Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Microsoft still assumed to take over mobile device market
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "NEWS" @ 04:00 AM
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/19492.html
Lot of interesting tidbits in this article, which wraps up "While Palm once held promise of becoming the Microsoft of handheld computing, it may have to settle for becoming the Apple Computer Corp. as Microsoft replicates its dominance in the PC world."
Microsoft has a larger strategy in the mobile device space that goes beyond the PDA in your hand. Microsoft has a whole server infrastructure behind the Pocket PC accessible through Mobile Information Server, SQL Server and other server products, each carrying a hefty price themselves and additional client access licenses for each unit the enterprise connects to these servers, which in turn spurs sales of developer software, desktops, Office suites, etc. It is a vicious cycle that MS is enjoying all the way to the bank.
Like it or not (I happen to love it due to the insanely simple interoperability of their software) Microsoft has a very strong position that the enterprise market looking for mobile devices simply cannot ignore. Palm wants some of that action. "Palm also introduced a service, which will be available Oct. 28, for delivering corporate e-mail securely to its wireless devices." Hmmm... sound familiar? Wait until you hear the name. Tungsten Mobile Information Management Server, or MIMS. You can read more in their FAQ (Acrobat Reader required). Notice too that it is a "service." Yup. That's right. Monthly fee. I haven't seen too many IT departments going ga-ga over subscribing to things.
The question is, can Palm get this software in their enterprise customer's hands? I firmly believe the key to the success of a Mobile Device platform is dependant on the enterprise. Sure, some people just need a basic PIM, and Palm does fine in that arena, at least in volume if not profit. Enterprises, however, need more power, connectivity and interoperability. Palm OS 5 gives Palm Powered PDA's much of that power. Tungsten MIMS gives some of that connectivity and operability, but it is a totally separate server product. Exchange 2003 will have MIS from Microsoft totally integrated. Do you think the IT room is going to want to install a separate product for mobile devices? Maybe if they are running Lotus Domino or Novell Groupwise, but an increasing majority of groupware in corporate environments is Exchange. Pocket PCs also support Terminal Server/Citrix Server out of the box and SQL Server using SQL Server CE on the device.
It is going to be very interesting to see if Palm can get their foot in the door. For 5 years, MS has been on this track. For 5 years Palm has been talking Microsoft's strategy down and dismissing it on strong sales of the Palm III and Palm V. All the while, Palm has been working on their own server product. Just like sound, color, voice recording, fast processors and other things, Palm has been saying "You don't need that. Well, you don't need it until we have it."
Thanks to Foo Fighter for the link.
Lot of interesting tidbits in this article, which wraps up "While Palm once held promise of becoming the Microsoft of handheld computing, it may have to settle for becoming the Apple Computer Corp. as Microsoft replicates its dominance in the PC world."
Microsoft has a larger strategy in the mobile device space that goes beyond the PDA in your hand. Microsoft has a whole server infrastructure behind the Pocket PC accessible through Mobile Information Server, SQL Server and other server products, each carrying a hefty price themselves and additional client access licenses for each unit the enterprise connects to these servers, which in turn spurs sales of developer software, desktops, Office suites, etc. It is a vicious cycle that MS is enjoying all the way to the bank.
Like it or not (I happen to love it due to the insanely simple interoperability of their software) Microsoft has a very strong position that the enterprise market looking for mobile devices simply cannot ignore. Palm wants some of that action. "Palm also introduced a service, which will be available Oct. 28, for delivering corporate e-mail securely to its wireless devices." Hmmm... sound familiar? Wait until you hear the name. Tungsten Mobile Information Management Server, or MIMS. You can read more in their FAQ (Acrobat Reader required). Notice too that it is a "service." Yup. That's right. Monthly fee. I haven't seen too many IT departments going ga-ga over subscribing to things.
The question is, can Palm get this software in their enterprise customer's hands? I firmly believe the key to the success of a Mobile Device platform is dependant on the enterprise. Sure, some people just need a basic PIM, and Palm does fine in that arena, at least in volume if not profit. Enterprises, however, need more power, connectivity and interoperability. Palm OS 5 gives Palm Powered PDA's much of that power. Tungsten MIMS gives some of that connectivity and operability, but it is a totally separate server product. Exchange 2003 will have MIS from Microsoft totally integrated. Do you think the IT room is going to want to install a separate product for mobile devices? Maybe if they are running Lotus Domino or Novell Groupwise, but an increasing majority of groupware in corporate environments is Exchange. Pocket PCs also support Terminal Server/Citrix Server out of the box and SQL Server using SQL Server CE on the device.
It is going to be very interesting to see if Palm can get their foot in the door. For 5 years, MS has been on this track. For 5 years Palm has been talking Microsoft's strategy down and dismissing it on strong sales of the Palm III and Palm V. All the while, Palm has been working on their own server product. Just like sound, color, voice recording, fast processors and other things, Palm has been saying "You don't need that. Well, you don't need it until we have it."
Thanks to Foo Fighter for the link.
