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Will "MicroSkype" Irk Apple?

Skype is reportedly about ready to release an iPad-friendly video chat app. As a result, Computerworld notes, Microsoft -- which recently agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion -- is "indirectly ingratiating" itself with Apple. Similarly, it's been widely reported that the Skype app will debut on iTunes, this week.

"It's interesting that this app puts Microsoft on the iPad --- potentially," Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, tells Computerworld. "MicroSkype takes a bite of the Apple."

By itself, the Skype video chat app for iPad might not be a big concern for Apple, though it does give Microsoft a foot into the Apple door, according to Gold. "In fact, the app could mean that Apple, in effect, will become a component of the Microsoft Windows Live suite that includes everything from IM to email," Computerworld writes. "Live is directly competitive to what Apple is doing," Gold added. "A further irony," Computerworld adds, "is that the Skype for iPad app would compete with Apple's own FaceTime video chat product, which works in Wi-Fi only. "

Read the whole story at Computerworld »

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