I was excited to read the headline that Microsoft had made Skype for Web available. I immediately went to skype.com using Chrome on my Mac mini to see for myself. To my surprise it worked.
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I’m hoping that Microsoft isn’t purposely not supporting the Chromebook because of the competition it might give the Surface line of computers. That would be very disappointing, although not surprising.
If you follow my posts, you might recall that back in February 2014, I spent an entire month with my Acer Chromebook C710. Not having Skype was a major fail point for me. Of course, it wasn’t and still isn’t the Chromebook’s fault that Skype won’t work. I’m not sure why (and I haven’t researched it) Skype will work in the Chrome browser, but not on the Chromebook. It works with PortableApps.com’s portable Chrome browser, so you know, I’m curious.
I don’t think that the lack of Skype is going to keep anyone from buying a Chromebook, but it certainly looks bad on the surface (possible pun intended) that it isn’t supported for whatever reason.
I hope that Microsoft puts in some effort on making Skype work on the Chromebook. It would be a great help and would further extend Skype’s reach. It would also make the $2.95 per month I pay, plus the additional money I pay for two Skype numbers, worth it. I’ll stay tuned and watch for the next big update to Skype for Web, when it comes out of Beta.
What do you think? Do you think that Chromebooks are isolated on purpose or are there technical difficulties that I haven’t considered? Talk back and let me know. Remember that I love conspiracy theories and sinister motives.