Microsoft, Ericsson Partner to Drive Mobile Internet Market
This new venture could be a step in the right direction for wireless data, or it could be just another alliance among many.
By Ellen Jensen, Managing Editor, Wireless Networks Online
Microbrowser Technology
Open Standards and New Technologies
Together, but Separate
Just Another Alliance
Software giant Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA) is doing more than dabbling in the wireless arena. As the mobile device segment continues to grow faster than the PC segment, the company is plunging in head first, trying to find its place in wireless' anytime, anywhere world.
Its latest attempt is a joint venture with Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) to develop and market end-to-end solutions for the wireless Internet. The two will form a joint company to market and deliver mobile e-mail solutions for network operators. They are still in negotiations, and many of the details are still undisclosed. The company will be based in Stockholm, Sweden, and Ericsson will own the majority share.
This is not the first time Microsoft has teamed with a wireless infrastructure/handset company to form a joint venture. Last year, Microsoft and Qualcomm formed Wireless Knowledge to act as a service bureau to connect mobile workers to their corporate information. Instead of taking that format, this new company will lean more toward the systems integration arena, according to Microsoft and Ericsson officials.
Microbrowser Technology (Back to Top)
As part of the partnership, Ericsson will provide its Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) stack to Microsoft and will adopt Microsoft Mobile Explorer for feature phones. The new dual-mode microbrowser displays both HTML and WAP 1.1-compliant content. The joint company will build, market, and deploy solutions that use Microsoft Windows NT server and Exchange platforms and Ericsson's infrastructure and mobile Internet technologies.
Another purpose of the joint company is to develop new solutions that connect enterprise e-mail with public wireless e-mail services, based on Microsoft Exchange server and Ericsson wireless infrastructure products. The company will also use the Microsoft messaging platform to optimize client software, access technologies, and applications. The new solutions will allow users to access information, personal information managers (PIMs), and e-mail from any wireless device, while giving carriers the ability to offer services based on the Exchange platform.
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One of the biggest parts of the agreement is the willingness to evolve technology using current standards. This venture marks the end of Microsoft's antipathy toward WAP and Bluetooth. According to Bob Muglia, Microsoft Group VP/Business Productivity Group, Microsoft no longer competes with WAP and Bluetooth but is adopting existing standards and moving forward with them. The plan is to work with Ericsson and the other partners to improve on current versions and promote the convergence of WAP and Internet standards to XML.
From a technological perspective, the underlying XML can form the basis to bring together WAP protocols and Internet standards, Muglia said. He pointed out the extensive work the WAP Forum has done through its focused efforts on optimizing low-bandwidth connections to today's phones. He said a lot of those innovations likely will become part of future WAP versions.
Together, but Separate (Back to Top)
Muglia also pointed out that this joint venture does not mean that Microsoft is moving away from its Windows CE operating system.
"We see CE as being critical to what we're doing with the palm-size PC marketplace, including smart phones," Muglia said. "There is a different class of devices that doesn't have a 32-bit processor—like cellphones—and users want to be able to get to Internet information, e-mail, schedules;" hence, the Mobile Explorer, which makes better use of the real estate on smaller devices, he said.
For its part, Ericsson is trying to make it clear that this venture does not affect its dealings with Symbian. This WAP browser can sit on top of the EPOC product, said Jan Uddenfeldt, Ericsson senior VP, Technology.
Beginning 2001, all new Ericsson mobile phones will be equipped with WAP. In parallel, e-mail has become the killer application for Internet usage—approximately 18% of the 325-million-plus global e-mailboxes have been added within the past four months.
Just Another Alliance (Back to Top)
Despite the hoopla over this agreement, not everybody is as impressed with the joint venture as the two companies would like. For some, this announcement was a yawner.
"I've heard it all before from Microsoft," said Ray Jodoin, senior analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. He added that if Wireless Knowledge is any indication, Microsoft is trying desperately to get deeply involved in the wireless communications world because it's afraid it's going to get left behind.
He said every time you turn around, there's another alliance of some sort—companies try to leverage other companies' strengths… and capital. This is indicative of the industry casting around to try to find out what works for wireless data.
"Everybody is crawling in bed with everybody else. This is just like every other attempt at this (wireless data) market," Jodoin said.