It seems that Microsoft is planning a multi-pronged attack on Apple’s MobileMe. First there was Live Mesh a cloud service intended to allow users to sync data between multiple devices and multiple desktops and now there is My Phone, a new Microsoft-hosted smartphone sync and storage service that was accidentally activated on Friday, giving users a preview of the company’s longer-range plans.
Where Live Mesh takes a PC point-of-view, intending to sync data/folders between the work computer, the home computer or laptop, a Mac and PC and the mobile phone, the My Phone is phone centric. It lets Windows Mobile 6 smartphone users upload as much as 200Mbytes of contacts, appointments, photos, and documents to a Microsoft Website. There, users can view and manage phone-based information via a Web browser. That includes adding, editing, and deleting contacts and calendar appointments. All changes are sent to handheld when you next synchronize it with the My Phone service.
Microsoft is joining Apple, Google and others, in lodging an array of mobile services in the Web cloud. My Phone clearly is emulating Apple’s MobileMe service, which let’s iPhone and iPod Touch users synch the device’s content with an Apple Web portal. From there, data can be managed via browser and the me.com site, and synced with Windows PCs (including Microsoft Outlook) as well as with Apple Macs. MobileMe syncs Mac and Windows applications automatically with me.com. Apple offers a 60-day free trial. The individual yearly subscription is $99, with 20Gbytes of combined email and file storage, and 200Gbytes of monthly data transfer.
Funambol, Redwood City, Calif. offers a similar service, but it’s based on open source code, and is cross platform, so it can be used, according to the company, by 2 billion existing mobile phones. Funambol licenses a carrier version to cellular operators and service providers, who in turn rebrand it as a free or fee-based service to their subscribers. The “community edition” is available to enterprises and developers.
These new-fangled services are oriented toward consumers, and could pose a range of headaches for IT departments. Apple initially touted Mobile Me as “Exchange for the rest of us” but that theme has been muted of late. The first roll-out of the service, at the same time as the iPhone 3G launch, was plagued with problems.
According to Microsoft, most phones running Windows Mobile 6 will be compatible with the My Phone service. The hosted Web portal clearly is intended to leverage Microsoft’s desktop and desktop browser dominance, allowing Windows Mobile users to use tools they already have to backup, store, and manage data and content between a handheld and desktop or laptop Windows device.
The first time you run the My Phone application, you are presented with a list of recommended settings that you can accept or change. The settings handle the auto synchronization of contacts, appointments, tasks, photos, video, text messages, music and documents from the handheld to your My Phone account.
If you accept the default settings, My Phone will automatically sync data on your phone with the Web account once per day, between 11 P.M. and 5 A.M., unless your phone can’t connect to your wireless carrier (for example, because it’s turned off).
But there are some things users have to be aware of. For example, if you have an “active connection” with Microsoft Exchange server, My Phone will not synchronize contacts, calendar appointments or tasks. And, if you have installed Windows Live on your phone, My Phone will synchronize Windows Live contacts only with the Windows Live site, while syncing other contacts to your My Phone account.
The initial recommended My Phone settings will ignore data on an external memory card. And any contact information stored on a SIM card from your cellular carry will likewise be ignored.
My Phone was expected to be unveiled at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The service is not yet ready for production use: the company first plans an invitation-only beta test.
Currently, according to the My Phone website, Microsoft will not be charging a fee for the service. But it cautions users that depending on the terms of their cellular data plan, they may face additional data transfer charges for using the service.
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