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Journalism of Courage
Microsoft Corp, the world’s largest software maker, called on telecom companies to tap new revenue streams with its software as it stepped up efforts to muscle into a market worth more than $260 billion. Chairman Bill Gates secured a keynote speech at the ITU Telecom World 2003 trade fair in Geneva on Monday, ahead of Arun Sarin, the chief of mobile phone firm Vodafone Group Plc, to tout his wares.
His message: Software is vital to the future of the telecommunications industry as it emerges from one of its most precipitous downturns ever. ‘‘The thing is pretty simple. Software is the ingredient that helps continue to grow this industry,’’ Gates said.
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Vodafone, Microsoft to link mobile, Web services
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LONDON: Vodafone Group Plc and Microsoft Corp said they would jointly promote programming standards for software that could work on both mobile phones and PCs. The venture aims to set industry standards for software developers by providing access to the messaging, location and billing technologies used by mobile networks. This could produce services that would allow stranded motorists to use a mobile to find the best auto repair service via the Internet and then automatically provide their vehicle’s location on the highway. (Reuters) |
A few years after Gates mapped out Microsoft’s plans to conquer the telecom sector, he said he could announce products and clients. Gates, who is also Microsoft’s chief software architect, paraded a range of software that spanned quality television over broadband Internet connections, a new Microsoft-powered smartphone for Orange and a deal with Vodafone for new mobile messaging and location services.
Microsoft’s smartphone software competes against Britain’s Symbian, Finnish handset giant Nokia and Sun Microsystem’s Java. ‘‘Four years ago we committed ourselves to the telecom industry. What we’ve done in the last four years is to build software to push things forward,’’ he said, adding that company had more than doubled its research efforts in that period. Microsoft wants to gain a foothold in telecoms as its key Windows and Office software faces saturation and increasing competition, due to piracy.
The firm, which has over $30 billion in cash and plans to launch its new version of Office software on October 21, knows pay-back could be years away for its mobile phone software business and other fledgling operations. ‘‘Everybody expects their mobile information to follow them around. Everybody expects to be able to get instant messages, to be entertained with high quality media,’’ the senior vice-president of Microsoft’s mobile division, Pieter Knook, said.
However, he added: ‘‘It will take 5 to 10 years…before everyone is going to want a (Microsoft powered) smartphone. “ (Reuters)
