Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz » Microsoft phone is a stalking horse for bigger things to come

March 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft phone is a stalking horse for bigger things to come

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The news, "Microsoft unveils small-business phone system" that Microsoft allowed an independent product team within the company to develop a phone, Microsoft Response Point phone, without consultation from other product teams doesn't sit right with me.

According to the report by Elizabeth Montalbano of the IDG News Service, Jeff Smith, a senior product manager at Microsoft said the team that "built the Response Point system acted as an independently funded startup with Microsoft, which gave it the advantage of developing the product 'from the ground up' for small businesses without having to work with other product teams."

Nothing has ever sounded fishier.

Microsoft doesn't work that way. Integration across product lines is at the heart of what they do and is one of the company's major competitive advantages. And it must be admitted they often do it very well as long as you stay within their system.

The mantra usually goes something like 'we may not have all the bells and whistles now but stick with our solutions and we will get there and it will be easier for the enterprise to manage because it stacked on a single well-understood platform.'

My conclusion is this is a stalking horse for something bigger. But what?

My guess is a comprehensive unified communications solution built on proprietary Microsoft technology which of course they will license to other handset manufacturers.

Rather than the Response Point Phone being a standalone device, it represents the tip of the iceberg. The phone represents what Microsoft would like to do in the future, offer a complete Unified Communications system, from handset on up, all running in a Microsoft environment.

They won't have to actually manufacture the handset. Owning the software that runs it and licensing that software to other handset manufacturers is equivalent to owning the handset. As with the current Mobile Windows handhelds, manufacturers are required to offer certain features or they don't get to sell a Microsoft branded product.

And certainly Microsoft will sort of adhere to all the current communications standards but if you want all the extras Microsoft can offer in a unified communications solution you should go all Microsoft, they will tell us.

And if by some chance this phone actually does sell well, don't be surprised if the next step is an M-phone.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 19, 2007 11:49 AM

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