Neowin.net
got some, yet to be confirmed, information what Microsoft might announce
during next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. According to these
information, Microsoft plans to announce a Windows Azure-based line of cloud
services for its Windows Mobile smartphones. Azure, which was introduced back in
October at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC), is said to be
the platform for Microsoft's Sky-services and, according to sources close to
Microsoft, the company has been working on three product-lines codenamed SkyBox,
SkyLine and SkyMarket. However, according to Neowin, the final offerings are
likely to be named under the Windows Live branding. Nevertheless, the three Sky-services are expected to include one consumer offer,
one business offer and one market place:
- SkyBox - is expected to be a service for
consumers to sync a phones information with the web (similar
to DashWire). Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore
services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication
and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts,
E-Mail/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud, similar to Apple's
MobileMe. The difference from Apple's offering is Microsoft could be set to
also offer this out to non Windows Mobile devices.
- SkyLine - will be aimed at small businesses.
Offering similar functionality to SkyBox, SkyLine customers will be able to
setup their phones with Microsoft's Exchange hosting with their own domain
names.
- SkyMarket - was originally discovered in
September 2008 when Microsoft advertised several external job positions.
SkyMarket is the codename for Microsoft's mobile marketplace, a competitor
to Apple's AppStore and Googles Android Market. This service will only be
available on Windows Mobile devices and will showcase the 1000s of Windows
Mobile applications available today.
All the information above are yet completely unconfirmed but the details of
information Neowin received seems to make them legit. Anyway, we will see next
month during the Mobile World Congress from where the::unwired will report live.
Cheers ~ Arne
