Microsoft India develops communicator mobile

Bangalore, May 17 (UNI) Microsoft's India Development Centre (MIDC) today announced its involvement in an end-to-end project to develop 'Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile'- a unified communications client that provided information workers with a premier mobile collaboration experience through native integration of mobile applications with enterprise-grade, real-time communications tools.

Communicator Mobile would extend features of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator to the Windows Mobile 2003 SE and Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, both Pocket PC Edition and Smartphone, Microsoft India said in a release here.

Commenting on the product being completely developed out of India, MIDC Vice President and Managing Director Srini Koppulu said ''The Centre plays an important role in contributing to future innovations at Microsoft. The release of Communicator Mobile is an endorsement of Microsoft's mission to innovate, energise and support investments for the mobile user experience,'' he added.

The development process included getting feedback from usage within Microsoft, Beta users outside Microsoft, and TAP (Technology Adoption Program) partners. The suggestions and feedback from user groups were incorporated into the product in the early stages of the development cycle.

Unveiled during Steve Ballmer's keynote at 3GSM in Barcelona Spain and based on the user interface of the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 desktop client, the client goes beyond simple voice services, incorporating connected communication modes such as more secure instant messaging (IM), presence awareness and integrated VoIP-telephony, the release said.

Communicator Mobile client increased potential data revenue for mobile operators by driving demand for business-class devices.

MIDC Mobile Devices Group Director Sudeep Bharati the project was conceived and released in just over a year. ''This product will complete our Unified Communications vision by adding the support for the Windows Mobile platform,'' he added.

MIDC had built a strong centre for excellence in the area of Mobility with over 175 developers dedicated to creating software for global markets and cater to the needs of Mobile Information workers.

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