Sprint to Sell Touch

Sprint Nextel will sell the Touch by HTC, a smart phone using touch screen technology, starting Nov. 4 in the U.S. market. Sprint will sell the device for $250 with a two-year contract. Sprint joins Verizon and at&t in providing high-end touch-screen devices.

The iPhone, which launched this summer, is exclusive to at&t. Verizon Wireless is introducing the LG Voyager in time for Thanksgiving.

The HTC Touch lacks a keyboard, but it still has a stylus. The Touch runs Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile 6 software.

So why do we care about new phones? Simply because most of the innovation in the communications space is coming in the mobile and Web domains. So it makes sense that the most innovation could come in the mobile Web space.

Business Apps for iPhone

From the start, some critics have panned iPhone because it isn't an open platform. Because it isn't "open," it also isn't a business device. People should have paid more attention when Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, hinted that other things would be forthcoming.

Now, Apple is introducing a software development kit [SDK] for the iPhone this February. And note the deployment pattern: Apple launches a "consumer" device. Consumers take the devices to work and then other business users decided they like it also. That in turn creates demand for using iPhones as enterprise clients. So now developers will be able to write those applications.

Google Docs on iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile

If you have an iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device, you can now point your phone's browser to http://docs.google.com/m to view (no editing yet) mobile-optimized versions of your docs, spreadsheets. Owners of iPhones additionally can view their presentations. Support currently is available only for English-language users at the moment.

Okay, the images are going to be pretty small. But it is one more small step towards a Web-enabled portable desktop.

TalkPlus on iPhone

TalkPlus, which provides of virtual phone number services, now works on iPhone. TalkPlus creates additional phone numbers on mobile phones, allowing users to manage personal and business calls from a single device without the need for multiple devices.

TalkPlus phone numbers can be selected from major U.S. metropolitan areas and international cities in 28 countries. Each number comes with its own voice mailbox and customizable greeting. With TalkPlus, customers can also make calls that display the caller ID of any pre-authorized phone number, such as a subscriber’s office phone, providing true mobility to the receiving party.

MySpace Adds Skype

MySpace will offer one-click Skype service to its 110 million users, beginning with users in 20 countries in November. MySpace will share revenue from the deal with Skype.

PC-to-PC phone calls will be free, with fee-based personal phone number, voice mail, call forwarding and calls to public network devices or mobile handsets.

More than 25 million MySpace users already have installed the My Space IM program, which will be Skype enhanced.

Users who set their MySpace profile to "private" won't receive a Skype call from someone who is not on their friend list. Users may also selectively add individuals to their Skype personal contact list, and any call can be blocked at any time.

Aside from potential commercial benefits for Skype and MySpace, the move contributes to a trend: embedding of communications inside popular applications and experiences.

The PBX Era is Ending: Microsoft

Microsoft has formally launched Office Communications Server and a new version of Office Communicator, the OCS client, and expects the new platform will "change the business structure" of the PBX business, says Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

"The era of dialing blind, the era of playing phone tag, the era of voice-mail jail, the era of disconnected communications...that era is ending," says Jeff Raikes division president.

Gates points to a survey Microsoft commissioned that indicates just one in three enterprise users have successfully transferred a phone call. Even fewer ever have set up a conference call, says Gates. Such opaque systems are going to be a thing of the past, he says.

"This is a complete transformation of the traditional business of the PBX, which is sort of like the mainframe," says Gates. "We live a life of rich digital communications but the phone isn’t part of it."

"It is our view that wherever you see the name of an employee, you should be able to right click and see where they are reachable, right now," says Gates. "People also should be able to use their mobile phones to the business phone system."

And while OCS is designed to integrate with existing business phone systems, "over time, the lower cost structure will be to not have the PBX," says Gates.

Want a GPhone? You Have to be a Developer

A UBS analyst has confirmed that Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC will ship about 50,000 cell phones running on a mobile operating system made by Google. The phones are reportedly going to ship by the end of this year. But the phones will only be going to development partners. The move would suggest that Google is more interested in an operating system for mobile devices than making actual devices itself, as most observers would guess, if given a choice between those two avenues as most likely.

But development of the operating system does not preclude the possibility that Google might want to have its own name plate on devices built on the operating system.

“These initial phones are not going to be for sale,” says Benjamin Schachter, UBS analyst.