(17 May 2006 7:30 pm)

BANGALORE: Microsoft's India Development Center (MIDC) today announced their involvement in an end-to-end project to develop 'Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile' - a unified communications client that provides information workers with a premier mobile collaboration experience through native integration of mobile applications with enterprise-grade, real-time communications tools.

Communicator Mobile will extend features of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator to the Windows Mobile 2003 SE and Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, both Pocket PC Edition and Smartphone, the company said in an official release.

The development process included getting feedback from usage within Microsoft, Beta users outside Microsoft, and TAP (Technology Adoption Program) partners. The suggestions and feedback from user groups were incorporated into the product in the early stages of the development cycle, the release adds.

Recently unveiled during Steve Ballmer's keynote at 3GSM in Barcelona Spain and based on the user interface of the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 desktop client, the client goes beyond simple voice services, incorporating connected communication modes such as more secure instant messaging (IM), presence awareness and integrated VoIP-telephony.

Commenting on the product being completely developed out of India, MIDC VP & MD Srini Koppulu said, "Our India Development Center plays an important role in contributing to future innovations at Microsoft and we are proud to be at the core of Microsoft's global development initiatives. The release of Communicator Mobile is an endorsement of Microsoft's mission to "innovate, energize, and support Microsoft investments for the mobile user experience."

Communicator Mobile client increases potential data revenue for mobile operators by driving demand for business-class devices with an enterprise-grade client, adding rich, real-time collaboration capabilities to mobile data networks, the company claimed in the statement.