Microsoft buddies up for business IM

Microsoft buddies up for business IM | CNET News.com: “Microsoft is betting it’s not just teenagers who want to send instant messages to each other via cell phone. The company is working on software to allow devices that use Windows Mobile to connect to a corporate IM server running Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005, Microsoft said on Monday.

… In addition, rival Research In Motion plans to develop messaging software for devices that link to servers using software from both RIM and Microsoft. Other partners are building Microsoft-compatible instant-messaging clients that will run on mobile gadgets using the Palm or the Symbian operating system…

…The Microsoft software is planned to run on phones and Pocket PC handheld devices that are running either Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition or on the forthcoming Windows Mobile 5 software, also known by the code-name Magneto….

…The RIM deal is the latest in a series of arrangements that links Microsoft with its mobile rivals in one way or another. For example, Microsoft is licensing its ActiveSync e-mail protocols to Symbian, which makes an operating system that competes with Windows Mobile. Microsoft has licensed the same technology to hardware maker PalmOne, which has historically used the Palm operating system…

This comes down to a direct IM solution between RIM BlackBerry and LCS 2005.