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Apr. 13, 2008

On Feb. 15, Andy Lees joined Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business division, taking over for Pieter Knook, after running Microsoft’s Server Tools and Solutions Group. He’s been with Microsoft in various capacities since 1990, including ten years working for Microsoft-U.K.

Lees said "we feel that the mobile phone industry is at a really exciting juncture.”

He says he’s excited by the possibilities presented by how many phones that have access to the Web and the potential for the “sorts of services that will light up those devices.”

One example of his amazement is the number of mobile phones being used today to listen to music when compared to dedicated MP-3 players. M:Metrics recently reported that about 10 percent of the mobile subscribers they surveyed listen to music on their phones.

Even though music-enabled phones greatly outnumber dedicated players, Lees says it still is often too difficult to get music on phones and listen to it.

The industry, he says, still must make it simple and easy for wireless subscribers to use the kinds of services that will be developed in the coming years. Microsoft intends to be part of that delivery ecosystem, Lees says.

“If we do our job right, we can facilitate the movement to the new industry,” he says, “and the numbers are really staggering. About 10 percent of all new devices today are converged devices, what many call smartphones.

"Microsoft sees its role as being able to help with the on-device experience, help by providing a set of services in the cloud that light up those experiences and extend them,” Lee said. That will be done by working with operators on services and handset manufacturers on form factors and device capabilities, he says, as well as Microsoft’s developer community.

“We have more than 300 million people who use Windows Live services. How can we bring that asset to light up the phone so that when I take those pictures they automatically arrive on my PC?” he queries.

Lees agrees there are some fundamental changes going on in the wireless industry, which is an opportunity for Microsoft to create ways for users to have the best experience on a phone. That includes not only devices and services, but also leveraging Microsoft assets such as the Xbox and IPTV.

He’d like to make it easier for people who take photos with cameraphones to get those photos off the phone through services like Windows Live.

One of Microsoft’s steps to improve the user experience on phones is the latest version of Windows Mobile, version 6.1, which was announced at CTIA Wireless 2008 last week. The biggest improvement in the new version is the addition of Internet Explorer 6 to the operating system instead of a cut-down pocket version.

Enabling Internet Explorer 6 on the phone opens up the whole Internet to Windows Mobile phone users, Lee says. It also makes Windows Mobile devices more attractive for a broader set of subscribers, especially consumers.

Windows Mobile until now has focused on the enterprise, with e-mail and other services through Exchange servers.

“By having that richness allows you to start to put scenarios together across the PC, the phone and Web that you couldn’t do before,” Lee says.

He says Internet Explorer 6 will “blow the roof off” the capabilities of existing mobile browsers.

Windows Mobile 6.1 also will have a mobile device manager capability for enterprise IT departments.

Microsoft demonstrated at CTIA the use of Internet Explorer 6 to access Facebook. Some Facebook applications àsuch as SuperPoke don’t run on smartphones, but the demo showed how it could run on a Windows Mobile phone with Internet Explorer 6.

When asked about Microsoft’s plans to add new mobile services, Lees said the company wants to mobilize its existing Windows Live services but also mobile-specific services such as location. The company also has some music expertise in-house it is looking at for mobile, as well as gaming through its Xbox and Xbox Live platforms.

The improvements are part of Microsoft’s long-term mobile strategy, Lees says, to make the mobile device an extension of people’s worlds, including the Internet, PC and services for photos, music, video, games, e-mail, IM (Instant Messaging) and social communications.

Lees added that “overall, we will bring those things to bear and what you will use your mobile phone for will dramatically change over the next few years. Some of that will be through the software and services Microsoft will provide.”

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Source: AR-Chart.