BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 16, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. and Personal S.A., a leading mobile operator in Argentina and Paraguay, announced the recent launch of SIMessenger to Personal’s customer base of 14.5 million people.
SIMessenger provides innovative and easy-to-use access to the Windows Live Messenger service for mobile phones, allowing Personal’s customers to receive and send instant messages, add entries to their contact list and change their status. The launch allows Personal to make Windows Live Messenger available to its customers via SIM card on the mobile operator’s line of handsets. Personal is the second mobile operator in the world to launch the service.
The companies are building on an existing agreement in which Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces are available through the user’s mobile Internet browser. The new agreement to add SIMessenger, along with a Java client version, will make it easier for consumers to access the people and information they care about from their mobile phones, and enhance their user experience.
To raise awareness of the new service, the companies are launching a new online campaign targeted at teenagers that allows customers to easily access Windows Live services through their mobile phones. Our mutual customers just need to visit the campaign Web site and send a link to their mobile phones to access the Windows Live services. Online users also can share the access links with their contacts, and see funny videos explaining how to use Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail in different outdoor situations.
“Our collaboration with Personal is an important part of fulfilling our vision to mobilize our broad Windows Live PC customer base,” said Tom Bailey, senior director of product management for Windows Live for Mobile services at Microsoft. “By offering the services in several formats, we’re tightly integrating with our partners and eradicating some of the top barriers for consumers to try to adopt a full suite of mobile entertainment options.”
About Personal
PERSONAL is the leading company in innovation in cellular technology. It operates since 1996 and his main shareholder is Telecom Argentina S.A.
With more than 12.5 million clients in the country, it offers services of mobile telephony through technologies GSM and 3G by means of the standard UMTS/HSDPA.
In order to obtain more data, visit www.personal.com.ar.
About Windows Live
More than 500 million customers around the world rely on Windows Live for sharing e-mail, messaging, photos and files within their networks of friends, family, business associates and more. With localized versions being made available globally in 54 countries and 48 languages by early 2009, the next generation of Windows Live brings enhanced tools to make online activities easier, more integrated and more intuitive. The new Windows Live experience is also enhanced by strategic alliances — with feeds from third-party sites that enable users to stay up to date on what’s new with friends and family and see information from other online services such as Flickr, LinkedIn and Pandora — all in a single set of services where they already spend time every day. Over the coming weeks, the next generation of Windows Live will become available at http://www.windowslive.com.
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.
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