Microsoft has a pretty good track record of keeping products around for a long time, and sometimes maybe a little too long. That"s why it"s surprising to hear when a service is being discontinued for good. Unfortunately, that"s the case for Skype on the Windows Phone 7 platform.
An announcement was posted on the Skype website today outlying the death of the product. In the next few weeks, users will be unable to login to Skype on a Windows Phone 7 device, although logins from other mobile devices are obviously unaffected. It"s important to note that users who subscribe to Skype and use it exclusively on an end of life device must take action to cancel their account to avoid being charged. There"s a chance that some users may be entitled to a refund as well, presumably if the service was pre-paid.
Keeping old services up and running costs money and diverts resources away from pushing products into the future. It"s clear that Microsoft"s future is with Windows Phone 8.1 and newer, so while the news may be a little surprising, it makes sense from a business perspective.
Source: Skype