AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 29, 2004 — Today at Microsoft Corp.’s third annual European Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon), co-located with TechEd Europe 2004, Microsoft joined industry partners to showcase new hardware and applications for mobile devices, and introduced enhancements to its mobile platform designed to increase flexibility for application developers and extend the functionality of the Microsoft®
.NET Compact Framework. In addition, the company announced the following:
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Significant progress in Microsoft’s mobile enterprise efforts has been demonstrated by deployment of 11,000 Windows Mobile (TM) devices by global elevator company KONE Corp., and recognition by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan of Microsoft’s efforts in the mobile enterprise market.
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Microsoft and mobile operators O2 and TeliaSonera AB today announced plans to deliver real-time location-based services for Microsoft MapPoint®
Location Server (MLS) to enable businesses to significantly improve the way they locate, track and manage their mobile assets and mobile work force. -
Windows® CE 5.0 will offer expanded source licensing, enabling, for the first time, all licensees to ship products commercially with derivatives of the Windows CE 5.0 shared source code. In addition, Windows CE 5.0 includes networking performance improvements that dramatically increase data processing speeds, more than 60 production-quality drivers and Direct3D®
Mobile to enable rich and graphically intensive applications. (Please see related news release.) -
This year’s conference also follows the recent announcement of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software, a new version of the platform that offers unprecedented flexibility and customization capabilities for mobile developers and hardware manufacturers.
These announcements come at a time of exceptional momentum for Microsoft’s mobility offerings, with 37 hardware manufacturers and more than 50 mobile operators delivering Windows Mobile-based devices globally. In addition, over 7,000 mobility partners are now part of the Microsoft Mobile Solutions Partner Program (MSPP), and more than 12,000 applications are commercially available for Windows Mobile-based devices.
“Developers are the lifeblood of a rapidly growing marketplace for mobile and embedded devices, and Microsoft is committed to supporting this key constituency with innovative software, integrated developer tools and go-to-market resources,” said Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president, Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft. “This is the time to rally behind the developer community to build a sustainable ecosystem of partners that can grow this market to its full potential.”
Delivering on Enterprise Mobility
As the mobile enterprise market grows, Microsoft continues to provide business customers with leading-edge integrated solutions encompassing the Windows Mobile software platform, third-party aggregated solutions and services, and critical enterprise back-end infrastructure integration. In the latest of several major customer announcements made in the last year, Microsoft today announced that KONE, a leading company in the global elevator and escalator business, is deploying Windows Mobile-based devices to 11,000 employees in 17 countries over the next two years. This constitutes one of the widest deployments of Windows Mobile-based devices to date. United Kingdom-based mobile solutions specialist TBS implemented its TaskMaster field service solution for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC Phone Edition devices that will be used by KONE to manage its mobile work force using real-time communication with employees. KONE can now also offer valuable new services to its customers, such as real-time progress updates from field workers, enabling more efficient customer service and significant cost savings for KONE. (Please see related news release.)
“As a business, our key priorities are ensuring that customers have a steady flow of people through their buildings and receive an excellent level of service from us as a vendor,” said Jim Haugsland, global field mobility manager at KONE. “It is important that we continue to offer improvements to our service by implementing the latest technology and most innovative working practices. The addition of Windows Mobile software to our current business processes will enable us to continue to provide the ever-improving level of service to customers that they have come to expect from our organization and to offer employees a safer environment in which to operate.” (Please see related news release.)
Microsoft today also welcomed an announcement by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan that Microsoft has been awarded the firm’s Strategic Partnership Strategy Award for successfully advancing its position in the mobile enterprise sector through tactical alliances. The award commends Microsoft’s role in bringing together mobile operators, hardware manufacturers, software developers and other value chain contributors to bring mobile enterprise solutions to market, and highlights some of the methods used by Microsoft to foster these relationships. These include Microsoft’s Mobility Partner Advisory Council (MPAC), a top-tier partner forum created in 2002 to offer marketing and technical support to the company’s key ISV and system integrator channel partners; and Microsoft’s Mobile2Market program, a developer marketing scheme that helps commercial developers connect with multiple distribution channels including retailers, e-tailers, original equipment manufacturers and mobile operators. A recent evaluation of the program revealed that 40 distributors, including 22 mobile operators, have requested and received access to Microsoft’s catalog of applications for Windows Mobile-based devices. Over 700 applications have now been logo-certified and cataloged through the program. More information on Mobile2Market can be found online at http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/mobile2market/ . (Please see related news release.)
“Microsoft clearly has invested significant resources in developing its partnership strategy,” said Paul Devine, research manager at Frost & Sullivan. “The alliances the company has embarked on have found a strong balance between the core competencies of each member, and Frost & Sullivan believes that such partnerships will have a substantial impact on the adoption of mobile data services, particularly in the corporate sector.”
Making Real-Time Location-Based Services Real With MapPoint Location Server
Adding to the business momentum and innovation driving Microsoft’s worldwide enterprise mobility efforts, Microsoft and mobile operators O2 and TeliaSonera today announced plans to deliver real-time location-based services for MapPoint Location Server. MLS represents a major advancement for location-based services by enabling a broader range of businesses to significantly improve the way they locate, track and manage their mobile assets and mobile work force. MLS supports industry standards and removes barriers to the adoption of location-based services, enabling a wider range of developers, independent software vendors and system integrators to create and deploy location-aware business applications than ever before. Customers will obtain real-time location data from the O2 and TeliaSonera networks with the rich mapping and location capabilities of the Microsoft MapPoint Web Service.
Windows Mobile Delivering Benefits to Developers
The recently introduced Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software supports dynamic screen switching between landscape and portrait modes, and square screen resolution for smaller devices with keyboards — both of which are firsts for the Windows Mobile platform. Additional features include VGA and QVGA to support high-resolution displays for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, respectively. The new software release supports hardware diversity to meet specific customer needs, while preserving the platform consistency needed to allow developers to quickly and cost-effectively reach a large addressable market with a single code base. Mobile operator Orange recently announced the world’s smallest Smartphone — Orange SPV C500 — based on the new software, as the latest addition to its Signature phone catalog. Earlier in the year, Motorola also announced the MPx, a revolutionary new device that uses the new software to offer mobile professionals a unique and compact dual-hinge design.
“The Motorola MPx combines a familiar user interface with a revolutionary design that takes advantage of the versatility enabled by Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president and general manager of MOTOPro group at Motorola Mobile Handset Business. “Microsoft’s commitment to software innovation and continued engagement with the developer community complement the MOTOPro Innovation Platform to bring a rich and diverse range of wireless applications and solutions to our customers.”
Also benefiting developers is Microsoft’s updated Windows Mobile Developer Resource Kit, which allows developers to easily create new applications and services based on the new software. The updated kit includes eight new white papers focused on Windows Mobile development, new and updated code samples, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition emulators, eMbedded Visual C++®
4.0 SP3, and Windows Mobile 2003 software developer kits.
In addition, Microsoft highlighted great momentum around the .NET Compact Framework. Version 2.0 is included in the beta release of Visual Studio®
2005, the next major version of Visual Studio being released at the conference. Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0 provides a richer application development environment for mobile developers through dramatically increased productivity, performance and extensibility. In addition, the .NET Compact Framework partner roster continues to grow, and Microsoft has received positive feedback from smart device application builders and customers that have benefited from the combination of the familiar Visual Studio development environment and the .NET Compact Framework. One customer that has experienced cost reductions and increased productivity benefits from this combination of tools is the global logistics company TNT Express. The company recently used the .NET Compact Framework to develop a field force remote management application, which was deployed to more than 24,000 of its employees around the world. The use of .NET Compact Framework enabled TNT Express’s existing base of developers to build the application with reduced costs and time to market.
About the Mobile Developer Conference
The Microsoft Mobile Developer Conference is the premier developer event for building and bringing to market mobile applications, content and services for the Windows Mobile and Windows platforms. The third annual European Mobile Developer Conference is co-located with TechEd Europe 2004.
About Microsoft TechEd Europe
In its 11th year in Europe, TechEd is Microsoft’s definitive European conference for building, deploying, securing and managing connected solutions. With a strong mix of developer, infrastructure and messaging content, Microsoft TechEd Europe is the premier technical training conference for a wide range of technology professionals.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft, Windows Mobile, MapPoint, Windows, Direct3D, Visual C++ and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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