure, in fact I expect it to do well. It might not be perceived as highly as Windows 7 was when it debuted but then anything following Vista would have been welcomed with open arms. Whilst on the topic of Vista I don’t think that Windows 8 will be anything like the PR disaster that Vista was despite what some some will have you think.

I really like Windows 7, it’s easily the best desktop OS I have ever owned and I expect it to sell well for several years to come alongside Windows 8. Microsoft has traditionally sold a new version of Windows alongside the previous version for a while and I don’t expect there to be any difference. Therefore, Windows 7 will continue to sell for the next few years increasing it’s market share from it’s current size of 525 million copies; I expect Microsoft to have sold over 700 million copies of Windows 7 before it stops being on sale.

Therefore in 4 years time, 2016, I imagine that Microsoft wont have sold over 700 million copies of Windows 8 as that would only have given it 3.5 years in the market compared to 7’s likely 4-5 years. Having said that though I expect that Windows 8 will do very well in the market as it certainly wont be dead on arrival.

So, why is Windows 8 destined to not be dead on arrival? Simple:

1. Windows 7 is basically a subset of Windows 8

Windows 8 will offer a desktop experience very similar to Windows 7 of today and even some new features such as faster booting, Storage Spaces and better multi-desktop support. Then alongside the traditional Windows 7 experience will be the new Windows 8 experiences such as “sharing” built into the OS and new UIs for accessing devices and managing settings and of course the new Start Screen and the ecosystem that it will bring. There will also be significant synchronisation mechanisms built into Windows 8 although it’s not yet clear how broad these will be.

Therefore, for whatever reasons people buy Windows 7 they will also be able to buy Windows 8 for the same reason. However, with Windows 8 they will get access to a brand new ecosystem, easier way to store and access data from the Cloud and a new UI and better UX for using Windows.

2. Metro

As everyone knows Windows 8 will come with a brand new default interface: Metro. Metro is more than just a UI though as it as much about a mind-set as it is about the placement of elements on a screen. Metro is about reducing unnecessary information and designs so that the content really shines and in doing so becomes the UI. The use of colours and text is used to allow users to quickly identify what something is without having to get used to what specific designs/images/indicators mean.

Some people have likened Metro on Windows 8 to Windows 1.0 because of its “gaudy colours, boxy designs and unresizable windows” however that is like saying that a modern day car is like a horse and cart. Sure both have 4 wheels and something that provides horse power but you can go far, far further and faster with a modern day car than a horse and cart.

There is perhaps an argument to be made that Metro offers a completely different way for interacting with a PC than the traditional Windows desktop but I find that to be a fairly weak argument. I have seen people fly through my Windows Phones on the first time of picking them up because the Metro UI is designed to be simple and easy to use. There are no real hidden things, everything is on display and descriptive enough to know what the likely outcome of pressing something will be, the same can not be said for the traditional Windows desktop.

3. The applications

Remember how I said that Windows 7 is basically a subset of Windows 8 well that is true for applications too. Therefore, any application that can run in Windows 7 on x86/x64 computers will also run in Windows on the same kind of hardware. What is not yet clear is whether ARM devices running Windows 8 will also be able to run the apps that can currently run in Windows 7.

I am unaware of anyone asking where the apps are for Windows 7 and I doubt people will really wonder where they are for Windows 8 either considering all Windows 7 apps will run in Windows 8. Of course, though, there will be a new ecosystem in Windows 8, one that works only in the Metro Start Screen, here might be a different issue. But again Windows 8 wont be without apps, the Start Screen might be but not Windows 8.

We will know by the end of February what kind of apps will be available for the Metro Start Screen when Microsoft releases the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and opens up the Windows Store, until then we really don’t know of many apps that will be available for the Metro Start Screen.

4. Developers

Developers who have spent their lives writing C#, C++ or even HTML applications can now all write apps for Windows 8’s new WinRT platform. This is the first OS to offer such a large selection of development languages to run apps and therefore allows more developers to write apps for the platform than any other ecosystem.

Let’s assume that Windows 8 sells as well as Windows 7 has done and that within about 2 years of it being on sale it will have almost 500 million users. That would make it a formidable ecosystem and any developer not working on apps for it would be silly, it would easily rival iOS and Android. But, for argument’s sake we could assume that Windows 8 doesn’t sell as well as Windows 7, it could still easily have several hundred million users which would still rival iOS and Android. I can’t imagine that many developers are ignoring the possibility of writing apps for Windows 8 even if they haven’t announced any plans.

Let’s not forgot though that there are currently many, many developers for Windows as it is and it wont take much for them to start work on WinRT apps even if it does require them to build apps from scratch.

One final thing to think about are the rumours that Microsoft is working on unifying its development platforms so that an app can be written once and with minor tweaking can run on Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. Are there really developers who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

5. Smartphones and Tablets

There are rumours that the next major version of Windows Phone will sit on top of much of the underlying code of Windows 8 to provide consistency across the two platforms and allow apps to run on both as I mentioned before. We know that Metro works very well on touch screen devices and therefore I have no doubt that Windows 8 will be lovely on tablets just as it could be on smartphones if the rumours are true. Several analyst firms reckon that Windows Phone is on track to become the number 2 mobile OS by 2015 behind Android, if that is correct then Windows 8 will do well not just on traditional PCs but also on mobile devices too without even considering where tablets will fit in.

It wasn’t long ago that the iPad was the only real tablet but in the past few months there have been several very popular and competitive tablets released such as the Amazon Fire and several from Samsung. This shows that nothing can be taken for granted and that there should still be room for more tablets and why not Windows 8 ones.

If you add it all up it looks pretty good to me that Windows 8 certainly wont be dead on arrival. Sure there are many people who wont want Windows 8, mainly those who have recently updated from Windows XP to Windows 7 but having said that there are still a few hundred million people using Windows XP who could easily update to Windows 8 rather than 7. PCs with Windows 8 or Windows 7 will continue to sell and most consumers will want the latest version on their PCs because why buy something old? Windows 8 will offer pretty much everything Windows 7 offers but with some exciting new opportunities for developers and consumers alike. Windows 8 wont be dead on arrival.

The HTC Titan can be preordered on T-Mobile/Orange or Vodafone and it looks like most tariffs will mean that the phone itself is free although one Vodafone tariff will cost £99 for the device plus the cost of the contract. You can see more about HTC Titan pre-order on phones4U.

The HTC Radar can only be preordered on T-Mobile/Orange and it looks like the phone itself will be free with a contract. The image of the Radar shows in a grey colour not the white of the other press shots I have seen, I think the grey looks much better. You can see more about HTC Titan pre-order on phones4U. You can find out more about the phone on Orange.co.uk.

Phones4U say that if you order either device today then you will receive it on October 7th. I have had a look around other phone websites in the UK and only found a carrier wide site listing the new Windows Phones, The Carphone Warehouse (Titan) (Radar). It only appears to be Orange that actually lists the new devices on its website, no other carrier had info about Windows Phone 7.5 devices.

But of there are ways to buy Windows Phones unlocked and I found several websites that do list them. Expansys list the Titan at $489.99 for preorder, the Radar at £329.99 for preorder and excitingly the recently announced Samsung Omnia W for £329.99 again for preorder. Handtec lists the Titan as £484.79 for preorder and the Radar as £328.79 for preorder. I’m sure there are plenty of other sites selling unlocked phones that list the new Windows Phones but I’m not going to go through them all, well not until Nokia have announced their Windows Phone.

One thing to note is that for the first time in a long time there is a Windows Phone banner on the homepage of a phone website in the UK. It’s a shame that most sites are still using the old round Windows Phone logo.

Will you be ordering a Windows Phone 7.5 this weekend or are you waiting for a different Windows Phone to go on sale? I know I am.

New design

There’s a lot more content available on the main page, allowing users to scroll through to see different devices and features.

Discover

There are lots of video demos and information for the individual features of Windows Phone 7.5 shown on the Discover page it’s similar to the previous version of the site .

There’s also a page of features specifically for businesses, a good idea I’d say.

Buy

The Buy page isn’t so different from the previous design, it just shows all the available phones and the networks that they are available on.

Marketplace

Yes, that’s right Marketplace is now available in the browser and not just through the Zune software! There’s a nice carousel at the top of the page and a couple of specific app categories that offer filters for the user to see different types of apps.

Clicking “applications” at the top presents a page where it is possible to access all apps for Windows Phone.

And clicking “games” at the top only shows games.

How-to

The How-to section of the site appears to have had a make over and received a few updates to the articles but aside from that there’s not much new.

My Phone

Users of Windows Mobile might recognise the name “My Phone” as being the name of the service that backed up one’s phone to the cloud and that is exactly what the service does now but for Windows Phones. Current users of Windows Phones will be interested to know that this actually replaces windowsphone.live.com as that URL now redirects to this new page.

You’ll notice that the site has been laid out slightly differently from the previous version but there’s really only minor tweaks apart from a new option to “see your recent check-ins at Bing” below the map. I clicked on this as was presented the below image.

Microsoft Scrapbook looks to me like a new service that might replicate some of the features of Facebook’s new Timeline design. When clicking “sign in” this is the screen I am presented with.

It would appear that I have not checked in anywhere that this new service has detected. I’m trying to figure out if this is only for Windows Phone 7.5 devices that when they check in somewhere is also recorded in to this new Scrapbook service, sadly I don’t have a 7.5 device so can’t try this out. Anyone tried this out and seen anything show up? I wonder if this Scrapbook service is the first step in creating a KIN Studio like service for Windows Phone.

I have to say that I am impressed with the new design and its new features, I am sure there are a few things I have missed so please let me know when you find anything else in the new website. Mango is so close now.

Update: It’s now also possible to check which apps have been purchased and even reinstall them to your phone from within the browser. This is accessed by clicking Account in My Phone. The Find My Phone options are the same but have a redesigned page.

I am not happy with this at all. Being a UK subscribed I am already done out of a good deal because I don’t get to download and keep 10 tracks a month and now I can’t have Zune on all the devices I have become used to having it on. My current set up is 1 Windows Phone, 1 Zune 8GB, 2 desktop PCs (one at home and one at uni) and my notebook PC. With this change something will have to change and I’m not sure what I will have to drop. Thankfully this doesn’t seem to affect having an Xbox linked, although I don’t own one myself.

Aside from my gripe with announcement I think it interesting to note that the Zune HD nor any Zune device is mentioned in this email and that its only Windows Phones. Also I wonder if this announcement is a precursor to any other Zune related announcement that might be coming out over the next few weeks. September/October has often been the time of year for new Zune related news and products, we do have BUILD next week.

How does this news affect you?

Update: It would appear that this change is for Europe only, it just gets better and better!

This news has got me thinking though of the future. Business Insider already have an article detailing the future plans of the partnership between Facebook and Skype. Liveside has already asked what this news means for Messenger and wonder what Microsoft will have planned for the IM service.

One thing that should not be overlooked is the fact that Facebook is partnering with another internet service, aside from Microsoft I don’t believe Facebook have done this before. In most cases it wouldn’t have made sense for Facebook to partner with another service but I think they could have done for some of their features (Places could have been a partnership with Foursquare). This is a great endorsement for Skype as it means some very positive things for the company, 1, Facebook believe it to be a better video service than it could have made; 2, Skype will get quite a few more users and becomes more social and accessible and 3, it’s name and brand will get more exposure, it should gain popularity from partnering with Facebook.

Facebook + Skype is a strong partnership with two heavy weights of the social and communication world.

I imagine it wont be too long before its possible to call a friend via Facebook when they are on a mobile phone, either through a Facebook mobile app or through a Skype mobile app. Obliviously Microsoft have big plans for Skype, this partnership with Facebook makes it more apparent why Microsoft brought the video service, so I imagine there are plans to allow users to use their PC, Windows Phone and Xbox to call each other and now they will be able to include Facebook as a means of video calling. That is three screens and the cloud, just not a Microsoft cloud.

This partnership brings together 3 large user groups in a more meaningful way than Windows Live’s Facebook integration had done before. I imagine that when Microsoft purchases Skype, Skype’s users will be transferred, at some point, to Windows Live. Skype has about 700 million registered users and Windows Live has over 500 million, that’s a lot of people when combined, even assuming that most of the users are on both Skype and Windows Live. With Facebook now allowing people to use Skype and I expect some way in the future for Facebook to call Skype users directly that means that this collection of users will also include the 750 million Facebook users. I think the total number of people using Windows Live, Skype and Facebook will be in excess of 1 billion.

Perhaps the only upsetting part of the Facebook + Skype deal is that Skype is only being used for video, that is it. Yes, there are likely plans allow Facebook users to call physical phones too I don’t see Skype text IM service ever coming to Facebook. Facebook only want the video and calling features and that is what they have got, interestingly that is also all Microsoft really want. I think that Microsoft and Facebook will be keen to position to Skype as a calling service and give no coverage to the IM aspect of Skype, it already competes with Messenger and Facebook Chat.

I think once purchased by Microsoft Skype will lose it’s IM feature and in fact I don’t know if Skype will have a separate client for PC. I imagine it will be integrated into everything as an addition feature rather than its own product.

Windows Live + Skype

I think that Skype will be brought to Windows Live allowing people to call their friends within Windows Live using Skype, this will be possible in both the Messenger client and also in the browser in Hotmail. I think that Messenger will continue to exist as the text IM service that complements the video chat functionality.

Video calls will take place between users of Messenger and Hotmail and those of Facebook. It’s already possible for users of Facebook and Messenger to easily chat via IM and I see Skype being the video extension of this integration. There will be still be need for individual Skype apps but I think it will be positioned as a feature.

Windows Phone + Skype

It’s not hard to imagine Skype being integrated into Windows Phone that will allow users of Microsoft products and Facebook to instantly video call each other. The fact that it could be possible for people to directly call a user of Windows Phone from Facebook is a pretty good feature and will build upon the mobile OS’s Facebook integration; this could well become it’s biggest unique selling point for many people.

As I’ve already said, I imagine that Messenger will be used to perform IMs so I don’t expect it to be possible for users to IM via Skype on their phone.

Xbox + Skype

Not much to say here other than if Microsoft were to make games for Facebook that integrated in some way to those on an Xbox Skype could well be a useful way to communicate with gamers around the world.

Windows 8 + Skype

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Skype was integrated into Windows 8, perhaps as “Chatter”. Again this wont be a product but as a way to call someone.

I am really looking forward to when Microsoft are allowed to purchase Skype to see what can come of the acquisition. I expect to see Skype to become all about calling people rather and to be a feature of many Microsoft products, not its own broad communication product. This can already be seen with the Facebook partnership where Skype is providing the infrastructure for the video calling and not much else.

What are your thoughts on the Facebook + Skype partnership? What do you think of my thoughts for the future of Skype and how it will work with Microsoft and Facebook?

The Marketplace via the web site http://marketplace.windowsphone.com will be shut down on July 15th however it will still be possible for users ”to browse, buy and download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x” using the app on their device.

Then on August 7th Microsoft’s My Phone service will shut down. This service backs up most things on a user’s phone such as texts, documents and photos. However Microsoft are being quite nice here by moving some content from My Phone to Windows Live SkyDrive; the company says that “contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive for you”. Sadly though all other content types will not move to SkyDrive so you’ll want to download that ASAP.

This announcement is surely not good news for Windows Mobile users but it has me wondering and guessing about things for Windows Phone. The address http://marketplace.windowsphone.com is likely to be used for the new web based marketplace that will arrive with the Windows Phone Mango update. The closing down of My Phone perhaps ads fire to the rumour that Microsoft is working on a My Phone 2 service that would expand upon the current offerings of Windows Live Phone. It is hoped that this new service would include features seen in the KIN Studio.

What do you make of this news?

When Microsoft showed us the preview of Mango on Tuesday they showed only a small peak of the “over 500” features that will be coming with Mango. Many of these features I expect will be small and not worth really talking about but features none-the-less. However, I am pretty certain that there will be some additional big announcements about Mango before its release, perhaps even as soon as E3.

Microsoft showed off a new Games hub but I don’t think there was anything new in it. Yes, it had been tweaked and some new features embedded into it rather than going to  separate app but there was nothing new. I expect Microsoft showed off the hub to avoid people asking questions about Xbox Live and gaming on Mango. There are a couple of reasons I think this.

1. I have seen at least two different Games hub Live Tiles, one with Xbox Live Gold branding and one without. Microsoft did not explain why there were two different live tiles and what the difference between the two is.

2. Microsoft showed off Kinect integration for Windows Phone at CES and since then we have heard nothing more about it.

I wonder if at E3 Microsoft will elaborate one some new gaming features for Windows Phone such as multiplayer gaming and also the Kinect integration. One thing I have noticed is that the bottom Live Tile only seems to appear on devices that people have actually used and that aren’t used with some demo Windows Live ID.

With an expected update to the chassis, or hardware specification of Windows Phone, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft announce some new ways game developers could make us of the gyroscope etc.

Mary Jo Foley has also highlighted some missing things from the Mango announcements such as turn by turn navigation; despite being in the dev tools it was not mentioned by Microsoft officially. But I wonder if there will be some announcements for new media features on Windows Phone before Mango is released.

Yes, SmartDJ and Podcasts will be coming to Windows Phone in Mango but they aren’t new Zune features, they are old features. In fact there hasn’t been any new Zune features for a long time now, yes there have been Zune Software updates but all they have done is allowed the software to connect to Windows Phones. It had been rumoured that Microsoft were going to announce the future of Zune at the Mango event and that it was going to split into three services. Well that never happened. But, I and many others have suggested, hinted and speculated that Xbox makes the most sense for Zune to move too, well what better event for Microsoft to make such an announcements than E3.

Again Microsoft might have shown off some new features for the media player so as to avoid people asking too many questions about it so that they can surprise us at E3 with some more entertainment focused features for Mango. Microsoft is positioning the Xbox as the entertainment hub so it would also make sense that a phone with Xbox Live integrated would benefit from this same ideology. It’s not known what Microsoft will be announcing this year at E3 but I would have thought it will be more than just a few Kinect games and it would be a great event to showcase the entertainment and gaming features of its fledgling mobile OS.

Fingers crossed for some great announcements from Microsoft at E3 but I fear they have out done themselves with Kinect last year and no E3 will ever compare. Do you think there could be more announced for Mango before “the Fall”?

I am sure that many of you are up to date with the new features of Mango and I hope that some of you even followed the liveblog, despite me not having access to the internet. Anyway, I thought I’d share with you the pictures I have taken today and outline the new features of Mango.

The stage was set…

Achim Berg, Corporate Vice President welcomed us to the event and kicked it off.

Berg outlined how the aim of Mango is to be “smarter and easier” and it focuses on three key areas, Communications. Apps and the Web. This structure was used to announce the new features of Windows Phone.

All of the announcements were later demoed by Nick Hedderman and I have added the images of the demos alongside the announcements by Berg.

Communications

Firstly, Berg pointed out how using a phone is not just about using a phone but now involved many, many different services which, in turn, can work across more than one device type.

The first announcement was “groups” to allow users to group contacts into meaningful collections and communicate to all those people quickly and efficiently.

the groups page shows Live Tiles of the people within it, showing their status and also any new communications the user has from them.

It is possible to swipe to the next pivot section within the group to see what’s new with all the members of the group and also new pictures from the group.

The group page acts like a single user’s page with the various ways to content the members of the group towards the bottom of the page.

The user can select with which method they wish to contact the members of the group.

Then to deal with all the services available to people to communicate with one another Microsoft are introducing a new feature called “threading” that allows people to have a single list of their communications with a single person across a variety of communication services and technologies.

Threads allow all communications with a person appear in a single conversation. You can see below how texts and Facebook messages were interchanged with no impact on the conversation. The users can select with which service to send the message or, I believe, the phone can offer the best option (if both people are online then it will use IM).

Messenger is being used below, instead of texting or Facebook messages. It’s possible to change one’s Messenger presence on the phone as shown below.

Next it was on to emails as a way to keep in contact with people. Showing how Mango will support conversation view showing both the emails of those involved in the conversation and the user’s emails.

In addition to the new features in emails, the calendar was also shown off that now supports multiple calendars including syncing with a user’s Facebook calendar.

And whilst on the topic of Facebook Mango will make it very easy to tag people in photos.

Apps

Berg then went on to talk about the Apps on Windows Phone and what Microsoft plan to do to make apps better on the platform.

The biggest thing for apps is that multitasking is coming to Windows Phone to allow users to seamlessly move in and out of apps and games.

Not much to show for multitasking other than the below shot.

The second announcement for apps was making the apps “smarter” and offering more features for the Live Tiles. Some of these announcements had been made at MIX only a few weeks ago.

We were shown a new app from British Airways, that may or may not be released, that makes use of some new features within Mango. The app made use of alarms, combined XNA with Silverlight and allowed parts of the app to be pinned to the start screen.

Then we had a look at some of the changes coming to the Office hub with its colour coordinated tiles for the different file types and that it now lists PDFs.

The Office hub will also integrate with more services now including (thankfully!) SkyDrive.

Lastly for apps we were shown the completely overhauled Xbox hub with emphasis being made on the Spotlight feature, the avatar (including the animations, such as a chicken running around) and other people’s profiles.

Web

The last of the main three categories was the web and Berg talked about how some mobile OSes try to emulate the full web, with its blue links.

However a mobile device can offer much more for users because of its additional sensors etc. and with Mango users will get the full web thanks to IE9.

In addition to Internet Explorer 9 coming to Windows Phone some other Web focused additions will be “quick cards” and “local scout”, both are aggregation features

To show off the power of Internet Explorer 9 on Windows Phone it was compared to the iPhone 4. This was the same test as shown off at MIX with the same results, Windows Phones, with Mango, are much faster on the web than the iPhone.

Following this demo we were shown Bing’s new images pane (sadly I didn’t get a picture) and Local Scout. Local Scout will allow users to be informed about the place they are in to help them explore.

After we had been shown everything that had been demoed Hedderman had one last treat for us. His “girlfriend” sent him a text, his phone then asked if he wanted it read out, he said he did and with that the phone read the text out. He was then given the option to reply to the text and dictated a message and sent it. It was possible for Hedderman to receive a text, to it to be read aloud and for him to reply al without touching his phone.

The Berg retook the stage and spoke to us what we had seen and told us that there are over 500 new features in Mango

To finish off he wanted to speak to us about the Windows Phone ecosystem and how he saw it split into 4 separate areas.

For “developers” he was pleased to announce that there are now over 18000 apps in the market and that Windows Phone should soon have more apps than RIM.

For “services” he showed us some of the services that are being integrated into Windows Phone.

For “operators” we were shown the countries that currently offer Windows Phone and then the additional countries that will offer Windows Phone when Mango is released.

For “handset manufactures” we were shown a slide of the companies that make Windows Phones.

And with that the event was finished. Just one thing to note, in the video that was shown at the very beginning a new logo was use for Windows Phone, this logo appeared a few things at the event ;).

I will have more to share with you tomorrow about today’s event and Mango so make sure you check those posts out too.

So that’s how I think the day will progress and you can be sure to keep an eye on here and Twitter as I attempt to share as much as possible, I might even live blog the event. Click the below banner for a link to where all the posts will appear (also notice the tweaked logo, I have some changes planned…)

But what about the actual features and announcements that we can expect, well that’s what I want to talk about, I am also keen to hear any hopes and ideas that you might have.

So first up are a collection of the main features already announced:

- Twitter integration

- SkyDrive integration

- Multitasking

- IE9 Mobile

- VoIP functionality

Then there are quite a few widely rumoured features too including:

- Bing improvements (including Bing Vision and music searching)

- Visual Voicemail

- Turn by turn navigation

- SMS dictation

There are even some rumours that are less certain such as NFC integration.

But, in addition to these features I wonder if there could be other feature announcements too and even announcements of future hardware chasses, devices maybe even including some Nokia devices. One thing that immediately got me thinking was mention on Twitter of a new version of Zune. In some ways this does make sense, there is often an update to Zune in September or October, the time when Mango is expected to be released. Then there is also the fact that Zune has no conference or event where announcements are made and with its very close relationship with Windows Phone it could make sense for Microsoft to preview the next version of Zune on May 24th. But at the same time Zune seems to be in a state of limbo with the Xbox team apparently working on a media service and rumours of the death of the Zune brand which perhaps means we still have a wait till an announcement about what will replace Zune. There have also been no rumours, at all, about the next version of Zune.

Some other things I expect will be shown off will be new apps, probably including the Skype app and no doubt Angry Birds. I would expect Spotify to get shown off in London even if it isn’t shown in New York.

Have I missed off anything obvious that should be expected on May 24th? Are you hoping Microsoft announce something specific? Please do let me know.

In addition to these ways in which Skype could be integrated into current Microsoft products it also likely that Microsoft will integrate some of its own products into Skype. I think it wont take long to see Bing integrated into Skype allowing users to look up things as they chat to each other to help them “decide” upon what they are talking about. From watching the conference call about this acquisition yesterday I noticed, as did Mary Jo Foley, that Ballmer mentioned advertising opportunities several times and I imagine that Microsoft Advertising will soon have a presence within Skype.

All the above ideas I imagine will be implemented within the next 18 months or so but there are other things Microsoft could do with Skype over a longer period. I remember Microsoft Research demoing a tech a while ago that offered real-time translation of telephone conversations which went through a PC for two people speaking different languages; perhaps Microsoft Research will be able to add this kind of functionality to Skype over the coming years. As smartphones become more power and the cloud has more applications its not hard to imagine that this could well be possible, it could make for a very compelling feature for Windows Phone…so long as Google or Apple don’t do it first. This also kind of fits in with the Office Labs 2019 vision that had people communicate to each other with instant real time translations.

Another idea, that has been much talked about on the internet, is what Microsoft could do with Skype on Windows Phone in the future. Its entirely possible that Microsoft could make a version of Windows Phone that doesn’t act like a traditional mobile phone and wont need network providers to function but instead will use Wi-Fi or WiMax or whatever we have to make Skype calls instead. It might be possible to do away with the carriers entirely and save people a lot of money on costly monthly contracts for minutes and texts. This could be a fantastic feature for Windows Phone, of course its very forward looking and that is not exactly a tribute people often say of Microsoft but for $8.5 billion they must be looking to get the most out of this deal. Of course, this idea wont exactly be popular with the carriers so Microsoft will have to play it steady for while until 4G is far more proliferated throughout the world.

I would like to think there are other ways Microsoft will be able to use Skype in innovative ways that I’ve not been able to think of and that hopefully over time we will see these. I’ve wondered how Zune could benefit from this deal and have so far failed to come up with much other than showing what music a Skype user is listening too and linking that the music in Zune.

There’s a lot to think about from this acquisition but perhaps the most interesting thing to think about is what this really means for Microsoft and not how Skype can be integrated into its current products. I am sure Microsoft wont pull Skype from any platforms it is currently on but the question remains will Microsoft push Skype to new platforms? I hope so. The true value of Skype, as pointed out by Peter from GDGT, is that is connects many people regardless of the devices or OS they run. It only makes sense that Microsoft will keep pushing Skype to other platforms, hopefully bringing Windows Live and Bing in its wake (and possibly even Office). With Windows Live Messenger and Skype Microsoft surely have the biggest IM network and with Microsoft’s full backing Skype could become the VoIP service to use. But, with Microsoft’s history of being a platforms company I wonder how long it will be until Skype becomes more than a service but an actual platform.

Hotmail, Exchange, Outlook, Messenger, Lync and now Skype; Microsoft could be on track to be the world’s biggest communications company.

What are your thoughts on the acquisition? Do you think Microsoft could integrate Skype in to other products? Let me know.