Kim Peterson
September 15, 2003
Sep. 15--After years of delays, Microsoft is finally rolling out a Smartphone in this country.
The company has partnered with Motorola on a new phone called the MPx200, which is scheduled to become available before the end of the year. It will be offered to customers of AT&T Wireless, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier.
This phone has been a long time coming for Microsoft. There are phones in the United States based on the company's Pocket PC phone edition -- T-Mobile offers one, for instance -- and those could technically be called smart phones because they combine a phone with elements of a personal digital assistant. But there are none using Microsoft's Smartphone operating system.
Earlier this year, Microsoft began using the Windows Mobile tag for software used in its handheld computers and Smartphone cellphones.
The company had originally planned to debut a Smartphone in 2001 through a partnership with British mobile-phone maker Sendo. That deal fizzled when Sendo sued Microsoft for stealing its trade secrets, however.
Microsoft eventually rolled out a Smartphone called the SPV in Europe last November with British mobile operator Orange, but the phone was plagued with technical problems, including security cracks and an unstable operating system. Orange issued a new SPV this year.
Microsoft and Redmond-based AT&T Wireless first announced plans for a Smartphone last year and said it would be available by the first half of this year. That didn't happen. AT&T needed more time to make sure both the device and its customers were ready, said spokesman Jeremy Pemble.
"Devices sometimes take longer than you think," he said.
Motorola plans to build a series of Pocket PC and Smartphone devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, although it would not say how large the series would be. The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company is also working on a Linux-based cellphone and plans to introduce 30 devices by the end of this year, one of which is the MPx200 Smartphone.
The Smartphone is aimed at the mobile professional, a group that Motorola is targeting with upcoming products, said Michael Tatelman, a Motorola vice president.
"We see this as an opportunity to expand the segment," he said.
Users of the phone can access their e-mail inbox and calendar, browse the Web using a version of Internet Explorer and send instant messages over the MSN Messenger service. It includes the Windows Media music player and can store up to one gigabyte of memory on a memory disk.
The Motorola Smartphone is also expected to be available early next month in the United Kingdom through Orange and through carriers in Germany, Portugal, South Africa and Hong Kong. AT&T has not given a date for the launch in the U.S., except to say it will be sometime in the fourth quarter.
AT&T has not announced the price, but Pemble said it will be in the range of a high-end cellphone.
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(c) 2003, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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