Mobile Is Key to Microsoft Strategy, Ballmer Says
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Mobile phones play an important role in Microsoft's software-plus-services vision, CEO Steve Ballmer told the CTIA show in San Francisco today.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said innovation and customer responsiveness should be top priorities for ISVs, even as Microsoft itself last week admitted that the next version of Windows will fall short of the mark when it hits the shelves in 2006.
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BOSTON -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes the software industry will create more positive change in the next 10 years than it did in the previous 10 -- provided that security threats are effectively handled.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft's new Mobile Device Manager faces a shortcoming because it is exclusive to Windows Mobile devices, but that might change, an executive said on Tuesday.
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Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer brought his campaign to retain his company&#39;s dominance in the Indian software market to the country&#39;s leadership yesterday.
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Microsoft is working to boost the appeal of Windows Mobile among consumers by appointing a new head of marketing and by lending support to a new application for viewing Web content.Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has hired Todd Peters, formerly an executive with Staples, to be corporate vice president of marketing for its mobile communications business. Peters is tasked with positioning Windows Mobile to appeal more to a consumer audience. He fills a position left vacant by Suzan DelBene, who recently left the company.Microsoft also said it will help market and distribute&#160;Zumobi, a software program that makes it easier for Windows Mobile users to access Web sites and widgets, or small applications that provide up-to-date information from the Web.Zumobi said in a statement Tuesday that Microsoft will distribute the software with Windows Mobile, although Microsoft characterized it as more of a marketing deal and said it would make Zumobi available for download from its Web sites.Either way, the software, which had been available in beta since December from Zumobi&#39;s Web site, should now be easier for customers to get hold of. Zumobi did not respond to questions about the agreement.The announcements reflect a recent push at Microsoft to attract more consumers. &quot;We are definitely moving into making Windows Mobile come alive for the consumer,&quot; said Scott Rockfeld, group product manager at Microsoft&#39;s Windows Mobile group. Rockfeld and other Windows Mobile executives have been emphasizing that the operating system is designed to be attractive to users in their personal lives as well as their work lives.For now, the most compelling value is for enterprise customers who want mobile access to their corporate data and documents, and Microsoft will need to reach more consumers to maintain growth in the future, said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research.&quot;They need to continue to evolve the value proposition and range of applications that are more centered around consumers, even though their primary focus is -- and will remain in the near future -- on the enterprise,&quot; he said.The appointment of Peters and support for Zumobi appear to support this gradual buildup of support for consumer applications, he said.
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Windows Mobile will continue to power smartphones produced by Microsoft partners, Gates says.
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As the number of mobile devices grow, mobile advertising will become more important and Microsoft has shown it wants to be there, with several acquisitions last year, and now in its pursuit of Yahoo.
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told investors Wednesday to be patient as the world&#039;s largest software company spends time and money developing new products and entering new markets.
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CEO Steve Ballmer is speaking at the big mobile phone trade show on Tuesday, and it will be interesting to see the tack he takes vis-a-vis Apple.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says future growth for the company hinges on continued investment, especially in eight core areas.
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With the launch of Vista, Microsoft is likely to keep its dominance on the desktop intact, but the company's fresh focus on mobility could help boost its share in the wireless market.
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Microsoft&#39;s new Mobile Device Manager faces a shortcoming because it is exclusive to Windows Mobile devices, but that might change, an executive said on Tuesday.Scott Horn, general manager at Microsoft&#39;s mobile and embedded device group, left the door open to potential future support for non-Windows Mobile devices.&quot;Today, we have nothing to announce,&quot; he said. &quot;But we&#39;re looking at it, we&#39;re thinking about it. Who knows what the future brings?&quot; Horn spoke during a press lunch at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.He mentioned that Microsoft has in the past licensed ActiveSync as a way to extend services to non-Microsoft devices.Microsoft introduced System Center Mobile Device Manager&#160;at the conference. The software lets IT administrators manage and secure Windows Mobile phones. Unlike some other management products on the market, including Nokia&#39;s Intellisync, it is compatible only with phones running the Windows Mobile operating system.AT&amp;T, which is supporting Mobile Device Manager, said there is inertia among IT administrators. IT managers are worried about security and management issues, said Mike Woodward, vice business marketing for AT&amp;T. He thinks that the software as well as the services from a new company,&#160;Enterprise Mobile, will spur more enterprise use of mobile phones. Woodward could not offer specifics about how it will support Mobile Device Manager or how exactly it will work with Enterprise Mobile.For now, the new software and the services from Enterprise Mobile, which help enterprises deploy and manage mobile phones, are designed for large businesses. Mobile Device Manager, expected to come out next year, could support as many as 5,000 users. Enterprise Mobile doesn&#39;t expect to begin thinking about serving smaller businesses for another 12 to 18 months because it will be focused on making sure it knows what large enterprises need, said Steve Moore, president of Enterprise Mobile.
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Microsoft Corp  Chief  Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company aims to  pursue an independent path, focusing on up to 20 smaller  acquisitions of $50 million to $1 billion each annually rather  than mega-deals.
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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.
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REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. plans a launch this spring of its next-generation operating system for wireless devices, Windows Mobile 6, which is important for the company's efforts to grab market share beyond the desktop.
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Speaking in London on Sunday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft, not Apple, will dominate the future of digital technology in the home.