A job advertisement on Skype’s official website suggests that the recently bought-by-Microsoft company known for its VoIP services is gearing up for integrating said services into Windows Phone 7.
The news comes from our friends over at WPCentral. Skype, according to a new job advertisement, are looking for a software engineer to work on Microsoft platforms. This strongly hints at Skype/MS finally getting serious about bringing Skype’s strong VoIP services to Windows Phone 7 smartphones.
From Skype Careers:
Skype Video Development Team is creating technology that enables high quality, multi-way, multi-modal, multi-platform video communications experience over the Internet. The video team is responsible for delivering the Skype Video Engine for Skype Desktop clients as well as Mobile and Embedded devices.
We are looking for a new member to join our Microsoft Platforms team.
As you can see, Skype is looking for someone to ready Skype’s Video Engine solution for Microsoft Windows and Windows Phone platforms. Perhaps, we will not only see Windows Phone 7 integration but integration in the upcoming Windows 8 desktop OS as well? Only time will tell!
Skype is also looking to keep their software for WP7 regularly updated as it is categorically stated that the lucky software engineer will be working with a small team to develop and test new releases of the Video Engine every two months.
This will be the deepest integration of Skype with any mobile platform yet, integration perhaps deeper than the already quite deep integration of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with WP7.
Microsoft Corporation bought Skype three months ago for $8.5bn so this development was expected a long time ago.
These days, Microsoft is working with carriers on releasing Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” to public this fall (in September). Mango solves many of the issues and limitations found in the initial release of Windows Phone 7. Major new features include: multitasking, support for front-facing cameras, Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn integration, Internet Explorer 9 mobile just to name a few.
No clear date has been given for the integration of Skype’s services into Windows Phone 7. Late 2011 or early 2012 would be a good guess, though.
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