Is this why Wireless is declining as a percentage of future revenues?
Microsoft, AT&T Wireless Forge Deal
Tue Jul 30, 9:03 PM ET
By HELEN JUNG, AP Business Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Wireless planned to announce Wednesday that they will begin offering new wireless services to business customers, sources said.
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The deal means that within the past 18 months, Microsoft has forged partnerships with at least five major wireless carriers in the United States to carry a cell phone or wireless device that runs a Microsoft operating software.
The deal calls for both Redmond, Wash.-based companies to develop software and services that will let business users access their corporate e-mail, calendars, data and other business applications, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It will also incorporate other AT&T Wireless services that already exist, including pinpointing the location of a wireless user. The first services should be available later this year, the sources said.
AT&T Wireless will also offer a device running Microsoft's new PocketPC Phone Edition software which combines computing functions with phone capabilities in a handheld device, sources said.
The two companies refused to comment. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer was to announce a wireless business initiative in New York on Wednesday morning, according to a Microsoft press release.
The announcement is expected to capitalize on Microsoft's dominance in business desktop software, particularly its popular e-mail programs.
Microsoft is positioning itself as the wireless telecommunications industry shifts from customers talking on the phone to customers accessing data on the phone, said Juha Christensen, corporate vice president for Microsoft's mobile devices group, in an interview earlier this month.
In the past several months, the company has announced deals with VoiceStream Wireless, part of Deutsche Telekom, Sprint PCS and Verizon.
"The vast majority of what goes through carriers is really going to be wireless data," he said. Traffic is going to be moving "from ears to eyes."
Carriers are growing increasingly receptive to Microsoft, he said, as the cash-strapped companies learn that building their own software services is proving to be very expensive.
"We'd like to see our software on as many handsets as possible," Christensen said.
Microsoft needs to form partnerships with as many carriers as possible, said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner G2.
"If they're going after the wireless and enterprise space, it behooves them to work with AT&T Wireless," he said.
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