<story><title>Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-10/don-t-skype-me-how-microsoft-turned-consumers-against-a-beloved-brand</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jun8</author><text>&amp;quot;Since acquiring Skype from private equity investors, Microsoft has refocused the online calling service on the corporate market, a change that has made Skype less intuitive and harder to use ...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is absolutely &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; the bulk of the problem: simply put, the call quality is horrendous and dropping calls in the middle of the meeting is quite common. Modus operandi in most Skype conference calls in our company is to spend the first 4-5 minutes in handshaking (&amp;quot;can you hear me&amp;quot;) and troubleshooting problems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>std_throwaway</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand how software can get this much worse. Having done absolutely nothing would have left Skype in a better shape than what we have now.&lt;p&gt;What did they do with it? Do they not regression test? Are they letting each new intern add a new feature while nobody really cares about quality? Did they just replace the old software with a new bug-riddled software that&amp;#x27;s getting pushed out the door without quality checks? Is it some manager trying to earn a medal by using that new MS-framework to rebuild everything and needing to push it out fast to declare success and move up while leaving the ruins behind?</text></comment>
<story><title>Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-10/don-t-skype-me-how-microsoft-turned-consumers-against-a-beloved-brand</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jun8</author><text>&amp;quot;Since acquiring Skype from private equity investors, Microsoft has refocused the online calling service on the corporate market, a change that has made Skype less intuitive and harder to use ...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is absolutely &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; the bulk of the problem: simply put, the call quality is horrendous and dropping calls in the middle of the meeting is quite common. Modus operandi in most Skype conference calls in our company is to spend the first 4-5 minutes in handshaking (&amp;quot;can you hear me&amp;quot;) and troubleshooting problems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cm2187</author><text>Agree. It reminds me of Microsoft&amp;#x27;s defense of Windows 8, &amp;quot;people are just struggling to adjust to something that&amp;#x27;s new&amp;quot;. Whereas internally they were aware that their UX sucked, the OEM all told them the UX sucked, and they fired the head of the Windows division.</text></comment>