Nurhisham Hussein
06-06-2008, 05:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03MCSAPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press Releases' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03MCSAPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press Releases</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Today at the GSM Association (GSMA) Mobile Innovation Marketplace — Americas, Microsoft Corp. announced the Connected Services Accelerator Program, a series of projects designed to incubate, and ultimately commercialize, new types of consumer, business and mobile services through collaboration with independent software vendors (ISVs), developers and operators. Microsoft will collaborate with SingTel on the program’s first project, the Mobile Connected Services Accelerator. All Accelerator projects will utilize Microsoft Connected Services Sandbox as the platform for the creation, development and testing of these innovative new services."</i><br /><br />Before anybody gets too excited, the joint program with SingTel is meant for vertical industries only (Singtel is based in Singpaore, but also owns Australia's Optus, and has offices throughout the Asian region). Having said that, it also covers "Windows Vista-enabled mobile broadband PCs", whatever that means, and SingTel will provide the infrastructure and environment for development and testing. This initial program will run from July 1 to September 30, and will be open to all developers and ISVs with annual revenues not exceeding US$20 million and are not owned by a publicly traded company or subsidiary, or mobile operator. In other words, this is a pretty good opportunity for independent developers to get into the vertical industries software market. More information can be gotten <a href="http://www.networkmashups.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.