3GSM World Congress: Microsoft readies Windows Mobile 6

Nokia to use event to show off fruits of Intellisync buyout

Next week's 3GSM World Congress, the annual love fest for the global cellular industry, will be the venue for an array of new products designed to give enterprises more capabilities, control and security over mobile computing.

Microsoft is unveiling at the event in Barcelona, Spain, the latest iteration of its Windows Mobile operating system. Separately, Nokia will showcase the first fruits of its acquisition of mobile middleware vendor Intellisync, with a new release of that company's Mobile Suite software.

Sponsored by the GSM Association, the conference is expected to draw about 60,000 people, up from 50,000 last year. Exhibits by about 1,300 vendors will include carriers and mobile operators, their equipment and software, handset manufacturers and a growing crowd of content providers.

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Next week's 3GSM World Congress, the annual love fest for the global cellular industry, will be the venue for an array of new products designed to give enterprises more capabilities, control and security over mobile computing.

Microsoft is unveiling at the event in Barcelona, Spain, the latest iteration of its Windows Mobile operating system. Separately, Nokia will showcase the first fruits of its acquisition of mobile middleware vendor Intellisync, with a new release of that company's Mobile Suite software.

Sponsored by the GSM Association, the conference is expected to draw about 60,000 people, up from 50,000 last year. Exhibits by about 1,300 vendors will include carriers and mobile operators, their equipment and software, handset manufacturers and a growing crowd of content providers.

Windows Mobile 6

Analysts say Windows Mobile 6 is an evolutionary advance over Version 5. The emphasis, they say, has been on exploiting for handhelds features found in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, simplifying the experience of working with the user interface and adding more controls for enterprise network administrators.

Among the new features:

* Information rights management: To protect sensitive data, users and administrators now can restrict who sees, edits, stores and forwards e-mail and attachments.

* Encryption of client-based storage cards, support for Exchange Server security and certificate policies and options.

* New mobile versions of .Net Compact Framework and SQL Server, for integration with existing enterprise applications.

* One-click connection over Bluetooth or cable to use a smart phone as a modem for a handheld.

* Support for HTML e-mail: URLs and phone numbers included in e-mails now appear as live links.

* Searching the corporate Microsoft Exchange Server from the handheld for past e-mails.

* All Microsoft Office Mobile applications -- Word, Excel and PowerPoint -- are now on all variants of Windows Mobile 6 devices; users have full editing capabilities for all three applications.

* Windows Live for Windows Mobile client, giving users integrated access to a range of online Windows Live services, including search and e-mail.

* A built-in VoIP client that can make use of contact data on the handheld to make and manage voice calls.

"Most of the features they've added are under the hood, many of them for IT managers," says Avi Greengart, principal analyst of mobile devices at Current Analysis. "If you're a corporate application developer with 500 users, and you're trying to create a semicustom business application, and you can leverage existing Windows development resources, then Windows Mobile makes a lot of sense."

Nokia Intellisync

Nokia is releasing its Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0, the first release to combine features of its Intellisync acquisition last year with code that Nokia developed for its Business Center product. Mobile Suite is a server-based gateway, used behind the corporate firewall, that links corporate e-mail servers, such as Exchange and Domino, with a wide range of mobile devices and operating systems. Two other parts of the suite handle device management and provisioning, as well as data and file synchronization.