by Laura Rohde

From...

(IDG) -- Microsoft formally threw its hat into the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phone market this week with the announcement of its Microsoft Mobile Explorer (MME) software platform for Internet-enabled wireless devices.

MME is basically a repackaging of the company's microbrowser and Windows CE operating system for mobile phones, says Rebecca Thompson, the product manager for Microsoft's productivity appliances division.

The announcement also sets the stage for Microsoft's joint venture with L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. -- also announced this week -- to develop and market wireless Internet software and products.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Smart Cell Phones

WAP comprises a set of protocols that let wireless devices upload Internet pages written in Wireless Markup Language (WML). MME works with telephones designed to receive data transmissions and is already being tested by such companies as British Telecommunications.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Network World Fusion home page

Windows CE: Problem child or late bloomer? 10/18/99

Ericsson, Mannesmann to put WAP, Bluetooth in cars, 9/9/99

Ericsson, Nokia unveil new WAP phones, 9/22/99

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

British Telecom and Microsoft are working together to develop and test MME-based phones and handheld devices for both corporate and consumer use. British Telecom is already testing the next-generation WAP-based devices along with HTML-only wireless devices, Microsoft's Thompson says.

The newest component to MME is Microsoft's updated microbrowser. The original version of the microbrowser only uploaded Web pages written in HTML script, but the newest version -- to be available in the first quarter of 2000 -- will be WAP-enabled.

"The first microbrowser was an HTML-only version. Now we are adding a dual-mode version and that's the one that Ericsson will be adopting," Thompson says.

Microsoft, which has been slow to jump in the mobile wireless market, will be relying heavily on Ericsson experience in the wireless mobile phone market, according to industry analysts.

"Microsoft has finally clued into the fact that it doesn't really matter what it is (in terms of platform) but what it does," Tim Sheedy, the European analyst on wireless and mobile technology for International Data Corp.