Microsoft's Wireless Products

Microsoft has announced an end-to-end array of products to implement wireless data services for mobile devices. Products fall into the following four categories:

Corporate software (upper left). As described in this article, Microsoft has announced the Outlook Mobile Access front end to Exchange, which leverages the Mobile Information Server Enterprise Edition front end. These products will eventually supercede the shipping Workstyle Server from Wireless Knowledge, which Microsoft currently recommends to customers seeking wireless connectivity to Exchange. Outlook Mobile Manager is a desktop application that provides notification of Outlook events to mobile devices, either through Mobile Information Server (if it is present) or through a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) e-mail notification gateway.

MSN Mobile (lower left). The MSN Mobile portal offers mobile devices push notifications (such as stock price updates and notices of incoming e-mail) and browser access to MSN content, including the MSN Hotmail e-mail and calendar applications. Some MSN Mobile services are available free, others are subscription-based; they are available on the wireless portals of a number of U.S. and Canadian carriers, including Nextel, Sprint, and Verizon.