Let's have a minute's silence amid the CES 2013 hubbub please. Microsoft has announced the day that Windows Live Messenger will be put out to pasture.
March 15 is the day to black out in your diary, as the company encourages those of us still steadfastly clinging on to Messenger to move over to relatively new kid on the block, Skype.
After all, Microsoft didn't spunk $8 billion on Skype to let you carry on IMing in peace on a familiar bit of software you've been using for 13 years.
Microsoft's Skype clients have had a bit of an overhaul, with a Windows 8 app and Windows Phone 8 preview version out now - Office 2013 has Skype baked-in as well.
Me old China
If you're a serious Messenger fan, you'll want to hotfoot it to mainland China where it will still be available even after the March 15 cut-off date.
But for the rest of the service's 100 million users, it's to Skype we go. Or Facebook Messenger. Or Google Chat. Or iMessage. Or BBM. Or Twitter.
Brave move, Microsoft. Brave move.
From The Verge
