Microsoft’s Challenge to BlackBerry

By all accounts, this week’s CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment Show in San Francisco was bereft of any earth-shattering buzz. Information Week reports that even the parties were a little dull.

Given that, it’s clear that the biggest story to emerge from this week’s convention came from Microsoft. The software giant formally announced its new plan to challenge BlackBerry in the “mobile enterprise smartphone� business. Or, more simply, Windows Mobile devices will soon share many of the same features that have helped BlackBerry dominate the corporate market.

System Center Mobile Device Manager is the unwieldy name of the program; it essentially allows smartphones running Windows Mobile to be managed and deployed as a PC, from a remote source. Mobile professionals will, for example, be able to connect to corporate networks and access company email via cell phone.

Smartphones currently make up 10% of the total cell phone market worldwide, according to ABI Research, but companies like RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft are targeting the expanding corporate niche. As more applications migrate from desktop to cell phone, the demand for such phones is expected to grow.