Microsoft is working on a competitor to Apple's FaceTime mobile video chat feature, according to Neowin. The site claims to have gotten tip from a key Windows Phone 7 employee in an "off comment fashion," but digging into the mobile operating system's registry keys, mentions of "VoIP" and "SIP" were found hidden inside the "ControlPanel" section. Although both entries were disabled and Neowin didn't have write access to switch them on, it's an interesting finding which has sparked speculation that Microsoft could link this with other Live services.
When the question was posed about why they would not just use Skype, the response was that the FaceTime competitor will reach beyond the hand of Skype. The addition wouldn't come as much of a surprise. Apple's release of FaceTime revived a lot of interest in mobile video chat and now Skype has enabled the feature as well in an update towards the end of last year that allows iPhone users to use the functionality over Wi-Fi or 3G. There's no word yet on when a similar update for Android-based devices or other platforms will arrive, but we have to guess it's just a matter of time.