CANNES, France, Feb. 19, 2002 — Today at the 3GSM World Congress 2002, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a host of new mobility software products and announced key relationships with operators, hardware manufacturers, silicon vendors and other partners to bring that software to market. All will play a critical role in developing a thriving wireless ecosystem. Microsoft and industry partners’ shared vision for mobility is rooted in the convergence of the Internet and wireless worlds, bringing fresh opportunities for software and wireless companies to partner and provide customer value by developing connected scenarios for consumers and mobile professionals and new revenue opportunities for the industry.
At a press conference, Ben Waldman, vice president of the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft, will emphasize the importance of broad industry relationships. “Delivering on the promise of wireless data will require an unprecedented level of cooperation between network operators, device manufacturers, chipset makers and software companies,” said Waldman. “We believe that Microsoft’s investment in smart devices, end-to-end platforms and tools — combined with network operators’ technology and service infrastructure, breakthroughs by chipset makers and innovative designs by device manufacturers — will finally make wireless data a useful and profitable reality.”
Waldman will announce relationships with the following mobile operators to bring these devices, servers or services to market: mmO2, Orange, SingTel, Telefnica Mviles, Telstra, T-Mobil, TurkCell and Vodafone.
Waldman will outline the four pillars of Microsoft’s mobility strategy — devices, servers, services and development tools — and make announcements in each of these areas.
Windows Powered Smart Devices
Microsoft® Windows®
Powered devices are critical components of Microsoft’s end-to-end mobility strategy because smart devices are needed to unlock the power of 2.5G and 3G networks. At the 3GSM World Congress, Microsoft announced these device advances:
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Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition. Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition software, the software that enables device manufacturers to combine the best of the PDA with integrated wireless voice and data capabilities. Hewlett-Packard Co. announced the Jornada 928 WDA, joining mmO2 in bringing the first integrated wireless Pocket PCs using Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition software to market.
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Smartphone 2002. Microsoft and Texas Instruments Inc. announced and showed a Smartphone 2002 joint software and hardware reference design that enables operators, original device manufacturers or OEMs to bring Smartphone 2002 devices to market quickly and efficiently. Compal Electronics Inc. announced plans to immediately license and build Smartphone devices using this reference design.
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Microsoft-Intel Mobile Alliance for Next-Generation Devices. Intel Corp. and Microsoft also announced that the two companies have entered into a comprehensive alliance to develop cutting-edge reference designs for devices powered by Microsoft’s Smartphone 2002 and Pocket PC software.
Servers — Mobile Information Server 2002
Microsoft announced availability of the Mobile Information Server (MIS) 2002 Enterprise Edition, which securely extends Exchange 2000 Server information, corporate intranet applications and services to mobile users with mobile devices, such as the Pocket PC 2002 or Smartphone 2002. In MIS-related news, Orange announced its rollout of a business service based on the MIS 2002 platform.
Services
Microsoft announced continued progress on bringing value-added and revenue-generating advanced messaging and corporate services to mobile operators:
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MSN. In the first 14-country agreement between a wireless carrier and MSN® Europe, Middle East and Africa, Telefnica Mviles became the first mobile operator to provide its subscribers with access to MSN Hotmail®
— the world’s most popular free e-mail service with more than 110 million users. For the first time, a broad range of MSN content, including its home page, news and sport channels, together with its market-leading communication services such as MSN Messenger Service and MSN Hotmail, can be accessed from mobile devices. The service is now live in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and will be rolled out in Italy, Spain and Sweden in the coming weeks. -
Platform for innovation. Microsoft is highlighting end-to-end messaging between wired and mobile networks on a full range of mobile devices from SMS-only-capable handsets and MMS-capable handsets to rich client devices including those powered by Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition and Smartphone 2002 software. This is made possible because of Microsoft’s extensible software platforms for devices and servers as well as industry partners’ solutions and expertise. Microsoft’s messaging solutions can be extended to the mobile environment, providing seamless, rich messaging between users on the Internet and people on mobile networks. CMG Wireless Data Solutions, Logica Mobile Networks and Materna Information & Communications will be showcased during Microsoft’s rich mobile messaging demonstrations at the 3GSM World Congress 2002.
Digital Media Enabling Technologies
Microsoft has engineered Windows Media (TM) Audio and Video technology from the ground up to deliver the best possible audio and video quality in the smallest file sizes. The compression efficiency of the latest Windows Media Audio and Video 8 technology is the best match for multimedia messaging on wireless networks, which may have bandwidth constraints compared with other network types. Because of its compression advantages over other formats, Windows Media is broadly supported on more than 100 consumer electronic devices, including Pocket PC devices, portable music players, CD players, DVD players, car stereos, home stereo components and set-top boxes.
Developer Tools
Microsoft announced the availability of the Pocket PC 2002 Software Developers Kit (SDK) with Phone Edition support and delivered the Smartphone 2002 beta SDK so developers can start building applications and realizing the benefits of smart devices. The SDK, which is used with eMbedded Visual Tools, includes an emulation environment that allows code to be effectively written and tested on a PC without a device.
Microsoft at 3GSM World Congress
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3GSM World Congress logistics:
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Exhibit Stand L21, Hall 4
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Microsoft will hold a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at which Waldman will unveil Microsoft’s wireless device strategy. The conference is at 4 p.m. in Hall 2, Auditorium K, Level 4.
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Waldman will deliver a keynote address titled “Smart Devices — Enabling the Wireless Ecoystem” at 9:25 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 22.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows, MSN, Hotmail and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
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