Microsoft Corp. and Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. announced an agreement to jointly create a new line of mobile phones based on Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system.
Specifically, Samsung will create Global System for Mobile communications and Code Division Multiple Access phones with Microsoft’s Mobile Internet Explorer wireless browser technology for feature phones and the Windows CE-based platform for smart phones.
Samsung said to expect the Mobile Explorer-powered feature phones by the second half of 2000, with smart phone solutions hitting the market in 2001.
This is the first time a wireless phone manufacturer has agreed to create a product based on the Windows CE operating system and marks a significant milestone for Microsoft’s entrance into the wireless phone market.
“This is really exciting for us,” said Perry Lee, product manager for Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Division. “It builds the credibility for our smart phone platform.”
Microsoft released WinCE version 3.0 when it introduced its new PocketPC platform earlier this year. Responding to concerns that WinCE is not very efficient in wireless networks, the company said the version of WinCE 3.0 Samsung has agreed to use is specifically optimized for a wireless device.
“People don’t realize we’ve actually taken a version of Windows CE version 3.0 and optimized it for the wireless phone,” Lee said. “It supports real-time processing. The Pocket PC version hasn’t the radio interface layer.”
Microsoft decoupled the radio interface layer of the WinCE product specifically to allow manufacturers to add new radio interface layers for new wireless networks as they are completed in the future. It also allows developers to write an application specific to the OS, independent of the radio interface, so it can work across varying networks.
It did the same with the Mobile Internet Explorer microbrowser, which can operate on a phone running a different operating system than WinCE.
“One device doesn’t fit all needs,” Lee said. “That’s why the feature and smart phone products are different.”
The feature phone is equipped with a microbrowser, but has low processing power, meaning a user can access data only when connected to the network through the browser. A smart phone contains a browser but has greater storage and processing ability to allow the user to interact with his data when offline as well. Both are voice-centric devices.
It is precisely WinCE OS’ greater processing power that has led to some of the complaints against it for wireless usage, which Lee dismissed, noting that while it can operate on current systems, the technology was created to support upcoming networks as well.
“The smart phone platform can run on today’s networks,” he said, “but the functionality you see will really shine on next-generation networks.”
