Battle lines drawn for the mobile worker

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 9 Oct 2002 at 14:12

Microsoft and AT&T Wireless have announced a software suite enabling wireless access to corporate services via phone, PDA and laptop.

AT&T Wireless Workware will offer secure wireless access to personal and company data, such as email, from outside the company firewall via GSM (and GPRS-enabled) cellular and local area networks. And using, of course, Microsoft products such as Pocket PC and Mobile Information Server 2002.

HP has been named as a 'preferred partner' to integrate such a system, and to this end AT&T has announced the availability of the Siemens SX56 - a Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition-based device with a GSM radio and GPRS support.

Andre Dahan, President of AT&T Wireless Mobile Multimedia Services said: 'AT&T Wireless Workware, with its one-button sync for laptops and over-the-air provisioning for Pocket PCs, is designed to enhance the productivity of the business user while providing the control and cost benefits demanded by the IT department.'

Last month, Palm announced its Tungsten Mobile Information Management (MIM) solution: again, a server-side product for enabling remote wireless access to corporate email (including atttachments), calendars, contacts, notes and tasks from systems such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino. Users can also synchronise Office documents with Documents-To-Go. As well as access via cellular networks, MIM includes support for access via WLAN technologies, specifically 802.11b.

Traditionally, Palm has held the lead for the number of devices out there, mainly because it enjoyed a head start of a few years and the cheaper OS makes Palm products generally cheaper. However, by Q2 of this year HP, which uses Pocket PC in its PDAs, edged out Palm in terms of revenues. And with reports of Dell offering Pocket PC PDAs for as little as $199 by the year's end, that picture could change still further.