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Mapping Microsoft's Wireless Strategy
You have a daunting array of options to choose from when creating a wireless solution for the enterprise. Survey Microsoft's offerings to find the best path.
by Patricia Cardoza

Samsung i700, Motorola Sidekick, Ericcson P800, Orange SPV Smartphone, Handspring Treo, Audiovox Thera, T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, Nokia Communicator, and the Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry represent just a handful of the various pocket-sized communication devices on the market today. It seems that every month a new, smaller, faster, more feature-packed communication device becomes available. You're left wondering when or where it will all end. And if you're trying to establish a cohesive, up-to-date wireless policy for your business, the situation is even more confounding.

The typical computer or electronic device consumer, whether it's an individual or a corporation, often hesitates to purchase a new electronic device for fear that device will soon become obsolete. That fear isn't completely unfounded. I purchased a combination Pocket PC/cellular telephone in October 2002. At press time, the product has already been marked down by more than 50 percent and a new device with more features, a longer battery life, and a better user interface is now available. Unfortunately, the authorized replacement cycle on my PDA/phone is two years, so I need to spend an additional $599 for a new Pocket PC Phone Edition device to upgrade. My story isn't uncommon. The rapidly changing wireless and mobility market overwhelms many customers. They're confused about where it's headed, what role Microsoft plays within the market, and how these factors will affect their businesses. In this article, I'll take a look at where Microsoft has been, where it is now, and where I believe it plans to go. If your organization is struggling to keep up with the flurry of new products in the wireless space, this article should serve to provide some road markers in the haze.

All the vendors I've mentioned offer devices to increase mobile workers' productivity. Each device, and many additional upcoming ones, runs three primary operating systems: Palm, Pocket PC, and the new Smartphone operating system. And although the Symbian OS is quite powerful, vendors aren't adopting it as readily as the Palm or Pocket PC.

Microsoft is scheduled to release the newest version of its Pocket PC operating system, Pocket PC 2003, on June 23. This operating system, codenamed Ozone, focuses on eliminating bugs found in previous versions of Pocket PC, as well as increasing wireless capabilities for the end user. Other expected features include improved connectivity features, additional messaging support, Web services enhancements, and other usability features.

Looking Forward to Pocket PC 2003
Pocket PC 2003's new and improved Connection Manager will enable users to manage a variety of wireless connections more easily. Built-in support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth provides users with more connectivity options. For example, a user with a Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 device will be able to connect over her cellular provider while on the road. If she chooses to stop at Starbucks for coffee, she'll be able to switch over to Wi-Fi easily by simply opening Connection Manager and switching active connections. The entire Connection Manager program should be simpler for beginners to use and should offer advanced users greater control. It will be easier to define multiple interfaces and to switch between two enabled interfaces. Although it's still quite common for users to think of wireless as just Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Microsoft's inclusion of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth reminds us that wireless uses all these technologies. Device manufacturers are likely to start including both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in their devices now that support for the technology is built into the devices' hardware.

You can also expect to see major changes and upgrades for Pocket Internet Explorer, including support for XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript 5.5. This will enable Pocket Internet Explorer to display a wider variety of Web pages accurately. Currently, some Web sites won't load at all and others display only partial functionality. Pocket PC 2003 will include support for both Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), which offer expanded messaging options. SMS is used primarily for sending brief text messages, while MMS enables users to send images and sound clips. Sharing photos and video clips through Pocket PC devices will become more common, especially as high-speed data networks expand in breadth and reach.