Microsoft Enters the Cell Phone OS Market

PuZZLeR writes: "Today, Microsoft unveiled a new operating system for mobile phones (named 'Windows Powered Smartphone 2002') and plans to fully enter the wireless data devices with voice capabilities by utilizing both cellphones and PDA devices. TI already created a reference design for the Ms powered phone. While this sounds like Microsoft is going after Handspring, RIM or Danger, cellphone OS manufactures, like Nokia and OpenWave are expected to counteract to the announcements. Today, Nokia announced it will offer mobile phone makers its own development kit and OS."

Comments

Bil''s "Road Ahead"

[Telex4]

If anyone's ever read Bill Gate's book "The Road Ahead", this will sound chillingly familiar. In this book, he described how he'd like to see every appliance integrated into a central system (all of course designed by Microsoft ;-). This is just one more stepping stone.

His vision, then, would be that you turn on your phone, log into the Hailstorm cellphone server, check your hotmail and sms in one, perhaps unfold your laptop running XP and download the messages, go home and turn on your TV running a microsoft-style tivo, put on your MS Stereo running off an XP music server, and so on. Total saturation, with total control from Redmond.

Nokia fights back.

[alex_siufy]

Here.... The short version:


" Top-ranked mobile phone maker Nokia said on Monday it would offer other mobile handset suppliers a complete design kit for making Internet-ready phones, seeking to stave off a push by Microsoft Corp. into the mobile market.

The move by Nokia, maker of one of every three mobile phones sold globally, takes aim at computer software giant Microsoft, which said earlier on Monday it was offering phone makers a standard kit of software and computer chips to build new "smartphones." "

The article also mentions that out of the top 5 mobile phone manufacturers, only Samsung is coming out with phones based on the Microsoft junk, at the end of this year.

It'll be .NET (Microsoft) versus Java (Nokia) on the mobile front too...

Linux based phones also in the works

[micahjd]

Take a look at this: http://www.ridgerun.com/products/phone/tour/

With software like Microwindows, PicoGUI, and Qtopia available, a lot of companies will probably be finding Linux useful on PDAs and smaller embedded devices like Cellphones.