Microsoft plans to expand its vertical industry offerings in the
health care and finance industries in its pursuit of wireless
computing opportunities.
Microsoft is positioning its Smartphone and PocketPC Phone 2002
platforms as key weapons in its wireless communications arsenal as
part of its mobile drive, said Juha Christensen, corporate
vice-president of Microsoft's mobile devices division, speaking at
the Fusion 2002 partner conference.
The company is working with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and
Accenture to bring horizontal messaging systems for mobile devices
to enterprises and plans to build vertical solutions for finance,
banking and health care, Christensen said.
"With the emergence of XML and XML Web services, we're really
talking about the interesting convergence that is going to result
in [the distribution of] over a billion wireless devices,"
Christensen said. Microsoft partners have an opportunity to build
competitive advantages through developing wireless solutions, he
said.
The number of wireless subscribers is growing rapidly, said
Christensen. While carriers are experiencing declining revenues on
a per-user basis in voice, data represents a new opportunity, he
said. By 2007, there will be 300 million smart wireless devices
with data processing capabilities, said Christensen.
However, there will not be one "killer app" for wireless, he said.
But since no two users will have their wireless device configured
identically, there will be numerous applications deployed, he
added.
At the centre of Microsoft's wireless efforts is its Visual
Studio.net platform. The company is focused on including wireless
devices in its .net computing vision, Christensen said.
Key to Microsoft's wireless product efforts are its Pocket PC 2002
Phone Edition and its forthcoming Smartphone software platforms for
wireless devices. Both support data and telephony, although the
Smartphone resembles a mobile phone more closely than Pocket PC,
which is run on PDA devices.
Pocket PC devices are available from carriers including Verizon
Communications and Sprint. The software enables utilisation of
phone services such as Caller ID and the ability to maintain
contact lists in which contacts can be called from within the
contact list. Users can synchronise with a Microsoft Exchange
Server without the need to utilise a laptop or desktop as a
conduit.
Smartphone, which is due to be rolled out in Europe late this year,
is a similarly featured one-handed device, while Pocket PC has
two-handed functionality, including a stylus. Both Smartphone and
Pocket PC enable surfing of the Internet.
"The technology's a real turn-on", with its ability to do business
anywhere and have fun with it, too, said Mark Scanlan, principal
architect at Microsoft and Cisco consultancy ExtraTeam.