To Compete With Google, Microsoft Makes Group Chats Free on Skype
Microsoft is feeling generous. Again.
On Monday, the tech giant announced that it will offer free group video calls on Skype, its popular internet communications service. Previously, such calls were reserved for customers who paid for premium Skype accounts.
The move is yet another example of Microsoft forgoing immediate revenues in an effort to better compete in the modern world, where so many basic software tools and services are free, subsidized by online advertising or the sale of more specialized tools. In this case, Google has long offered free group video calls through its Hangouts service - part of the Google+ social network - and now, Microsoft is following suit.
Google has long offered free group video calls through its Hangouts service - part of the Google+ social network - and now, Microsoft is following suit.
Earlier this month, the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant unveiled a free version of its Windows Phone operating system, and then open sourced many of its most important software tools for developers. These were big moves, showing that Microsoft has finally realized that in the modern world - where things like Google's Android mobile operating system and the Java developer platform are free and open - it must change. As Mark Russinovich, a Microsoft Fellow working on Microsoft's cloud service, Windows Azure, recently told Wired: 'If you look at the way business models are going, it's not about the bottom-most piece of the system. The device itself - the OS that runs on top of that - is not where the value is. The value is in what you put on top of that.'
The Skype announcement is a smaller move. But it's part of the same trend. As with free Windows and free Microsoft developers tools, the jury is still out on whether the company's new approach will prove successful. But some are already praising Microsoft's move. For several commenters on Hacker News - one of the main online hangouts for the Silicon Valley cognoscenti - the move could push more people towards Skype and away from Google+. 'Everyone I know hates switching to [Google+] for group calls,' one commenter wrote. 'We have to use Skype to guide people through the G+ interface and get them on a group call.'
'I never realized it but my parents get really uncomfortable when I try to walk them over how to set up Google Hangout, and most of the time the conversation just continues on Skype and we drop the experiment,' wrote another.
Others disagreed. But certainly, Microsoft is in a better position to compete than it was in the past. Yes, this could mean a loss in revenue on one level. But Microsoft's larger aim is to bring more people to its software platforms and fundamental services. This can then bring more revenue from tools that aren't available for free from competitors.
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