The President of Skype, Tony Bates, just took the stage at All Things D's D10 conference, and one of the first things out of his mouth was good news indeed. Bates, who was CEO of Skype before its acquisition by Microsoft in May of 2011, says that users of the VOIP calling service are up to 250 million (from 170 million) since that acquisition. That represents a hefty 47 percent growth in just over a year.

Tony also spoke about Windows Phone, stating, "When I think about phones I think more about communication, and I want to be able to move from text, to voice, to video, and I don't think that's well realized right now." He added, "We don't think of the phone as a communication device, and why shouldn't we? I think there's evolution on the phone that we can do together." There were certainly some hints that deeper integration with Microsoft's mobile products could be coming.

He also took a moment to reflect on the recent acquisition of Qik, saying that "The Android marketplace is quite fragmented... [the Qik] team in Moscow really helped us break through that."