Since the mobile device mountain didn't come to Microsoft Corp., Microsoft is building its own mountain.
The Redmond, Washington software company has joined the GSM Association, and it is courting network operators. Vodafone, Telstra Corp. and T-Mobil will start testing Microsoft's wireless solutions across its networks in the second quarter of this year. "We will work with Vodafone [and other operators] and encourage them to build services," said Dilip Mistry, wireless mobility product manager at Microsoft.
"Microsoft is in the best position to unlock Outlook users on the PC...I think lots of operators will take them seriously," said Dirk Bout, head of wireless research, Durlacher Research in the Netherlands.
The operators will test a range of Microsoft applications, including corporate applications like mobile Outlook, instant messaging and secure access to the web and device management.
Microsoft has been campaigning hard to reproduce on mobile devices the success its operating system has had on personal computers. But despite its best efforts over the last two years, Microsoft has met with resistance, notably from Europe's largest hand-set manufacturer, Nokia, which is backing the operating system, Symbian, born out of a venture between Nokia, Ericsson, Psion and Motorola in 1998.
Microsoft has since turned to other less well-known phone manufacturers to find a home for its new smartphone software, Stinger, unveiled last month at the GSM World Congress in Cannes. The Stinger software is still under development and phones with Stinger software installed will not be available until end of 2001 at the earliest. However, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has licensed the software and a new U.K. based handset manufacturer, Sendo Ltd., based in Birmingham, will also build Windows-based smartphones.
The high-end, large-screen phone will have a Microsoft Mobile Explorer and operating system for calendar, e-mail, location-based and e-commerce services.
Microsoft last month joined the GSM Association, in Dublin. The company hopes this will encourage operators to adopt Windows-based SIM card programming platforms when designing mobile commerce and data applications.
Microsoft has also been busy courting GSM operators, who currently account for approximately 70% of all handset purchases in Europe. In order to crack Europe's hand-set operating system market, Microsoft either has to persuade phone manufacturers to install Microsoft software or create demand amongst the biggest customers for handsets. The company has chosen the latter route. "[The operators] will go to Nokia and Sendo and [say] 'We'd like to be working with [Microsoft],"' said Mistry.
Microsoft's selling point is its experience with corporate PC applications. "It's pretty clear in Europe and North America [that] most [operators] want to start moving towards enterprise segments where operators traditionally have been weaker in producing services," said Ulf Avrin, president of Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture AB.
Vodafone is retaining "an agnostic attitude to handsets...and operating systems," said Christine Rickard, group commercial manager, Vodafone U.K. Ltd. The operator "wants to work with the leaders in the field" and is evaluating applications both from IBM's Lotus division and Microsoft, said Rickard.
Yet Ericsson, which last year signed an agreement to develop and sell Microsoft software to operators, continues to support Symbian. "[The joint venture] is pretty much independent of the operating system. The Microsoft venture has very little, if any, impact on the Symbian and Epoc [operating solutions]," said Ericsson's Avrin.
Even if Microsoft gains a lead on the corporate device market, it may not win all the battles. "Everyone talks about Nokia being in danger, but I think they're in a good position," said Durlacher's Bout. This, he claimed, is because the real turf war between Symbian and Microsoft operating systems will take place on higher-end systems.
"The type of product that Microsoft is looking at is not the mobile phone as we know it. [But] the big volumes will be in the types of devices that we know today. That's where Nokia has a strong position," said Bout.
The Windows CE operating system gained a reputation for draining batteries. But the Stinger operating system claims to be on a par with current mobile phones in offering a maximum of 100 hours standby time.
COPYRIGHT 2001 EMAP Media Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
