Microsoft seeks to bring computing to mobile phones

Mobile computing "" mobile phones with computing capability "" is perhaps the next big thing for not just urban India but the rural milieu as well.

A customer today wants a handheld instrument which can also perform the functions of a desktop computer. And this is what is called the PDA phone which offers important applications of a PC.

Parmesh Vaidyanathan, director, developer tools, Microsoft India Development Centre (MIDC), says, "Although it is a little too early to say that mobile computers are going to take over the PC, but definitely the demand is picking up. The application of computing is expanding to include mobile computing and the message we are getting today is that a significant number of business applications that are used in enterprises on the desktop are going to be mobile soon."

In India, over 5,000 PDA type phones are being sold in a month based on Microsoft Windows. MIDC sources say these are not just simple phones, but with different types of applications well suited for people to stay connected with their workplaces by accessing personal and corporate data as well as making phone calls. This allows the mobile man today to do as much work even while on the move as he can sitting at office or home.

The Mobile Devices Group at MIDC is soon going to introduce communicator mobile (COMO), a new type of mobile application which enables the user to look at the global address book (GAB) in his office so that he can get all the required numbers, e-mail addresses and instant massaging (IM) addresses.

The applications will enable multi-party chatting and instant massaging apart from connecting to the wi-fi telecommunication network and allowing web browsing.

"For this, we use Microsoft's Live Communication Server, an enterprise class IM server which helps you to do instant massaging. It has a desktop type application called communicator through which you can do IM, video conferencing and audio conferencing," says Sudeep Bharati, director-Mobile Device Group at MIDC.

"We are now bringing the same capabilities to mobile devices so that you can use some of these applications even when you are on the road," he adds. COMO is slated to be launched towards the coming month.

MIDC is also working on innovating a note taking application. According to this, if a user records hand written text on a mobile device, that can be stored and directly by the system as computer understandable text.

"MIDC is coming up with an application called 'one-note-mobile'. There will be a one-note application on the desktop and there will be a mobile companion, which will allow you to share your note taking board with it. Whatever you write on the board can be synchronized on the desktop," Bharati adds.

With so many applications, the challenge before mobile phone manufacturers today is how to bring such a phone within the reach of most people.