Microsoft and its partners have launched a series of devices based
on its new Wireless Pocket PC platform at the 3GSM World Congress
in Cannes.
Attendees are being given a sneak peek at the Pocket PC 2002 Phone
Edition and the Windows-Powered Smartphone 2002 device (previously
known by the code name Stinger), which will go on sale in Europe
and US by the end of June.
The Smartphone devices are primarily mobile phones with some PDA
(personal digital assistant) functions, while the new Pocket PCs
are PDAs that also act as mobile phones, said Magnus Ahlberg,
Microsoft's mobile marketing manager EMEA (Europe, the Middle East
and Africa).
Carriers that sell the Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition devices will
most likely use their own brand names. The first branded Pocket PC
2002 Phone Edition devices will be the HP Jornada 928 Wireless
Digital Assistant (WDA) from Hewlett-Packard Co. and the XDA from
MMO2 PLC, he said.
The carriers that will brand the various devices will release
prices for the products shortly, though Ahlberg said the devices
would be competitively priced.
Microsoft enters the market with many factors in its favour,
according to Paolo Pescatore, senior wireless mobile communication
analyst at IDC.
"Microsoft already has so much to offer from the fixed Internet
world as well as from the PC world. Microsoft is taking the values
of its own operating software from the PC and putting it on to the
PDA and that has the large mobile device makers like Nokia really
worried," said Pescatore. "A big part of the wireless device market
is going to be about how many services you can offer users, and
Microsoft already has a variety of attractive services."
According to Ahlberg, there are already over 10,000 registered MS
Mobility applications developed for the Wireless Pocket PC
platform. "Being able to offer services over the mobile phone PDAs
will be key for the carriers as that is where the most revenue will
be generated. We are going to be able to offer thousands of
services," Ahlberg said.
Along with giving demonstrations of the Pocket PC 2002 Phone
Edition and the Windows-Powered Smartphone 2002, Microsoft also
made a host of product and partnership announcement at Cannes
including:
- The launch of Developer Tools: Smartphone 2002 Beta software
development kit (SDK) and Pocket PC 2002 SDK with Phone Edition
support.
- The launch of Microsoft's Mobile Information 2002 Server, which
delivers over-the-air synchronisation for Pocket PC 2002 and
Smartphone 2002 devices.
- A mobile alliance with Intel to jointly develop next-generation
- including 3G- reference designs for Pocket PCs and
Smartphones.