NEWS WRAP: Microsoft Unveils New Windows Mobile
NEW YORK (AP)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) unveiled Tuesday a new version of its Windows operating system for mobile devices that adds such features as PowerPoint viewing, while making it easier for gadget makers to equip phones and handheld computers with typewriter keyboards and iPod-sized hard drives.
Windows Mobile 5.0 , introduced by Chairman Bill Gates at the company's annual conference for mobile software developers in Las Vegas, also marks an about-face in marketing by eliminating the distinct Pocket PC and Smartphone brands of the operating system.
Other feature enhancements include updates to the mobile versions of Microsoft Word and Excel that better maintain the formatting of documents created on a computer and allow charts to be created from a spreadsheet.
The elimination of the five-year-old Pocket PC brand for PDAs and the separate Smartphone label puts Windows Mobile on the same page as rival mobile device platforms such as Symbian and BlackBerry.
It also marks another change of course in Microsoft's long-evolving strategy to extend the dominance of its Windows computer platform to mobile devices.
Those efforts began with a single platform based on Windows CE, short for consumer electronics, but then fragmented into three custom-made flavors: Pocket PC organizers, "smart" cellphones, and then Pocket PCs equipped with phones.
While the underlying software code for those platforms remain about 90% identical, Microsoft has now decided to emphasize the familiar Windows name.
But beyond separate brand names, the new Windows Mobile does remove certain technological distinctions that gave the phone and PDA platforms different capabilities.
One of these is integrated support for Wi-Fi short-range wireless connections, now available for smart phones rather than just Pocket PCs. Another is so-called "persistent" memory storage, which preserves basic user information, contacts and personal settings when a device's battery runs out of power. This capability was previously available for smart phones but not Pocket PCs.
The updated version of Mobile Windows also serves as another example of Microsoft seeking to barge into a hot new sector where it's late to the party - much as it responded to the Netscape Navigator Web browser with Internet Explorer and to the Palm Pilot with Pocket PC.
This time, by adding support for internal hard drives, Microsoft is enabling device makers to design phones and organizers with enough storage capacity to compete in the portable music player market dominated by the iPod from Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL).
Windows Mobile accounts for a tiny fraction of Microsoft's business. Software revenue from mobile and embedded devices, such as auto dash systems, totaled $80 million in the first three months of 2005. That was up 31% from a year earlier, but amounted to less than a tenth of Microsoft's overall revenue for the quarter.
Corrected May 10, 2005 15:00 ET (19:00 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) unveiled Tuesday a new version of its Windows operating system for mobile devices that adds such features as PowerPoint viewing, while making it easier for gadget makers to equip phones and handheld computers with typewriter keyboards and iPod-sized hard drives.
Windows Mobile 5.0 , introduced by Chairman Bill Gates at the company's annual conference for mobile software developers in Las Vegas, also marks an about-face in marketing by eliminating the distinct Pocket PC and Smartphone brands of the operating system.
Other feature enhancements include updates to the mobile versions of Microsoft Word and Excel that better maintain the formatting of documents created on a computer and allow charts to be created from a spreadsheet.
The elimination of the five-year-old Pocket PC brand for PDAs and the separate Smartphone label puts Windows Mobile on the same page as rival mobile device platforms such as Symbian and BlackBerry.
It also marks another change of course in Microsoft's long-evolving strategy to extend the dominance of its Windows computer platform to mobile devices.
Those efforts began with a single platform based on Windows CE, short for consumer electronics, but then fragmented into three custom-made flavors: Pocket PC organizers, "smart" cellphones, and then Pocket PCs equipped with phones.
While the underlying software code for those platforms remain about 90% identical, Microsoft has now decided to emphasize the familiar Windows name.
But beyond separate brand names, the new Windows Mobile does remove certain technological distinctions that gave the phone and PDA platforms different capabilities.
One of these is integrated support for Wi-Fi short-range wireless connections, now available for smart phones rather than just Pocket PCs. Another is so-called "persistent" memory storage, which preserves basic user information, contacts and personal settings when a device's battery runs out of power. This capability was previously available for smart phones but not Pocket PCs.
The updated version of Mobile Windows also serves as another example of Microsoft seeking to barge into a hot new sector where it's late to the party - much as it responded to the Netscape Navigator Web browser with Internet Explorer and to the Palm Pilot with Pocket PC.
This time, by adding support for internal hard drives, Microsoft is enabling device makers to design phones and organizers with enough storage capacity to compete in the portable music player market dominated by the iPod from Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL).
Windows Mobile accounts for a tiny fraction of Microsoft's business. Software revenue from mobile and embedded devices, such as auto dash systems, totaled $80 million in the first three months of 2005. That was up 31% from a year earlier, but amounted to less than a tenth of Microsoft's overall revenue for the quarter.
(An item at 1:59 p.m. EDT incorrectly said that Microsoft is eliminating distinctions between the PDA and cellphone operating systems. However, Microsoft is eliminating the branding of separate cellphone and PDA platforms, but software differences remain.)
微软推出Windows Mobile移动操作系统新版本
微软公司(Microsoft Corp.)周二推出了用于移动装置的Windows操作系统的最新版本，这款名为Windows Mobile 5.0的新版本增加了诸如PowerPoint检视等新功能，同时可以方便电子设备制造商在手机和手持电脑上安装键盘及iPod大小的硬驱。
Windows Mobile 5.0在行销上的一个彻底转变就是在操作系统中放弃了Pocket PC和Smartphone品牌。
功能增强的部分还包括微软Word和Excel移动版本的升级版，可以更好地保持个人电脑生成的文件的格式。
取消已推出5年的用于个人数字处理(PDA)的Pocket PC品牌以及Smartphone标志使得Windows Mobile处在了同Symbian和BlackBerry等移动设备平台展开竞争的同一起跑线。
此举还标志著微软长期战略的一个重大转变，微软一直希望其Windows操作系统在移动装置中同样处于霸主地位。
Windows Mobile在微软总体业务中只占一小部分。今年前三个月移动和内置装置的软件收入总计8,000万美元，尽管较上年同期增长了31%，但是在公司同期总收入的比例还不到十分之一
