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3GSM 2006 coverage : Microsoft press conference
February 13, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R.

Press conference of Microsoft at 3GSM is the most important yearly press conference of mobile division of Microsoft - it takes place each year at 3GSM and it summarizes current situation of Windows Mobile phones and Microsoft's involvement in mobile phone industry and it also sets the tone for the coming year.

Here we present full unabridged report from this press conference: it contains both full, original and uncut audio recording of Microsoft's 3GSM press conference and also many photos and depiction.

The room, where this press conference took place was full and journalists had to come very early (or be early let in by Microsoft) to get sitting places at all:

The press conference started with short introduction by John Starkweather, who also was moderator of this conference and was picking questions in the FAQ session at the end:

Here is the notebook on which John Starkweather was reading questions from the Internet (he is the first from the right):

After short introduction by John Starkweather, the main speaker of this conference started - Pieter Knook - the highest level manager (senior vice president) of mobile Windows:

Pieter Knook was talking about such things as mobile industry ecosystem based on Microsoft products and services:

... and about device partners - makers of Windows Mobile phones (please note that Palm, Asus, and Fujitsu-Siemens are new items on this slide - not available there last year at 3GSM 2005):

If you read the following slide you can notice sentence "Over 100 Mobile Phones Shipping Worldwide":

... what sounds quite strange - so instead of 2-3 millions of phones sold, Microsoft has sold just 100 phones? No, the intended meaning was "100 mobile phone models sold" although clearly some models have been counted multiple times (like T-Mobile MDA Pro and O2 Xda Exec are both the same model but sold as 2 different models, etc).

Pieter Knook very proudly presented new models of Windows Mobile phones like Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket PC phone and Asus 3G smartphone:

... which both are 3G phones that support UMTS and video calling.

Interestingly also g-smart Pocket PC phone was presented as one of new models (although it actually is on sale only in Asia, not in USA or Europe):

Then Pieter Knook invited some guy from HP, who presented HP hw6900 series phone, and who said that they will be available soon (this time not only with built-in GPS, but also with Wi-Fi, push email and Windows Mobile 5.0 at last):

Then Pieter Knook invited Brian Arbogast, who is top boss of MSN:

... and Brian said that Microsoft has purchased a company in France, a company that employs 15 people and is specialized in mobile search. Apparently Microsoft wants to offer mobile search to mobile operators - to give additional revenue stream to operators.

At the end of the press conference a FAQ session took place, when people from audience on location (i.e. journalists only) plus people on the Internet, who were listening to the live cast, ... were asking questions:

Questions were asked by various journalists, including such people like pro-Microsoft Hal Goldstein from Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine (21 minutes and 40 seconds after start of our podcast with recording of this press conference) and people like anti-Microsoft Andrew Orlowski from The Register (25 minutes and 26 seconds after start of our podcast with recording of this press conference, his question was about single core phones powered by Windows Mobile - see here for his report from this press conference):

The press conference ended with Pieter Knook summarizing the situation and underlining that Windows Mobile has "a bright future":

To listen to unabridged audio recording of this press conference, click here (a podcast - MP3 file downloadable to your device of choice, so you don't have to be on Internet to listen to it).

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When leaving the press conference and the hotel, where Microsoft's center at 3GSM 2006 is located, we noticed big advertisement of Windows Mobile on the wall of the hotel, together with nice girl and sunny weather: