REDMOND, Wash.-British Telecommunications plc, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced they plan to work together to create high-speed data applications for mobile devices domestically and abroad.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will dedicate a development team to create mobile applications configured for existing and future high-speed wireless networks from both AT&T and BT, specifically AT&T’s expected Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution and existing Cellular Digital Packet Data networks and BT’s upcoming Universal Mobile Telecommunications System and General Packet Radio Service networks.
The announcement is seen as a step forward for Microsoft, which has been struggling to find acceptance in the wireless industry. The company expects to create both corporate and consumer applications, such as mobile remote access to enterprise data, as well as e-books and games.
“This is really about creating applications, and we want to define those as we go,” said Kendra VanderMeulen, senior vice president of product strategy and development at AT&T Wireless. “It’s going to be a multi-year process, not just a get-together-once and then done thing.”
Initial applications are expected on AT&T’s CDPD and BT’s GPRS networks. These and future applications will then be created for their respective third-generation networks.
“The real goal is to move toward applications that run on UMTS and EDGE,” VanderMeulen said.
The two carriers will allow Microsoft to use their facilities to develop wireless applications for those technologies, with engineers from both carriers assisting in the process. In return, BT and AT&T will get a time-to-market advantage in deploying those applications to customers.
The collaboration is an evolution of the existing alliances between BT and AT&T. The two hope to allow for roaming between their networks, and the applications provided by Microsoft are part of this plan.
Microsoft has existing relationships with BT but now adds the technical expertise of AT&T as an ally in its effort to penetrate the wireless market. The collaboration essentially is an acknowledgement by Microsoft that it needs help from the wireless industry to create applications best suited to it.
“We want what applications Microsoft is good at to be articulated well into wireless,” VanderMeulen said. “Looking at the world of today, Microsoft already has a very strong market position in certain areas. Those applications we clearly want to see well-implemented in a wireless environment. Through this collaboration, we hope we can help Microsoft be successful in understanding how to move those applications wirelessly.”
The world of tomorrow, she continued, will be full of applications that don’t exist at all today created specifically for mobile use. The collaboration aims to address this market as well.
“Not all applications are mobile extensions to wireline. Some things you’re going to care about only on a mobile basis,” VanderMeulen said. “Mobile users have different demands, expectations and needs. The future is going to be much more of a green field. Microsoft has great talent and ideas … but again, they need to have the influence of strong carriers who understand (the wireless environment) to translate their skills into something used in the marketplace.”
Perhaps a key difference between the wireless industry and Microsoft is their outlook on the Wireless Application Protocol. Microsoft is a WAP Forum member, but obviously is not fully convinced that WAP will necessarily thrive in a 3G environment. AT&T backs WAP fully.
“WAP will have a place in 3G. WAP is the HTML of the wireless handset world,” VanderMeulen said. “WAP allows us to make applications truly designed for the mobile environment, and the need remains to do that in 3G.”
It’s just that WAP won’t be the only application environment involved, she said.
“WAP is very much a part of this. Many of the applications we’re talking about will be WAP-based. But some may not be,” VanderMeulen said. “We’ll pay attention to all kinds of operating environments.”
