Skype Kills Skype Extras, Says Utilization is Not Enough to Justify Continued Support

As some of you might know, Skype has recently been bough out by a group of private investors. Following this change, Skype has declared that it will stop carrying Skype Extras. Meaning the popular Internet Communications platform is shutting down the Skype Extras Developer Program.

Certification for new Extras will no longer be available but Skype will still carry the existing Extras.

Skype Extras are like the plugins in Firefox. They are developed by third-party developers and then submitted to Skype for certifications. They add extra functionality to the Skype platform.

If it reminds you of the Apple App Store, you are on the right track because that it exactly what this is like. Skype has in essence killed off its version of the App Store when every other company is racing to open one of their own. A look at the Android Marketplace and the Nokia Ovi store will tell you that. There is also Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Skype will carry the existing Extras for the time being and they will be available from the Extras Manager in Skype for Windows and the Skype Shop. However, there is no news regarding updates to the existing Extras – whether they will happen at all.

The official statement from Skype justifies the move by saying that although a lot of people use the Extras, the total number is not enough to justify carrying the Extras any further. So they are shutting down the Skype Extras Programme as of December 11, 2009.

The Public API will still be supported and public documentation will be maintained as before. Those developers who have developed Extras but haven’t gotten them certified yet are going to be left out of the Extras programme for good. That is unless they already have other Extras on the Skype Shop.

What this means for end users like you and me is that we can still download and buy Extras but there is no certainty about the updating and the maintenance of those Extras and the ones that we already own. Also, no more new Extras for us.

This move makes it look like Skype is walking in the opposite direction as everyone else. All the major social networking and communications platforms are trying their best to develop a healthy third-party applications/devices collective. Relevant examples would be Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone and quite a few others. Let’s hope Skype has a good forward-looking reason for doing this.