Sony Ericsson goes Windows Mobile with Xperia X1 'arc slider'
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Taking on Nokia's Communicators Mobile World Congress Sony Ericsson last night announced a new smartphone range. Dubbed Xperia, the series' flagship is the X1, featuring a Windows Mobile-based handset with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard and 3in, 800 x 480 display.â¦
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At CES Qualcomm demonstrated a prototype of its 'pocketable computer,' which runs Windows Mobile and has a slide-out keyboard.
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Sony Ericsson introduces an iPhone competitor, Nokia unveils updates to two top-range models and two midrange phones at GSMA in Barcelona.
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Shadow sports a revamped Windows Mobile interface and aims to entice consumers.
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Blog: Sony Ericsson releases a new Walkman phone that may just challenge the iPhone.
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Mobile phones play an important role in Microsoft&#39;s software plus services vision, CEO Steve Ballmer said Tuesday.Microsoft&#39;s software strategy a few years ago revolved around software that was either embedded on devices or burned onto CDs and shipped to users, he said. Today, however, software works in tandem with the Internet, which can back up and update the software.&quot;There&#39;s no better way then the cell networks of the world to make this model happen,&quot; he said, speaking during the opening presentation at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco. He envisions a time when software is wirelessly updated and works in tandem with services hosted on the Internet.But the software plus services concept won&#39;t be different for the PC and the mobile phone, he said. At the top of Microsoft&#39;s innovation agenda is unifying a variety of devices and applications. Microsoft is focused on enabling developers to create single applications that take advantage of phones, desktop computers, the enterprise environment, and the online environment, he said.Microsoft is enabling that in part by offering a consistent platform that developers can use to create applications for the PC and mobile phones. For example, a developer can write a thin client for mobile phones using HTML, Ajax, and, in the future, Silverlight. Microsoft&#39;s .Net and Visual Studio can be used to write rich applications for mobile phones. Microsoft also offers a compact version of SQL so that developers can write applications for Windows Mobile phones for database manipulation.The phone is particularly important in achieving Microsoft&#39;s unified view, he said. &quot;The PC is the most powerful device, but the phone is the most popular,&quot; he said. Particularly in the developing world where PC&#39;s may be cost prohibitive, cell phones may be more widespread.Microsoft is focused on providing software for partners to use and it is working carefully not to compete with them, he said. Unlike Google, Microsoft won&#39;t be participating in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction. &quot;What would it buy us to own a piece of spectrum?&quot; he said. &quot;It would probably do a lot to alienate the telecom industry. It does not do a lot to advance our goal, which is to take some exciting technology and spread it.&quot;Windows Mobile is a big opportunity financially for Microsoft from two perspectives, he said. If Windows Mobile runs hundreds of millions of devices, that&#39;s a great business for Microsoft, he said. &quot;Also, I don&#39;t think we can serve our customers&#39; broad desire to bring together desktops, devices, enterprise, and online if we ignore the mobile area,&quot; he said.
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Under the deal with Microsoft, Sony Ericsson will produce the âX1,â a slider phone with a typewriter-style qwerty keyboard and touch screen.
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Microsoft plans to announce beefed up remote Windows Mobile phone management capabilities with the introduction of System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 on Tuesday.The software will allow IT administrators to remotely secure and manage mobile phones much the same way they manage PCs and laptops, said John O&#39;Rourke, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s mobile communications business.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer planned to make the announcement during the opening speech at the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment conference in San Francisco.IT administrators using Mobile Device Manager will be able to remotely do things like turn off a phone&#39;s camera and prevent the use of unauthorized messaging services. That&#39;s important for companies that must comply with regulations requiring them to record information sent from employee devices, O&#39;Rourke said.Mobile Device Manager integrates with Microsoft&#39;s System Center so administrators with that software can use the existing active directory and group policy feature to disseminate policies. For example, an organization may already have a set of policies for a group that contains field sales people so an administrator can choose to set mobile policies for that same group, pushing out changes to all of their Windows Mobile phones at once.The software also supports secure access to corporate information through VPN (virtual private network) connections. That allows phone users to access files that may be behind the corporate firewall and it also lets them use Web-based applications that reside on the corporate intranet, O&#39;Rourke said. Some companies may have internal Web-based expense reporting forms, for example, and the secure connection means that Windows Mobile phone users can use those forms from their phones.Mobile Device Manager comprises client and server software. Windows Mobile users will need to update their phones with the software. That process can happen a number of different ways, including requiring users to connect their phones to a PC and install the new software. Microsoft is working with device makers and operators to coordinate the update, similar to the way that they worked together to update devices to&#160;Windows Mobile 6.0&#160;from the previous version of the software. AT&amp;T is expected to announce at the conference how it will update devices on its network, O&#39;Rourke said.Once phone users have the software, they&#39;ll need to connect to the corporate network and log on before an administrator can start remotely managing the device. That&#39;s a one-time process, similar to one that corporate workers often go through when using a new laptop, he said.Microsoft expects to release System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 in the first half of next year, O&#39;Rourke said. The server software should be able to support as many as 5,000 users, although it&#39;s not complete so the exact number hasn&#39;t been determined, he said.Windows Mobile 6.0 already offers some remote management capabilities. For example, an IT administrator can remotely wipe a Windows Mobile device in case it&#39;s stolen and manage passwords for the device, without Mobile Device Manager.Some Windows Mobile competitors also have similar remote management capabilities. Nokia&#39;s Intellisync device management offering, for example, allows IT administrators to remotely manage a variety of devices, including Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Palm phones, as well as laptops and desktops. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server also includes group-based remote administration and management functions. Microsoft&#39;s Mobile Device Manager will only manage Windows Mobile Devices.
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The world's fourth largest mobile  phone maker Sony Ericsson unveiled seven new mobile phone  models on Sunday, including one high-end cellphone using  Microsoft's Windows Mobile software.
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The SDA Music (pictured) phone is the first Windows Mobile Smartphone to be release by the operator and gives not only allows access to Microsoft applications like Outlook, but also can be used to relax after work thanks to the integrated audio player.
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(InfoWorld) - Some of the first Windows Mobile 6.0 phones to hit the market will include Opera Software ASA's mobile browser, in addition to Microsoft Corp.'s browser. Motorola Inc.'s Q as well as phones from High Tech Computer Corp., Asus and Toshiba Corp. will include Opera Mobile, Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder and CEO of Opera, said at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 6.0, the latest version of its mobile phone operating system, this week. Internet Explorer Mobile, Microsoft's browser, comes with the software. A number of handset makers announced this weekÂ plans to release phones running the operating system. Von Tetzchner said the handset makers decided to add the Opera browser because most of the phones come with big screens and may be relatively expensive so they want to offer customers a good browsing experience. "People do want a quality browser when on Windows Mobile," he added. Opera's browser technology renders Web sites to fit inside the area of a mobile phone screen. The browser is also designed to display sites faster than competitors', von Tetzchner said. In addition to Opera Mobile, the company also offers Opera Mini, a free browser that works on most Java-enabled phones. It communicates with a server hosted by Opera or a mobile operator that strips down Web sites for quicker, less data intensive mobile browsing. Mozilla Corp. also offers a mobile browser called Minimo that hasn't gained much traction in the market. Nokia Corp. has used Opera browsers historically but is now primarily using a browser it developed internally. Â
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The X-Series from 3, developed in partnership with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), marks a turning point in mobile services - making popular internet applications available on mobile handsets on the 3 network in the UK.
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All flash and no features? Review With its pulsing lights and back-to-nature themes, Sony Ericssonâs S500i is aimed at the supposed style-savvy consumer. But does this sliderphone have the functionality and appeal to really grab fashion-phone followers?â¦
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Microsoft built a custom Windows Mobile user interface for a new phone that T-Mobile USA expects to announce on Monday, evidence that Microsoft may be getting more serious about pursuing the consumer mobile market.The phone, built by HTC, will be the first in a line of phones from T-Mobile using the new Shadow brand, said David Sholkovitz, marketing manager at T-Mobile.While Microsoft has worked with operators to help modify the operating system to fit their needs, this project represented a new level of partnership, said Doug Smith, director of marketing for Microsoft&#39;s mobile communications business. &quot;I&#39;d say this was one of the deeper partner involvements we&#39;ve had on a new product,&quot; he said.The Shadow, which will hit stores on Wednesday, features a home screen that looks very different than other Windows Mobile phones. Users slide a wheel to navigate through icons on the screen that take them directly to e-mail, their music player and photos. The idea was to make it easier to use increasingly complicated phones, said Sholkovitz.The operator approached Microsoft about ways to alter the home screen in order to simplify it and prevent &quot;feature fatigue,&quot; he said. &quot;We wanted to create a product with the feature set that Windows Mobile products have but deliver it in a simple fashion that was user intuitive and icon based,&quot; he said.T-Mobile, Microsoft and HTC began working on the new user interface in November of last year. &quot;I think this was rare for [Microsoft],&quot; said Farah Houston, product development manager, T-Mobile. &quot;We had access to a lot of resources I don&#39;t think they normally make available. Microsoft is trying to show they&#39;re serious about the consumer market and this is what they&#39;re willing to do.&quot;Windows Mobile, which works in tandem with Exchange to push corporate e-mail to the phones, has a reputation primarily as an enterprise tool. T-Mobile hoped to avoid that image with the Shadow and the keyboard design is meant to help. &quot;When users see a full keyboard they think business and productivity,&quot; said Sholkovitz. &quot;So we made it a hidden slide-out keypad.&quot;During a keynote speech at the CTIA I.T. and Entertainment conference in San Francisco last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described what Microsoft thinks will attract consumers. &quot;Consumers will want phones that span all of their life personas,&quot; he said. &quot;My work life, my personal life, my life with my family, my life with my friends. People don&#39;t want to pull out multiple devices.&quot;Another Microsoft executive echoed a similar thought. &quot;We can do multiple things in parallel,&quot; said Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s mobile group, also speaking at CTIA. &quot;We can do both consumer and enterprise... You will see more devices appeal to the consumer side.&quot;The talk of consumer needs shows how the iPhone is likely affecting Microsoft&#39;s strategy, one analyst said. &quot;There&#39;s no doubt the success that Apple had with the iPhone in terms of appealing to the mainstream end user market as opposed to the business market has not gone unnoticed,&quot; said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research. &quot;Microsoft has built these devices to service and solve business needs but Microsoft understands the intersection of business and consumer.&quot;The declining price of Windows Mobile devices will make them more appealing to consumers, said Smith. The Shadow, as an example, will retail for $150 with a two-year voice and data contract. It will work with a new data plan from T-Mobile that costs $20 per month and includes unlimited data use and Wi-Fi access at T-Mobile hotspots.The phone will be displayed in T-Mobile stores along with other lower cost feature phones, not with the higher end smartphones, said Houston.Neither Microsoft nor T-Mobile would comment on intellectual-property ownership for the new software interface on the Shadow.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. said it has boosted the security mechanisms built into its newest mobile phone operating system, responding to the needs of business customers who will use the phones to access sensitive corporate data. One new feature inÂ Windows Mobile 6.0, the latest version of the software introduced on Monday, allows users to remotely wipe their device if it's stolen. Via a secure connection to their corporate Microsoft Exchange server, users can remotely delete content on the phone, including data stored on a removable storage card. Previously, only an IT administrator could schedule a remote wipe, said Marianne Roling, director of mobile embedded devices for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Microsoft, atÂ the 3GSM conferenceÂ in Barcelona. In addition, Windows Mobile 6.0 supports Windows Mobile Updates, a new policy similar to the security updates sent to PC Windows users. If a mobile virus surfaces, Microsoft will build a fix and work closely with operator partners who will send a message to users informing them that there's a security update. The message will ask users to approve the update before downloading. Most such security updates would be small files but it's up to the operator to decide if they'll charge end users for the bandwidth required to download it, said Roling. "If you are a customer of Vodafone and all your company's data is on your phone, guess how your customer loyalty will improve if Vodafone provides you with this." So far, few viruses have targeted mobile devices and those that have surfaced have failed to become widespread. However, mobile industry experts worry that as more users buy smartphones and begin downloading more online content, hackers may begin to target phone users. Microsoft's update service could work even for individuals who buy an unlocked phone independently of their operator, she said. That's because the operator can often detect remotely what type of phone the user has and so would be able to identify Windows Mobile users. Windows Mobile 6.0 also supports some new rights management features. Now, users will be able to view e-mails that are sent with protection that allows recipients to view but not print or forward the messages. Previous versions of the software prohibited users from reading such protected e-mails, said Roling.
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(InfoWorld) - In an effort to show wide support for its newest Windows Mobile operating system, Microsoft is highlighting several announcements from handset makers on Monday at 3GSM in Barcelona. Device manufacturers including Toshiba and LG Electronics are announcing plans to offer phones based onÂ the new Windows Mobile 6.0. Some operators are also allowing customers to upgrade from the previous Windows Mobile software. T-Mobile USA Inc., for example, plans to announce on Monday that it will offer an upgrade to the new operating system to customers who are using the HTC device running Windows Mobile 5.0 Most of the phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 will become available in March or April. Analysts and competitors have criticized the Windows Mobile platform for being available on a smaller range of phones than other operating systems, specifically Nokia's Symbian S60. But Microsoft argues that it is offering the best choice to users. "We are now promoting 140 different form factors from 48 device makers," said Marianne Roling, director of mobile embedded devices for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Microsoft. "We're seeing lots of traction." British Telecommunications PLC (BT) said Monday that it is taking advantage of Windows Mobile 6.0's built-in VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) capabilities by selling a Hewlett-Packard device running the software to customers of its converged Fusion service. TheÂ HP iPaq 514Â running Windows Mobile 6.0 will be offered to business users of the service, which lets customers make low-cost VOIP-over-Wi-Fi calls as well as standard mobile calls. Users can roam between the two networks without dropping calls. Windows Mobile 6.0 includes support for wireless VOIP but users need to subscribe to a service like BT's Fusion in order to seamlessly move between the networks, Roling said. Microsoft also plans to announce on Monday that The Carphone Warehouse Group will offer a hosted mobile e-mail service to small and medium-size businesses based on a hosted server product from Microsoft. End users, who may use Windows Mobile 6.0 phones, will pay a monthly fee for the service.
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Microsoft on Sunday night unveiled a deal with Sony (NYSE:SNE) Ericsson, which will see the Swedish-Japanese mobile handset maker use Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system in a new flagship handset to be launched later this year.