Microsoft joins mobile phone alliance
C|Net | at | by Mike
Microsoft said Wednesday that it intends to play a major role in a new organization, the Open Mobile Alliance, which is promoting standard ways for cell phones to exchange data over the air. The Open Mobile Alliance, unveiled Wednesday, was created by the merger of two other groups promoting standard ways for cell phones to exchange data such as e-mails: the Open Mobile Architecture initiative, created by Nokia last year, and the more established WAP Forum, of which Microsoft is a member. The Open Mobile Alliance has 200 member companies and is focused on one area: the delivery of data over cellular telephone networks. In Europe and Asia, where cell phones outnumber computers, wireless e-mails sent between phones are the norm. But while billions of e-mails are exchanged each month on these continents, wireless data hasn't yet caught hold in the United States.