Microsoft has announced that it has developed a solution to language barriers for its video calling service Skype.
It is believed that this development of real-time translation software is an internet marketing strategy to attract potential customers to the service, which already has a user base of 300 million.
Competition in this industry is becoming fiercer, with Skype being contested by likes of Google Hangouts and Apple’s Facetime, meaning that the company has had to look at new and different
innovations in order to retain and attract patrons.
The technology was demonstrated at the 2014 Code Conference earlier this week, whereby Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, made a live call on Skype that included English to German translation and is said to have been like having a real translator in the conversation.
Nadella has said that this breakthrough:
“…is going to make sure you can communicate with anybody without language barriers.”
He also revealed that the firm will be launching a prototype version of the service as a tester for customers, called Skype Translator, which will be available for Windows 8 users later on in the year. However, it was not suggested whether the service would be free of charge or not.
Microsoft hopes to add more languages to the service and have said that this development is the result of “decades of work”. The American corporation bought the internet video calling service in May 2011 for £5.2bn, which was at the time Microsoft’s biggest acquisition.
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