Jason Dunn
03-23-2005, 01:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/Symbian_to_Synch_Up_With_Microsoft/1111504943' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/Symbian_to_Synch_Up_With_Microsoft/1111504943</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Symbian, maker of mobile phone software, has announced it will license synchronization software from Microsoft, swallowing its pride and shaking hands with its Redmond rival. The company hopes to bring corporate customers that use Microsoft Exchange for e-mail over to Symbian-based smartphones. The synchronization tools will be made available to Symbian licensees, which include Nokia and Fujitsu. Symbian already supports RIM's Blackberry Connect and Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization protocols."</i><br /><br />This might be good news for the Exchange group at Microsoft, but ultimately it's bad news for the Mobile Embedded Devices group whose job it is to sell Windows Mobile as an OS - one of the core advantages of Windows Mobile over Symbian-based devices is the easy Exchange synchronization. Still, I don't think people perceive Symbian as being a natural fit for the enterprise environment, so they'll have a big hurdle to overcome.