CTIA: RIM, Sprint back Microsoft phone platforms

by Stephen Lawson

March 17, 2003 —

Application and device options for Microsoft Corp.'s phone platforms will expand with announcements coming Monday at the CTIA Wireless trade show in New Orleans.

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), in Waterloo, Ontario, plans to help users of Microsoft-based phone devices take advantage of its Blackberry wireless e-mail technology, and U.S. mobile operator Sprint PCS Group this year will deliver two more CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) devices that use the Microsoft platform.

RIM will announce its intention to develop a software client for its Blackberry wireless e-mail technology to run on the Pocket PC Phone Edition and SmartPhone software platforms, said Ed Suwanjindar, lead product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Devices Division. An availability date for the software was not provided. The software will not be demonstrated at CTIA, according to Microsoft, in Redmond, Washington.

Two new Pocket PC Phone Edition devices are coming for customers of Sprint PCS, a unit of Sprint Corp., in Westwood, Kansas.

One of the Sprint PCS phones, called the PCS Phone by Samsung SPH-i700, is a combination phone and handheld computer with an integrated 640-by-480-pixel digital camera. It is scheduled to become available in the second quarter for Sprint's PCS Vision service. The other, called the PCS Phone by Hitachi G1000, is a combination phone and handheld with a built-in QWERTY keyboard, and will be delivered in the second half. It has an integrated rotating digital camera.

The devices will allow customers to shoot and share pictures with other customers on the Vision network, Suwanjindar said. Pricing is not yet available, he said. Sprint currently offers the Microsoft Windows-Powered PCS Phone Toshiba 2032.

The Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. devices will be demonstrated at CTIA, which will run from Monday through Wednesday. The show is sponsored by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.

IDG News Service