True Skype story: When I was in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, I almost missed seeing the Oscars. I've never missed Hollywood's biggest event, but it was in the middle of the night local time and Spain's idea of a useful telecast was fuzzy reception and loud Spanish-language translators speaking over all the show's best bits. Awake at 3 a.m. Barcelona time, I called my family up via Skype. After a quick hello, I had my son turn his laptop to my HDTV and I subsequently watched the entire show via Skype.
This is the power of Skype and why CEO Tony Bates says the service is "in the inner circle for a lot of people's lives." Speaking at All Things D's 10th annual tech and business conference, Bates said that he's heard of last rites being read to someone via Skype and it's not uncommon for a parent to see his newborn baby for the first time via the free video-conferencing service.
It's a position Skype, which Microsoft acquired last year, shares with close partner Facebook. Bates noted that in his earliest talks with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they realized they had "a shared vision" and soon launched one of Facebook's deepest third-party tool integrations.
That partnership is one key component of growing Skype's next 250 million monthly Users, but it's not the only part.
Bates, who says he's learning a lot from his new manager, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, plans on double-downing on Windows 8 (Microsoft launched a Windows 8 a release preview just a day earlier). He sees the Metro-style's OS overhaul and Microsoft's access to multiple platforms as clear paths to growing the already popular service.
Bates said Skype's top priority is to be on mobile. Earlier this year, Skype unveiled a radically redesigned Skype for the Windows Phone platform. For now, despite the deepening relationship with Microsoft, Skype's most important mobile market is still the iPhone (though Bates said Android has the most momentum).
Bates' ambitions do not end at mobile. With the Xbox 360 gaming console, "Microsoft has a great footprint into the living room," noted Bates, and Skype could one day end up working with the gesture and voice-enabled Kinect interface.
Ultimately, Bates said, video conferencing is not defined by one device or by the act of a single video call. What if, for example, video chat was persistent? Bates described watching a TV show together or having a telepresence dinner. He called it "ambient video."
That may be a video bridge too far for some more privacy-minded folks, but Bates' more aggressive plans for mobile should be welcome news for anyone who lives with their phones and tablets. Two of Skype's 2011 acquisitions, Qik and GroupMe make it clear that Bates has more on his mind than simply growing the network (though that, too, is a stated goal).
Bates said GroupMe, which introduced the world to group-based texting, is, for Skype, really about collaboration. The $100 million Qik deal helped put Skype on ever more mobile platforms, but, more importantly, it gives it the technology to capture and relive the conference video.
As always, Bates sees Skype as "a Swiss army knife. Use it how you want when you want." To that end, his dream is to have Skype on every major platform and every screen, at home, in the office and, most critically, on the road.
How big a role does Skype play in your life? If you don't use it, what's your video chat platform of choice? Tell us in the comments what you use, why and describe the major moments it helped you enjoy.
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