Microsoft joins mobile phone alliance
Wed Jun 12, 4:42 PM ET
Ben Charny
Microsoft said Wednesday that it intends to play a major role in a new organization, the Open Mobile Alliance, which is promoting standard ways for cell phones to exchange data over the air.
The Open Mobile Alliance, unveiled Wednesday, was created by the merger ( news - web sites) of two other groups promoting standard ways for cell phones to exchange data such as e-mails: the Open Mobile Architecture initiative, created by Nokia ( news - web sites) last year, and the more established WAP Forum, of which Microsoft is a member.
Before Wednesday's announcement, Microsoft had joined only one of the dozens of wireless industry groups. Its absence created a "perceived fragmentation" between the worlds of personal computers, which Microsoft represents, and cell phones, said Mike Wehrs, director of technology and standards for Microsoft's mobility group.
That wedge can't exist, Wehrs said, because mobile data travels not just through the air, but also along the same routes as information sent over the landline Internet.
"We believe that Microsoft's absence from some of the fora has helped drive the perception that there is a wedge between the PC and Internet world and the mobile industry," Wehrs said.
The Open Mobile Alliance has 200 member companies and is focused on one area: the delivery of data over cellular telephone networks. In Europe and Asia, where cell phones outnumber computers, wireless e-mails sent between phones are the norm. But while billions of e-mails are exchanged each month on these continents, wireless data hasn't yet caught hold in the United States.
The alliance thinks the answer is open standards, rather than proprietary standards like CDMA ( news - web sites) (Code Division Multiple Access), which Qualcomm owns the patents to, said Jerry Upton, Motorola vice president of strategy and standards. About 15 percent to 20 percent of the world's cellular telephone networks use CDMA.
The leading cell phone equipment standard is GSM (Global System For Mobile Communications), which is generally considered an open standard. GSM equipment is used in about 70 percent to 75 percent of the world's cellular telephone networks, including AT&T Wireless, which has joined the Open Mobile Alliance.
But CDMA and GSM aren't interoperable, so cell phone service providers' carriers have to craft agreements with each other to let their subscribers "roam" onto the other networks. The cost of those agreements alone--carriers charge for the time on their network--is hindering the spread of mobile data use, Upton said.
Aside from different and competing network and phone standards, there are also several types of operating systems for the higher-end cell phones, or "smart phones," that combine the functions of a PDA (personal digital assistant) and cell phone. The major operating systems are from Palm, Microsoft and Symbian, a private company formed by Nokia and other companies.
The alliance hopes to eliminate the need for many standards and many different operating systems.
Four more forums joining
A representative for the Open Mobile Alliance said that both the Open Mobile Architecture initiative and the WAP Forum will no longer exist. Instead, they will be become "working groups" within the Open Mobile Alliance.
There are four additional organizations that have signed memorandums of understanding to join the Open Mobile Alliance, and also become working groups.
They include the Location Interoperability Forum founded in September 2000 and whose member companies create equipment capable of locating cell phones.
Two of the other organizations that will merge into the alliance are dedicated specifically to wireless messaging. They are the MMS (Mixed Media Messaging) Interoperability Group, created in February, and Wireless Village, which three of the four world's major handset makers created last April to standardize ways of sending wireless instant messages.
The fourth organization that has singed the agreement is SyncML Initiative, created in December by Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, IBM and several other companies to use Java to link cell phones and servers.
story.news.yahoo.com
And the Elison Take ...
‘Bio-informatics next big wave’
Sandeep Bamzai
(Beijing, June 12)
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The $11 billion Oracle Corporation's founder chairman Larry Ellison was in an expansive mood at the inauguration of Oracle World 2002 here on Wednesday. Indulging in his customary Bill Gates and Microsoft bashing, Ellison was at his sarcastic best when he said: "It is true that I would like to see Oracle as a bigger software company than Microsoft. It is all about a team play, this is not a clash of individuals. It is not about Gates versus Ellison."
Ellison said that Microsoft believes that they should own everything. According to Ellison, "the tech world is splitting down the middle. There are two camps — one which is based on Internet standards and open systems and the other is represented by dot net and is the personal property of one person and company. "The choice going forward is between open systems and dot net. His clear notion is that standards belong to everybody as they are based on innovations. In any case, one person cannot decide which computing system the world should use", he said.
And then the customised Adelini suit (from Naples) wearing Ellison prophesied, "Silicon Valley will be home to just a few in the future."
Offering the analogy of the US automobile industry which now has two major players in Ford and General Motors, the CEO of the world's largest enterprise software company said, "Very few technology infrastructure companies will survive in Silicon Valley. Best of breed software companies like i2, Ariba, Commerce One are all withering."
What of the future? The oracle's response was typical of Ellison. He feels that the next big thing to hit Silicon Valley will not be computing, but bio-informatics. Oracle incidentally is preparing for war, for it has put features in its database to study genetics. Biotech companies have begun to standardise on Oracle's database and conduct experiments in dry computing labs.
Ellison reckons that stronger companies will continue to get stronger. And this is reflected in Oracle's gross margins which is in the vicinity of 35 per cent. This is, of course, in one of the most difficult recessions over the past 25 years.
With consumer spending beginning to pick up, Ellison thinks that business spending will start mirroring the trend by the end of this year. With Oracle's annual results due in the next 10 days, let us see what is in store?
Ellison and India
On being quizzed by this writer about his impending visit to India, Ellison said that he would love to come to India, for he believed it was a fascinating country. He said: "I love Indian food and only a few minutes away from my house in Redwood Shores is Gaylord where I eat a lot of naan, dal makhani and baingan bartha.
"Oracle is committed to India and has invested huge amounts of money in engineering. Yes, symbols are important for other top CEOs like Gates, John Chambers and Carly Fiorina have come to India, but I am deeply committed to the Indian venture where we have 2000 employees, which we will scale up to 4,000."
On a comparison between China and India, his response was strangely diplomatic. He said: "Do I love my daughter or son more? Both countries are locomotives of growth. Oracle doesn't have a foreign policy and we don't play favourites. The recent crisis on the Indian border hasn't changed our investment plans at all. The US government has been very active on Kashmir and the crisis is subsiding. Oracle is in India to stay."
hindustantimes.com |
