Microsoft: Internet Via Mobile Phones To Up Sales (via Q* thread)
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To: JGoren (36402 )
From: michael piturro
Wednesday, Jul 21 1999 1:22PM ET
Reply # of 36438
Q & MSFT>
Wednesday July 21 12:20 PM ET
By Paul Carrel
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) said Wednesday
it expected to
provide Internet services via mobile telephones beginning in the second half of next year
and that the fresh
revenue would complement its existing sales.
''We don't see this as a substitute. It's more of a complement,'' Kevin Dallas, group
product manager of Microsoft's
productivity applications division, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, warned Monday that profit and revenue
growth would slow in the year ahead
because of slowing demand for personal computers and concerns about the Y2K
computer bug, among other factors.
''We see it as a major opportunity for us, and also for the carrier and the handset
vendor,'' Dallas said about the providing of
Internet services via cellular phones. ''It's an increasing revenue opportunity for
Microsoft.''
Dallas was speaking after Microsoft earlier Wednesday announced its acquisition of
STNC Ltd., a small British company
whose technology the U.S. software giant aims to use to help it provide Internet
applications via mobile phones.
The move by Microsoft comes as other Internet leaders such as Yahoo Inc.
(Nasdaq:YHOO - news) work to offer their Web
contents over mobile phones by late this year in the next stage in the development of
Internet access.
Sector projections showed that by 2004 there would be some 1.2 billion mobile phones
in operation worldwide, of which
between 700,000 and 800,000 would be able to access the Internet, Dallas said.
Microsoft earlier this year teamed up with
British Telecommunications Plc to develop a range of Internet and corporate data
services for cellular phone customers.
Dallas said that in both Britain and the United States, Microsoft was engaged in trials to
develop the technology required to
access the Internet via mobile phones.
''If you were to talk to British Telecom, they would be very aggressive on this,'' he said.
''They would like to see this on the
market by the second half of next year. We're working hard to make that a reality.'' He
said the same timeframe applied in the
United States, where Microsoft is in a joint venture, Wireless Knowledge, with
telecommunications equipment maker
Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) to expand the availability of information over
wireless devices.
Mobile phone users would be able to send and receive e-mail, access the Internet and
company Intranets with the software
provided by Microsoft, Dallas said. Further down the line, they could also engage in
e-commerce via their handheld phones.
The U.S. software producer did not say how much it had paid to acquire STNC, which
employs around 40 people and is
based in Bury St. Edmunds in eastern England. |
