Microsoft to buy skype
Photics
Member Posts: 4,172
It looks like Microsoft is picking up Skype for $8.5 billion.
This might have interesting ramifications for the mobile scene.
This might have interesting ramifications for the mobile scene.
Comments
It looks like Microsoft is trying to catch up.
Losers!
I hope they stay with iPhone I like it so much.
So, I think a purchase like this is more about the installed user base. Skype is a fairly strong brand, with lots of users. But for 8.5 billion dollars, they could get 750,000,000 million users by offering $10 to sign up... and still have 1 billion left over to actually build the thing.
Minium price to advertise something SIMPLE is $50. Say 10,000,000 people spend $50 a week on Facebook advertising. Multiply that by 52 weeks... That's a lot of candy.
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Might not work like that with Skype, but it's still a huge market which has lots of nifty gadgets to add on and skype credit. It's slowly taking over with it's free Skype to Skype calls.
Heh, but it's still pretty telling, as no one voted "Yes" yet. HA HA
Skype was already acquired by Ebay before, for $3.1bn, and then bought by Private investors for a $1.9bn. A $1 billion loss to Ebay... and now $7 billion or more coming from Microsoft? Seems dumb.
Even though Microsoft did great things with Bungie, there still seems to be little enthusiasm about this acquisition.
Successful products does not equal lack of suck.
No one is pissed off because Microsoft bought a company, just like Apple does, people are pissed because Microsoft will mess it up, unlike what Apple does.
Xbox 360 is the best console, but hardware-wise, it's a RROD piece of junk.
Microsoft has always had a complete lack of taste and self awareness, and this will not be good for them, aside from any bias I have.
The first XBOX was pretty solid. And with the red-ring-of-death, Microsoft was fairly generous with the warranty. (Although, random hardware failure is one of the reasons why I don't own an XBOX 360.)
...and the Mac wasn't always an elegant machine. For most of the 90's, it had overpriced hardware and limited software. Microsoft has been great for PC gaming. Apple should have been more aggressive with gaming. I think that's why iOS is a success — GAMES!
Lump Apps and My Assets
I think absorbing Bungie was fair enough. I don't like the games they make, but it really did well for the 360.
I never had the original Xbox, so I don't know how solid it was, but we all know about the notorious reliability of the 360.
I don't even really consider Apple as Apple during the 90's considering they had no Steve Jobs for most of it, but you do have to pay a little extra for good design. They didn't have the gaming because Microsoft's market share and, what is it, DirectX? I think? Windows definitely had the upper hand.
It is unfortunate that, even today, you need to be running Windows if you really want to properly play PC games.
• The 20th anniversary Mac
• The original iMac mouse
• The G4 Cube... very cool looking, but prone to cracking.
The Apple of today is from years and years of refinement. It was really ugly for Apple in the mid-to-late 90's. The Mac stuff was usually in the far corner of an electronics store... if at all. This is interesting development... as now I see Windows games pushed to the corner of gaming stores. I think Microsoft is in a downward spiral, as they fumbled on mobile and tablet computers. A move like this screams of desperation... as Apple simply made FaceTime instead of buying Skype.
But really... how big is FaceTime? It's still the top paid Mac App Store app, but I don't really use FaceTime all that much. Why not?! It's Wi-Fi only. That's a crippling limitation.
Apple has some pretty big disappointments too... like MobileMe and iAds. Apple bought Quattro Wireless and what have they done with it? Is iAds that great?
Apple... Sony... Nintendo... these companies aren't perfect either.
Ha, and it's still zero votes for yes.
I never said I liked the Sony Playstation, at all. I'm a proud owner of a Wii and a Xbox 360, but it doesn't let MS off the hook.
Heh. You got to my post before I edited it. I was initially mistaken about my thoughts about the 90's and Apple, and made an edit, near immediately. I was thinking about the 00's.
No company is perfect, but that doesn't mean Microsoft doesn't have more problems.
Anyway, I disagree with the Cube. The cracks were tiny hairline. If it was a Windows machine doing that noone would've ever said anything.
Example - I didn't see what was so bad about Windows Vista... and Windows ME wasn't that bad either. From what I was reading online, you'd think Microsoft killed the family pet or something heinous like that.
Apple has Antenna Gate, they catch a lot of flak for the walled-garden approach to app approval and the location tracking bug was another issue. (I actually think the walled-garden for the app stores is a good idea... frustrating for me... but it keeps Apple away from the troubles the Android Market has for being more open.)
If Bill Gates went on stage and said, "If you don't like it, don't buy it!" then the Internet would likely be ablaze with hatred. Heh, but because Steve Jobs played a funny video, that's supposed to be OK?
As for the Cube, I liked it... and it's basically the precursor to the Mac Mini... a fairly cheap, powerful and quiet desktop. Yet, the cube was expensive and not that powerful.
Apple has plenty of things to poke at... like Apple TV. I don't see why people are going nuts over a $99 box, when a cheaper Roku box can do basically the same thing... or a PS3 can do many of the same things and much much more.
Apple is successful today because of one product... the iPod. That lead to the iPhone... which lead to the iPad. I'm not sure why consumers went nuts over an expensive MP3 player, but that's what happened. The Sidekick was every bit as revolutionary as an iPhone. It had an app store. It played music. It had web browsing and great messaging features. Yet, more people went nuts over the iPhone.
Heh... but that does point to another Microsoft screw-up, as they did buy Danger.
I think the new Sidekick is nice... it has a physical keyboard, which is awesome. That was one of the reasons why I waited so long to get an iPhone. I like having a physical keyboard. With the iPhone, I don't have that option... not without a clumsy add-on... so there's lots of reasons to get mad at Apple too.
As a developer, I think it's better to stay out of the politics and look at the opportunities. If Microsoft does build a strong mobile platform, or a strong app store for Windows, then that's another opportunity for me.
Yeah. I just can't agree with most of that.
I personally think Microsoft has bad taste, and a self-destructive internal culture.