Microsoft and Intel Announce Wireless Development Initiative
Companies to Collaborate on Reference Designs for Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC And Smart Phone Devices Using Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture
CANNES, France, Feb. 19, 2002 — Today at the 3GSM World Congress 2002, Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. announced that they have formed an initiative to develop reference designs for personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones.
The reference designs, based on the Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC and Smartphone 2002 software platforms and the Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel PCA), will promote the rapid development of next-generation wireless applications and services for consumer and enterprise market segments. In addition, this collaboration will enable wireless device and software companies to expedite the market availability of their respective mobile solutions.
As part of the initiative, Microsoft also announced its support for Intel PCA, a development blueprint for building wireless handheld communications devices that combine voice communications and Internet access capabilities.
"This exciting collaboration with Intel will provide large and small manufacturers with a foundation for quickly bringing powerful, Windows Powered mobile devices to market," said Ben Waldman, vice president for the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft. "Ultimately, were striving to bring down the barriers to entry for device manufacturers and paving the way for a market explosion of innovative, smart devices at low cost, which will benefit customers, carriers and the industry at large."
"As the wireless handset industry integrates data, the combined solutions of Intel and Microsoft will enable wireless devices and applications to effectively become part of the enterprise environment at global businesses," said Ron Smith, senior vice president and general manager of the Wireless Communications and Computing Group at Intel. "Wireless device manufacturers, software developers, service providers and consumers will all benefit from the expertise that Intel and Microsoft bring to the wireless industry."
Today there is no standard design platform in the wireless industry to speed the development and deployment of wireless devices and applications. Each device or application is created in its own environment. The Intel and Microsoft reference designs will allow developers to build from a standardized platform, ensuring that high-quality products are designed and deployed in a timely manner. The development of the reference designs are under way, and the designs will be introduced to the industry later this year.
About Intel PCA and Intels Wireless Building Blocks
Intel PCA has been developed to accelerate the design and deployment of next-generation cell phones, personal digital assistants and other wireless Internet devices, as well as the services and applications that will make these devices attractive to end users and telecom service providers alike. Intel PCA provides a solution for faster development of these applications and services by separating the computing and communications functions and allowing applications to be written to a general-purpose microprocessor.
Key components for Intel PCA include processors, such as the Intel StrongARM* processor that powers Pocket PC-based PDAs and the newly introduced Intel PXA250 applications processor, as well as baseband chipsets and flash memory.
About Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC 2002
Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PCs, the next-generation PDAs, can offer customers the best way to connect to their most essential information while away from their desk, yet are versatile enough to satisfy the personal needs of todays busy mobile consumer. Pocket PCs already include a broad range of native business, personal productivity and entertainment applications, and can easily be expanded to adapt to each customers changing needs through a continually growing number of industry-standard hardware and software add-on options.
About Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002
The Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002 software delivers a personal and powerful mobile phone that enables customers to communicate via voice and text and access their most essential information, any time and anywhere. Familiar and powerful software coupled with a small, sleek form factor including brilliant color displays set Windows Powered Smartphones apart from others on the market. Smartphone 2002 provides a wealth of services, such as secure corporate data and Web access, e-mail, up-to-date PIM functionality, and multimedia capabilities, on a high-quality mobile phone.
About Intel
Intel, the worlds largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software any time, any place and on any device.
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