Code Name--Stinger
At the 3G World Congress, the world's largest mobile phone conference, Microsoft Corp., previewed its smart phone platform, currently code-named "Stinger." Stinger is the software powering a new generation of mobile phones with color screens and advanced mobile Internet and personal information management (PIM) functionality. Stinger is designed specifically to take advantage of 2.5G and 3G broadband wireless networks and enable services such as secure corporate and Web access, e-mail and up-to-date PIM.
Stinger is part of an industry move toward "smart phones," small yet powerful phone computers with relatively big color screens. They can hold databases as well as play music and videos, browse the Internet, and send and receive e-mail. You may be thinking, "My phone or PDA already does that," and it probably does. But it also probably takes quite a while. These smart phones take advantage of super-fast speeds (100 to 150 kilobytes per second) and require only 8 MB of memory. The smart phone software is actually a small version of Microsoft's Pocket PC for handheld computers.
Samsung, Mitsubishi, and Sendo will help introduce the Stinger-software-based smart phones. Sendo's Z100 Multimedia Smart Phone is expected to be widely available in autumn of 2001. (You may not be familiar with Sendo, and that's may be less a factor of their location (England) than their age--the company is less than two years old.) The Sendo Z100 Multimedia Smart phone is the smallest and lightest General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tri-band smart phone. It features a 65,000-color display, plays MP3 and Windows Media audio files, and includes USB, IrDA (see issues 00:03:01 and 00:08:01) and RS-232 connectivity.
Microsoft hopes the first phones will be launched ahead of similar products with rival software, such as those being developed by Symbian and Palm. Ben Waldman, vice president of the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft, said, "At Microsoft, we're about enabling 'intelligent communications'--putting people in constant touch with each other and their data so they can make informed decisions and respond in real time. Using Microsoft's smart phone platform, Sendo has delivered the first color smart phone that gives users access to e-mail, contacts and meaningful Internet content, any time, any place."
You may think we are getting into "Jetsons" mode but it's actually not that far-fetched. Industry analysts forecast that in 2006 there will be 1.95 billion cellular subscribers worldwide, and that 894 million of these (46 percent) will be active microbrowser users.
If you've ever had to cradle a cell phone on your shoulder, attempting to check your voice mail and e-mail, while walking through an airport carrying your laptop, briefcase and suit bag, you know that we want our phones to be powerful but we don't want to compromise size, functionality and design. Stinger's goal is to do that. Some features include:
- Thirty percent smaller than today's average phone (weighs less than 110 grams)
- Up to 100 hours standby time with screen on and PIM active--four hours talk time
- Large color screen or economical gray-scale display
- Resolution of up to 208x240 pixels for better readability
- Foreign-language support
- Support for a range of expansion options including secure digital, floppy disk card and memory sticks
- Interface designed for one-handed operation
- Outlook companion--users can bring contacts, calendar and essential information with them
- Mobile Internet Explorer, Internet access and seamless browsing
- Unified inbox--users can manage voice mail and multiple e-mail accounts in one location
The Microsoft smart phone platform is built on a version of the Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 operating system specifically optimized for mobile phones to extend battery life and reduce memory requirements. For more information visit www.microsoft.com.
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© 2001, The Green Sheet, Inc.
