Microsoft to Buy a Maker of Consumer Smartphones
92131
Microsoft said it would acquire Danger, a maker of consumer smartphones, an indication that the software giant is quickly moving to expand its mobile strategy.
446779
When Microsoft realized that enterprises needed help deploying and&#160;managing mobile phones, it turned to a partner it first found in the 1980s.Microsoft approached Mort Rosenthal recently with the idea of starting a company that could help enterprises design, deploy, and manage Windows Mobile mobile phones and services, Rosenthal said. He plans to formally launch the company, called Enterprise Mobile, on Tuesday at the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment conference in San Francisco. Microsoft is a minority stakeholder in the Watertown, Massachusetts, company, which has quietly been doing business since June.Rosenthal began working with Microsoft in the 1980s when he founded Corporate Software, a company that resold software to large companies and offered them technical service and support.The enterprise mobile market looks similar to the software market at that time, when software was largely sold through retail stores without channels or support for enterprises, he said.&quot;What comes from the [mobile] market is consumer-driven devices,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;re about turning those consumer driven devices into enterprise devices.&quot;Enterprise Mobile will do that by offering a wide range of services to enterprises, starting with development of a vision, through to deployment and then including management and support services.Currently, an enterprise has to work with different types of companies that provide a range of services including security, asset management and expense management, said Kitty Weldon, an analyst at Current Analysis. &quot;What Enterprise Mobile brings is the ability for companies to just say, &#39;phew, I can go to this one set of people and they can do everything&#39;,&quot; she said.Enterprise Mobile will work exclusively with Windows Mobile phones so it won&#39;t serve companies that want to support a variety of devices, including BlackBerrys. However, there&#39;s a large market for companies that are happy to standardize on Windows Mobile and other providers similar to Enterprise Mobile might pop up to serve the heterogeneous companies, Weldon said.Enterprise Mobile customers can pay for the services in a number of ways, including a flat consulting fee for the design of a system and then a monthly per-device fee or a per-incident fee for ongoing support.One of the most attractive parts of the ongoing service offering will be that Enterprise Mobile serves as a single point of contact, Rosenthal said. &quot;Today if you have questions, do you call the operator, Microsoft or the OEM?&quot; he said. &quot;Here, we&#39;re the one throat to choke.&quot;Another problem facing many enterprises is challenges around device procurement. If an administrator is designing a new mobile deployment to launch in a few months, it&#39;s virtually impossible to find out if a chosen device will continue to be available by then. Operators and handset makers aren&#39;t forthcoming with that information, Rosenthal said.That&#39;s different from the PC world, where manufacturers will continue to support and make older models even while they introduce new ones.Enterprise Mobile hopes to help solve this problem by working closely with operators and phone makers and possibly even to create its own inventory of devices in order to maintain availability longer, Rosenthal said.Currently, Enterprise Mobile doesn&#39;t have much competition, Weldon said. Companies such as IBM, Accenture, and Electronic Data Systems do help enterprises deploy and manage mobile phones, but they often do so only in tandem with other large jobs, and they may outsource the work to various companies with expertise in different components, she said.However, Microsoft expects to partner with other companies like Enterprise Mobile that might emerge. &quot;We&#39;re kick-starting a new level of engagement&quot; with Enterprise Mobile, said John O&#39;Rourke, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s mobile communications business.Enterprise Mobile has implemented beta versions of Systems Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, mobile device management software that Microsoft plans to introduce on Tuesday.
397143
Sprint Corp. (FON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday agreed to buy mobile telephone company Nextel Communications Inc. (NXTL.
559884
Microsoft is buying Danger, the mobile software company behind the T-Mobile Sidekick.
257061
Sony Ericsson will begin selling its first phone using Windows Mobile software this year, Microsoft was due to announce on Sunday, just ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Until now, Sony Ericsson has primarily used the Symbian operating system to power its smart phones. Its Windows Mobile phone will have a touch screen with a slide-out keyboard and a camera, said Brian Arbogast, vice president of mobile services at Microsoft.While Apple&#39;s iPhone has spurred wider interest in touch-screen phones, Sony Ericsson has been selling touch-screen phones for years. It uses the UIQ user interface on its Symbian phones. UIQ competes with Series 60, the user interface Nokia developed to run on its Symbian phones.Sony Ericsson joins HTC, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, and others selling phones that use Windows Mobile.Microsoft said the Sony Ericsson device should be available to end-users this year, and that examples of it will be on display at the conference in Barcelona. Sony Ericsson was not available to offer more details. It has scheduled a conference call Monday to discuss the announcement.&quot;We&#39;re excited about them bringing their entertainment expertise and experience and brand to a device that has all the benefits of Windows Mobile,&quot; Arbogast said.Sony Ericsson will likely continue to sell Symbian phones in addition to the Windows Mobile handset, a common practice among mobile-phone developers. For example, Motorola sells Windows Mobile, Symbian and Linux phones, while Palm sells Windows Mobile phones as well as handsets that use its own operating system.Nokia, the number-one handset maker in the world, does not make Windows Mobile phones, but it uses Linux to power handheld computers, in addition to its wide use of Symbian.The Sony Ericsson phones could help Microsoft further a recent effort to position Windows Mobile phones, which are primarily seen as tools for business users and attractive to consumers. Sony Ericsson makes phones with its Walkman music players and Cybershot cameras, featuring brands that are well-known to consumers.Rumors circulated late last year that the handset maker had begun manufacturing a Windows Mobile phone that would ship in the second half of this year. At the time, Sony Ericsson would not confirm the plans.Windows Mobile is in a distant second place behind Symbian in market share among mobile operating systems. In the fourth quarter 2007, Symbian was used in 65 percent of smart phones sold worldwide, according to recent research from Canalys. Microsoft had 12 percent of phones sold, followed by Research In Motion with 11 percent.The Mobile World Congress, formerly called 3GSM, starts Monday in Barcelona.
616329
Microsoft Corp.  introduced  software on Monday to manage advanced mobile phones much like  personal computers, taking aim at a business dominated by  Research in Motion's  BlackBerry.
412782
The world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, and software giant Microsoft struck a deal on Monday to make it easier for consumers to buy digital music online and play it back on their handsets.
745492
(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.
180188
A pair of Taiwanese companies signed a technology agreement to develop 3G (third generation telecommunications) and 3.5G smartphones around the Windows Mobile OS, adding to the growing pool of companies developing mobile phones around the Microsoft Corp. software.
554572
Nokia said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Microsoft to integrate Windows Live Search into its phones, meaning consumers would be able to access the service via both Nseries and S60 phones.
605826
US software giant Microsoft said on Tuesday it would offer to buy the Norwegian Internet search company Fast Search and Transfer for 1.2 billion dollars (836 million euros).
485151
Microsoft strikes deal with Indian cell firms to deliver Hotmail and MSN Messenger over SMS.
193175
NEW YORK, October 5  - Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.NAS) and PalmOne Inc have announced a new licensing deal to enable mobile email services on PalmOne&#39;s Treo smart phones.
600676
AMSTERDAM - US software giant Microsoft is aiming to get its audio and video software into mobile phones before it is beaten to the 650-million-handsets-a-year market by rivals like Apple.
297582
Continuing its push into the mobile consumer market, Microsoft announced that it plans to acquire Danger, the developer of software and services that run the Sidekick.
542936
Qualcomm, a maker of chips for cell phones, said Thursday that it plans to integrate Microsoft Windows media technology into many of its chips, a move that&#39;s expected to be a boon for both wireless streaming services and for Microsoft, which has been
605962
The world's top handset maker Nokia  (NOK1V.HE) said on Thursday it has agreed with Microsoft   to integrate Live Search capabilities into Nokia's  Mobile Search.