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When Microsoft purchased Skype they weren't buying software, they were buying users back who use to use MSN Messenger before jumping ship. AIM (AOL's chat clien

by err4nt 13y ago

When Microsoft purchased Skype they weren't buying software, they were buying users back who use to use MSN Messenger before jumping ship. AIM (AOL's chat client) was only popular in the US, the rest of the world used MSN for years and it finally died in favour of Skype and gTalk. This was their best way of killing MSN messenger, and rolling their remaining users into a useful userbase. That's why the only addition to Skype has been logging in with your Microsoft ID. Microsoft also has a product called 'Lync' that (from what I've heard) is not doing so well, so I believe their goal there again is to roll their users into Skype and eventually discontinue that product. Buying Skype was all about trying to salvage their brand from the shortcomings of their own software.

radicalbyte 13y ago
They've federated Lync and Skype; so you can call Skype users with Lync (and visa versa), and so your boss can log all of your personal chats :) It's doing pretty well in its market (Enterprise) because despite the demands (federation requires two servers) it's better than the competition (WebEx). The client is slightly less annoying than Skype if only for the fact that it doesn't take over your entire computer for IM like the new Skype client does.
- tracker1 13y ago
  My biggest issues with lync are... 1) the mac client is buggy/crashy and sucks. 2) the mac client doesn't properly register itself so meeting links in outlook work. 3) when you are signed in on multiple systems, phone, home, work, messages aren't synchronized like gtalk/hangouts so you will miss a lot of conversations if you forget to sign out, this happens with my phone a couple times a week. 4) on a retina mac, the screen sharing only works on 1/4 the screen. 5) the UI in the android app is about the worst I've used for a productivity app on android. On windows it's a bit better, but the non-synchronized conversations really irks me to no end.

by err4nt 13y ago

radicalbyte 13y ago

They've federated Lync and Skype; so you can call Skype users with Lync (and visa versa), and so your boss can log all of your personal chats :) It's doing pretty well in its market (Enterprise) because despite the demands (federation requires two servers) it's better than the competition (WebEx). The client is slightly less annoying than Skype if only for the fact that it doesn't take over your entire computer for IM like the new Skype client does.

tracker1 13y ago
My biggest issues with lync are... 1) the mac client is buggy/crashy and sucks. 2) the mac client doesn't properly register itself so meeting links in outlook work. 3) when you are signed in on multiple systems, phone, home, work, messages aren't synchronized like gtalk/hangouts so you will miss a lot of conversations if you forget to sign out, this happens with my phone a couple times a week. 4) on a retina mac, the screen sharing only works on 1/4 the screen. 5) the UI in the android app is about the worst I've used for a productivity app on android. On windows it's a bit better, but the non-synchronized conversations really irks me to no end.