Ed Hansberry
03-21-2003, 03:30 AM
<a href="http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=7900087">http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=7900087</a><br /><br />"Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates committed to "significant" investments in mobility platforms during a keynote kick-off for the Microsoft Mobility Developers conference. "We are in significant investment mode," Gates told conference attendees gathered here Wednesday evening. "We are going to invest, invest and invest to make our mobile platform the most popular platform." Gates characterized mobile computing as a market that "will be the fastest moving of all of our businesses."<br /><br />Microsoft hasn't been sitting still with mobile devices by any means over the past few years, but gains on market leading Palm have been slower than I think both Microsoft and certainly the media has anticipated. Part of this may have been the devotion of development resources to .NET ready platforms like Windows 2003 Server, Visual Studio .NET and the .NET framework for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The .NET Compact Framework is also about finished and will be included in the upcoming ViewSonic V37 and probably most if not all future Pocket PC and Smartphone devices.<br /><br />"To "evangelize" its mobility development efforts, said Gates, Microsoft is giving away 25,000 Pocket PCs with the .Net Compact Framework to developers of Visual Studio to test their own applications." - which is what <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=94288&PHPSESSID=ac7e01681e924ead6fdba4997b6b3150">Janak reported</a> on earlier.