Pic of Microsoft's New Smart Cell Phone

Any indication of the price yet KRL?

i want one

Microsoft Corp. has reached a deal that will, for the first time, put a version of its Windows operating system in mobile phones available in North America.

The agreement with wireless provider AT&T Wireless and handset maker Motorola, to be announced today, represents a breakthrough in Microsoft's efforts to crack the U.S. market for smart phones, wireless devices with added features such as e-mail, instant-messaging and a Web browser.

The phone that's part of the deal, a Motorola MPx200, is expected to be made available to AT&T Wireless customers in the fourth quarter of this year. Smart phones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software have previously been available only overseas.

It's "a big win" for Microsoft because it's the first time the company has been able to get one of the leading handset vendors to use its Windows Mobile software and one of the major U.S. wireless carriers to bring it to market, said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research in New York.

"On the other side of that coin, though, it's important to note that this is one handset from one vendor and one carrier," Gartenberg said. "Certainly Microsoft is not in a dominant position with this particular maneuver. It's a good win for them, but if they're going to really succeed here they're going to need an awful lot more of these."

The company also faces a challenge in wooing U.S. consumers accustomed to receiving free mobile phones with their wireless service.

Research shows that given the choice between a free phone and a phone with added features at a price as low as $50, many people would take the free phone, Gartenberg said.

Pricing for the handset with the Microsoft software has not been announced.

Gartenberg speculated it could range from $150 to $300, excluding wireless service, although it will depend on the degree to which AT&T Wireless subsidizes the phone's cost for consumers.

Ed Suwanjindar, lead product manager for Microsoft's mobile devices division, called the deal "a key milestone in the broader adoption," of the company's software for mobile devices.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile software also comes in Pocket PCs.

The Redmond software company hopes that the combination of the familiar Motorola, AT&T Wireless and Microsoft brands will help increase the acceptance of smart phones in the United States, which has been slower than other parts of the world, such as Europe, to warm to the idea of wireless phones with PDA-like features.

Thanks KRL I wouldn't pay $150 - $300 for it but I'm sure there will be a lot of takers

i bet that bitch will crash/freeze every 5 minutes

That would actually be a funny as fuck TV spot for it with a blue screen popping up and then the announcer saying "just kidding".

New technology is the future of this industry. Watch.

Jeff Raikes, MS Group VP for Productivity and Biz Services, has M's diamond club tix near me (he's one of the Ms owners group). He often sits and messes with a PDA while at the game with his kids. Since I was in the market for one I thought I'd inquire about his. He showed me a mess of things and then said "But you can't buy one anywhere" Seems it was an MS biggie only PDA... MS logo and all on it. I'm sure there's no end to the amazing gadgets they have.

Genious!

i second that genius...that is a good commercial

just what i want, a fone that bluescreens.

That's Funny

that's an ugly one

The sad part is that it only works with AT&T wireless, fuck that not giving up my kickass SprintPCS service to go to AT&T for any phone they come out with

i dont think it looks thta awesome

FYI..... nextel......... has GPS....... not normal GPS.... but the type where you can locate whoever you are talking to down to a block. (if you allow it).

but tight shit. no other carrier has their own prop. tech.

Its not really looks of the phone itself, its that they got Windows software in a cell phone for the first time in the US. So its like bringing the PDA capabilities to your cell phone now so you don't have to buy a PDA.

Bill just can't let go of us, he wants to be a part of everything we do 24/7.

hahahah yes indeed! I would combine the BSOD with the Pepsi Twist commercials ~ have Bill Gates unzip and Linus Torvalds would pop out, saying that it's not Windows that is installed on the Embedded Machine.

I don't know about the Windows code for the embed machines, but if it has as shitty of a sourcecode as the 'real' windows has, the cell must carry like a gig of flash ROM.

Funny you say that, Linux has just hahahahahaded their system into a Motorola cell phone in Europe from what I heard.

Oh I know. The Embedded Systems market grows constantly, and the Linux community knows that well. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. New processors, new devices in general are approaching the market at the speed of light.

Soon we'll have those devices in our daily lives without even knowing about it.

Plenty of companies and corporations that will buy a ton of 'em for their employees so everyone is on the same platform too I bet.

And as far as the Windows crashing thing... man, have you been using XP Corporate or Professional lately? I'm a fairly intensive user, I do CAD/CAM, 3D Modelling, some 3D gaming, Photoshop & Dreamweaver, Assembly and C++ coding/compiling and multi-track audio mixing/editing. Can't say that I've done any video editing yet, which is definitely a hog on system resources... but I almost _never_ have a crash/lockup.

Now, that being said, I do have problems with IE not responding and once in a while a program hangs.. but I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the performance of XP Corp.

Can you hear me now? ... Reboot ... Can you hear me now? ... Reboot ... Can y-

did they mention how long untill there is an exploit in its browser and someone takes over your phone?

I have a smart phone with media player, icq everything on it. Although I cant use ICQ or MSN anymore because of an exploit which has been found and these services no longer start up.

Thats the MPx-200, by motorola...

It's a neat phone, looks sharp..

Best Buy has them on their site.

I got a few to play with.

Everyones still waiting for the Motorola V600 with bluetooth to be the phone to get.

I'll upgrade when they can put a full-blown OS in my jeans pocket.

Does that shit blue screen and crash every 20 minutes?

I highly doubt it.. seeing as though Windows doesn't blue screen and crash every 20 minutes anymore.