Scoble forced to admit he was wrong about Skype and Windows Phone 7 Mango

January 15, 2012 | By Surur

Robert Scoble, has rapidly become an enemy of Windows Phone due to his hardening position on the eventual failure of the OS, has been forced to admit he misquoted Tony Bates, the Microsoft VP in charge of Skype.

Scoble has claimed even Skype, which Microsoft purchased a few months ago, was prioritising other platforms over Windows Phone, and if Microsoft could not even get their own subsidiaries to support Windows Phone, what chance did the OS have at other apps.

Bates has not forced Scoble to retract his statement regarding Skype, with Scoble posting:

Yesterday in my post about Windows Phone I didn’t get it right. https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/B6RWtAHjYtx
Tony Bates, President of the Skype Division at Microsoft, says that they are indeed doing an app that’s coming on Mango. He says I misquoted him and didn’t understand what he was saying when he said they would wait until Apollo to fully build in Skype. So, today he called me to clarify: a Skype app is coming on Mango on Windows Phone and further integration will be built into the Apollo version of Windows Phone.

Hopefully Scoble will be forced to eat even more of his words in the coming months, especially of the rumour of the top 25 apps coming to Windows Phone in H1 2012 is true.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged skype, windows phone 7.5

Anonymous

Is Scoble the same person that is always advocating against Windows Phone on Google+?
http://www.facebook.com/EDDS86 Rick Dodkins

I don’t
think anyone using google plus has any credibility when it comes to failing
platforms.

Anonymous

Google + has many users. It has much more users than WP7 platform. So it shouldn’t be judged as fail. It doesn’t fail because of Google and it’s fans. A lot of marketing, a lot of pop-ups on search pages and etc. Google is pushing it hard. But yea, Google+ is just ripped off Facebook, with some changes

http://www.geardiary.com/ Michael Anderson

Google + only has users because (a) Android phones now make it look like a requirement and (b) they are stuffing it down everyone’s throat via leveraging the search monopoly.
Anonymous

Google and WP are not the same thing.

Google themselves admitted it’s a failure:

“Google+ is a Prime Example of Our Complete Failure to Understand Platforms”

Anonymous

One engineer ranting is not an admission by Google of anything (not that I think it’s a success).

Anonymous

That engineer’s “ranting” was absolutely correct. Google+ had crappy APIs and lousy developer support. You’ll get more innovation from an army of developers than some Google engineers and Eric Schmidt’s dumb ass sitting in a conference room.
Martyn Metalous

I welcome Google+, even if it becomes a poor second to facebook, at least facebook will have competition, thats good for everyone

Anonymous

You seem kind of defensive there dude. If you’re happy on Google + so be it. Rick was just stating an opinion.
Anonymous

I’m a member of Google + and after the 1st week I never go on. This is the case for the majority of my friends who also joined. Right now its more like Google -
Anonymous

This is Google’s new mantra. Copy everything popular out there and launch a photocopied product. Android was a rip off from iOS and now Google+ rip off from Facebook. Nothing innovative about Google these days. Glad Buzz and Wave were major disasters for them.
http://twitter.com/digthenoise Dig The Noise

Google+ has a lot of registrations. I had to register with Google+ to be able to use a particular service, but I’ve never used Google+ … same with Gmail, registered but don’t use.

Anonymous

Microsoft should just ignore this person, just like Nokia should just ignore that Eldar Murtazin guy.

If you give them no voice, they will soon become silent.
http://twitter.com/EShy E-Shy

If they do it right, the Apollo version will be a differentiator for Windows Phone. Integrated into the phone so if you’re calling a contact that’s online on skype you don’t use your minutes and long distance calls use skypeout to cut costs.
It’s like Google Voice on Sprint. but while most people don’t even know about Google Voice, Skype has a lot of users

http://www.facebook.com/people/Atilim-Özdemir/100000771878800 Atilim Özdemir

That is what I’m hoping for when they make skype part of the OS.

Microsoft should develope cross platform but their on their own platform it should have features that you don’t share with other platforms.

Anonymous

diquss fail
Anonymous

LastFM > Pandora

nuff said.
Anonymous

Windows Phone is basically perfect now. There is very little Microsoft can do to improve it further (other than give us our long-awaited backup, which is coming). The only thing that’s keeping Windows Phone from being truly great now is the industry and society getting behind it. I want to hear “Available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone” every time I hear an app for something being advertised. We need to get there!
http://twitter.com/BeRadG Brad Gravesen

I don’t understand why people listen to Scoble. All he seems to care about is crapping on Windows Phone. Thanks that’s really productive. Honestly I’m just tired of the “Scobles” out there nagging about “apps” and how necessary they are for the human race to live. Yeah, apps are important, I get it, let’s move on and start talking about the apps and features that Windows Phone has and needs. The talk about WP7 being late, is getting old. Again, people we get that. It’s just lazy journalism and monday morning quarterbacking. Talk about something interesting about the phone, instead of dismissing it without ever using it. Have you used a WP7 Scoble? Oh wait, you are too hip and cool and it’s missing 450,000 apps and apparently not Christmas Party worthy.
DevStar

You do realize that Scoble will claim that WP apps don’t match iPhone until it has literally every app that is available on the iPhone.

Scoble is in a bubble. He talks to valley startup founders and think they represent anything. If valley startup founders were representative .NET wouldn’t be used by anyone, MBP would sell a few hundred million per year, Paul Graham would be more famous than Lebron James, and Ruby would be the most dominant language in the world.

Until he realizes that he lives in a bubble he won’t understand why the world always seems to pass him by.
Thomas Adams

But one observation of Scoble is correct. “App startups” tend to ignore the WP7 platform and they really do start with iOS apps. And even if they later create an Android app you can bet that only the iOS app looks beautiful and has a good user interface.
In his little world of Silicon valley app developers and venture capitalists the WP7 phones really do not exist. And this is what he says. I think he’s not generally against the platform. He just states how it is in his little world.

Anonymous

He doesn’t just state “how it is”. He states what he thinks it is and is desperate to be right.

Anonymous

“He states what he thinks it is”

How is that any different from any other journalist? He does he first hand information from many people directly involved with decision making in the industry.

Anonymous

The difference is that when a real journalist is offered real evidence to the contrary, his opinion of reality changes. Scoble ignores anything that doesn’t jibe with what he wants to be reality.

http://twitter.com/nazeehe Nazeeh ElDirghami

Well, they are after all “start ups”, which by definition means they don’t have enough resources to do everything. So they have to pick a few targets and the obvious ones are iOS/Android. It doesn’t mean they will NEVER do WP7 stuff. They are still in the business of finding out if their idea is even going to work or not. Most of them probably won’t stick around, it’s the nature of a start up.
Anonymous

Scoble is definitely against the platform. Being an ex-Microsoft employee and WebOS supporter, he wants Windows Phone to fail or more importantly HIS prediction to come true. Scoble is like a nerd in high school who is desperately trying to impress the cool kids in Silicon valley. Silicon Valley app developers will learn to appreciate Windows 8. The Windows 8 app store will be a blessing to app developers, because it may force Apple to lower prices and relax their restrictions.

Anonymous

Development is moving from IOS first to Android first and it is entirely possible (however unlikely) that developers could start WP7.
http://www.technologypoet.com Vanessa Howell

It seems to me that Scoble is still correct – Skype has prioritized iOS and Android over WP7, and has even released new features for those platforms ahead of the WP7 version. It may not be a good reflection of WP7′s marketplace success thus far, but it’s a smart thing for Skype to do – go where the users are.

While Microsoft’s biggest threat might be that they fail to gain any traction in the marketplace, IMO Skype’s biggest threat is from other video services like Google hangouts.

Anonymous

Skype was losing money last year, so spending resources on Windows Phone was not a priority for them. Since Skype purchase by Microsoft was just approved by EC in October, this is now not a concern.
With Skype partnering with Facebook, I don’t see losing market share as their number one problem. Finding someway to make money is their number one problem!

The problem with Scoble is that he is not looking at situation objectively. In little over a year, Windows Phone has 55,000 apps. That is remarkable by any standard except Scoble’s.

Anonymous

Robert Scoble is an ex-Microsoft employee who as an Ax to grind, he is a Tech scene parasite who just about everyone in the industry makes fun of behind his back.