PARIS - April 1, 2003 - Microsoft Corp. today opened the second European Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference to a vast audience of application developers, technical decision-makers and industry partners representing over 30 countries from across the region. Over 1000 attendees gathered in Paris to test Microsoft's latest generation of application development tools and participate in a series of seminars, technical workshops and demonstrations, underscoring the importance of mobile application development to the evolution of the industry as mobile devices become increasingly programmable and customisable.
The European conference follows a similar conference held in the United States in March, which delivered announcements on the availability of tools that will enable the development of connected wireless applications for next-generation wireless devices, including the launch of the Microsoft® .NET Compact Framework and the Windows® Powered Smartphone Software Developer Kit (SDK). It also takes place on the back of unprecedented momentum for Microsoft's mobile offering, with over 6,000 mobility partners now part of the Microsoft Mobile Solutions Partner Programme (MSPP), and over 10,500 applications commercially available for Windows Powered mobile devices.
"This is the time to engage with the developer community to help ignite a new marketplace for wireless applications and services that can propel the mobile industry forward," said Juha Christensen, Vice President, Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft Corp., who today delivered a keynote speech to conference attendees. "We want to enable today's vast global community of application developers to use familiar tools along with their existing skills to build mobile solutions more easily and cost-effectively."
Worldwide Launch of the .NET Compact Framework and Visual Studio .NET 2003 First announced at last year's Mobility Developer Conference in London, the .NET Compact Framework extends the programming model of the .NET Framework to bring the power of .NET and Web services to mobile devices. The model is now exposed through a single unified toolset in Visual Studio® .NET 2003, which will be made available globally on April 24th. It enables millions of desktop Visual Basic® developers and the growing pool of C# developers to begin building smart mobile applications using a consistent programming model and with little additional investment in programming skills. Features of the .NET Compact Framework and Visual Studio .NET 2003 include support for XML and Web services; the ability to integrate components written in multiple programming languages; and developer productivity features such as integrated rich device emulator support, a comprehensive set of user interface controls, remote debugging support, and simplified application deployment. The .NET Compact Framework is available for Pocket PC 2000 and above, and Windows CE .NET 4.1 and above.
Microsoft and the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) recently announced that PBG is deploying a mobile solution using .NET Compact Framework, Web services and Pocket PC devices to streamline its field sales operations around the world. Additionally, a number of companies including ABB, HP, Intermec Technologies Corp., and Mobitor Corp., are currently building solutions and components to complement .NET Compact Framework development. In Europe, retailer Tesco.com and healthcare solutions provider Novo Nordisk IT are deploying applications using the .NET Compact Framework.
Availability of Smartphone SDK to MSPP members
Microsoft recently announced it will make the Smartphone Software Developer Kit available to the members of the Microsoft Mobile Solutions Partner Programme (MSPP), the company's fastest-growing partner programme.
The Smartphone SDK provides developers worldwide with the resources necessary to develop, test and deploy wireless applications for the Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone. The kit includes a special pre-commercial Smartphone handset and accessories along with the Microsoft Mobile Development Toolkit CD, containing access to all the development tools, technologies and resources that a developer will need to start building Smartphone applications immediately. In addition, the kit will include information regarding Mobile2Market, a comprehensive programme designed to assist developers with the logo certification and market delivery of Smartphone and Pocket PC applications. More information on Mobile2Market can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/mobile2market/.
MapPoint Paves Path to Opportunity
Microsoft's MapPoint® offering, built on Microsoft .NET technology, is a hosted XML Web service that is rapidly becoming the preferred mapping and location-based technology platform for developing mobile solutions. It lets developers integrate maps, driving directions, distance calculations, proximity searches and other location intelligence into applications, business processes and Web sites. Action Engine Corp., Intrado Inc., Clarity Communication Systems Inc. and HP are now developing mobile solutions based on Microsoft's MapPoint offering that enable mobile operators to tap new revenue streams and provide more meaningful mobile location-based services for consumers and enterprise customers.
Mobile Solutions Challenge Winners Recognised
During the event Microsoft also announced the European winners of the Mobile Solutions Challenge, a global contest that invited hundreds of software developers to submit new applications for the Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms for consideration by Microsoft technical staff and a group of external judges from HP and Handango. Today's announced winners for the EMEA region include Domain Dynamics Ltd., NS BASIC Corporation, IA Style Inc., Gigabyte Solutions Ltd., Derdack GmbH, Know IT, Digital Concepts, Frontier Developments Ltd., ALL-locations B.V., Pocket Presence, F-Secure Corp., Tinystocks B.V., EZOS, CNetX, and Tesco.com. For more information on the winners and their applications, please visit www.microsoftmobilitypress.com.
About the Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference
The EMEA Mobility Developers Conference is the second to be held in Europe and follows the first U.S. Mobility Developers Conference held in New Oreleans, Louisiana on March 18-22. A similar conference is also expected for Tokyo, Japan on April 25. Updates to this schedule can be found at http://www.mobilitydevcon.com/.
The Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference is supported by corporate sponsors Orange, HP, Intel, Toshiba and Proxim.
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