These are changing times for Microsoft, as Steve Ballmer prepares to bequeath the CEO seat to an as-yet-unannounced successor. Microsoft hasn't excelled in all areas in recent years, but Skype believes it's helped show Microsoft how to adapt to changing time.
"Skype has very positively influenced the rest of Microsoft with this freshness, with this different way of thinking," Karlheinz Wurm, General Manager of Product and Test for Skype, told us.
"Skype has been very consumer-focused while Microsoft in the past ten years has been focusing on both but, for sure, very heavily targeting enterprise."
As Microsoft moves to further unify its brand under the One Microsoft policy, there's a question over how that might affect areas such as Skype, which it has kept at arm's-length.
"I think we've been influencing them positively in thinking about the consumer and how consumers think and what their needs are," said Wurm.
"Microsoft was more closed five years ago than it is now. Part of it is also that Skype is cross-platform and that opens up more conversations."
One Microsoft to rule them all
Wurm said that he doesn't see any of that changing, either, and said Skype will continue full steam ahead to support Windows Phone despite acknowledging its less-than-brilliant takeup.
"It hasn't the biggest userbase out there on the planet, but its something we're very much supporting and therefore have been dedicating resources to it," he said.
"The idea of one Microsoft, we're supporting that effort," Wurm added, but emphasised that this would not change the way Skype operates.
"Would Skype move to Redmond? Would Skype stop shipping cross platform? These are the very things people might think of... it's just no to everything."
