Skype reported Thursday that "a small number" of its subscribers have been unable to sign in to the global communications service since Wednesday evening. Still, even if the problem only affects a small percentage of Skype's 170 million connected users worldwide, it can cause some major headaches -- especially if small-business operators are impacted.
Skype's current sign-in problem follows on the heels of Microsoft's pending acquisition of Skype under an $8.5 billion deal announced earlier this month. The irony is that Skype said its current outage problems are predominantly limited to users equipped with PCs running versions of Microsoft's Windows.
"This predominantly affects people using Skype for Windows," Skype said in a blog on Thursday. "We have identified the problem and will issue a fix in the next few hours."
Quick To Blame Microsoft
Some Skype users were quick to lay the blame at Microsoft's feet, claiming the software giant had "broken Skype after owning it for literally days," tweeted Tim Redfern. "Looks like Microsoft completed their purchase of Skype, and broke it," added Tommy McCarthy in another Thursday tweet.
However, Microsoft's deal for Skype, which is subject to regulatory approval, isn't slated for completion until later this year. Still, many Skype users seem to be anticipating potential problems ahead -- with some no doubt recalling Microsoft's infamous Windows "blue screen of death" on malfunctioning PCs during the final decade of the 20th century.
So if Skype's report of an outage limited to a small number of users is accurate, this would be good news for Microsoft. The software giant plans to leverage Skype's huge client base and powerful consumer brand in today's post-desktop 
-PC era in which stationary platforms no longer dominate the computing environment. For this strategy to succeed, Skype's brand needs to remain untarnished.
Local phone numbers, three-way video conferencing, business administration, and making calls to real phone numbers are all things that people will pay for, noted Forrester Research Vice President Ted Schadler. "Skype has never had the money to market these services," Schadler wrote in a blog. "Microsoft does."
And the more Schadler looks at the Microsoft/Skype deal, the more he likes it. "Microsoft gets a scaled network and a valuable disruptive innovation ," he added later in a tweet. (continued...)
| 1 | 2 | Next Page > |
0 komentar:
Post a Comment