Microsoft aims for your pocket
Microsoft aims for your pocket
A new tool for the pockets of mobile information workers is on the market thanks to a partnership between Microsoft Australia and Telstra.
Under a strategic partnership with Telstra, Microsoft is trying to get its foot in the door of the Australian wireless and mobile market with the launch of its Pocket PC Phone Edition 2002.
Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, in Sydney to launch the device, said the new tool is part of Microsoft’s push to extend its platforms onto new devices, not just computers.
“At the end of the day the core franchise for [Microsoft] is giving information workers, people who deal with information, the tools to communicate, to analyse information to access information. The Pocket PC phone fits precisely in that context. It is a tool that empowers knowledge workers in a wide variety of ways,” Ballmer said.
Ballmer said the partnership with Telstra is “important” to the software giant. “It psyches me up quite a bit," he said.
The new Pocket PC, called O2 xda, runs on the Windows-powered Microsoft Pocket PC platform. O2 xda is an integrated GSM/GPRS mobile phone and PDA that can be used as a phone, a pocket PC and a personal organiser. Users can bring business applications, such as email, down to the device.
Telstra group managing director Ted Pretty, also at the launch, said the PDA was aimed at the mobile information worker in small to large enterprises rather than the consumer market.
However, Ballmer added, “Moore’s law ensures the price will go down over time”.
On the partnership, Pretty said Telstra and Microsoft plan to “leverage” their respective developer relationships and are working together to launch a suite of next generation mobile devices and increase the number of wireless applications for their respective customers.
Telstra will distribute the Pocket PC Phone Edition 2002 through its retail stores in Australia for A$1,699.
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