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Microsoft BU and TellMe Exploring iPhone SDK Options

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Apr 12, 2001
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Fortune's Big Tech blog reveals that Microsoft is taking a serious look into the iPhone SDK for the possibility of launching their own iPhone-specific applications.
"It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told Fortune on Monday. "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now."
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As the article points out, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit is one of the largest 3rd party developers for the Mac and brings millions in annual profit to Microsoft. Besides the Mac BU, Voice recognition unit TellMe (now part of Microsoft) is also interested.
... as long as the iPhone SDK will allow software to take advantage of voice recording and location-based information, said general manager Mike McCue, TellMe will be all over it.
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TellMe is a voice-driven application for mobile phones.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/25/microsoft-bu-and-tellme-exploring-iphone-sdk-options/
The big question here is will Apple let a company as large as Microsoft slide with the no storage rule- as far as I can tell, any microsoft app (word, excel, ppt docs creation or editing) requires some sort of file system.

This would be huge if it really works out though...
 
It's a brand new system in a brand new world. If Microsoft does it better then everyone else then there is nothing really to say regarding them. I agree, the more the merrier.

And having Office on an iPhone would be the end all for other Enterprise phones.
 
Get your own phone, don't mess this one up.
"Microsoft iPhone Gadget 1.0"
Home Edistion - $1.99, Power User Edition - $5.99, Business Level One Edition - $6.29, Business Level Three Edition - $7.91, Business Level Five Edition - $10.45, Site License Level One 100 to 1,000 Users - $6.89 each, Site license Level Two 1,001- 10,000 users - Call, Tech Support package - $1.99 per incident, Tech Support Silver - $1.45 per incident, Silver - $1.09, Gold - Call, Media Pack - $2.99, Upgrade Path Level One - Call, Upgrade Path Level Two - Call.
 
One sure way to drain the battery quickly is to leave sound input on for a while.

Also as to the "developers won't be able to access the dock connector" that is not entirely accurate.

Apple docs state that you won't need to because the iPhone OS will recognize the connection of a device automatically and provide the devices services to apps transparently (be they audio in/out or video in/out). So Apple will mediate/provide OS support for device makers if needed.

Far different than no access at all.

The iPhone is not a desktop or laptop computer, it has much stricter requirements for operation than even a laptop. Forget about cell network access, battery life and memory are so tight its amazing a "real" web browser is possible on the iPhone at all.
 
This is awesome news for business users. It brings me one step closer to my plan to buy 3G, 32GB iPhone for work/play...

(yes, i know it's not out yet)
 
i guess this is ok, no idea on what we would need on iphone office wise.

but... opening and editing word docs and more would be nice. so would alot more stuff.
but... given microsoft's Windows Media Player support on mac, (DRM variant crippled), i would rather not have apple give them preferred access to iphone.
 
iWork

If Apple would allow office suites to work on the iPhone, I imagine that iWork apps would be among the first available for the iPhone. And if there was a way to hook up the iPhone to an LCD projector for keynote presentations from the iPhone.... ooooohhh.
 
We probably shouldn't expect anything quickly from Microsoft either. They were one of the last to go UB- they were quite hampered with rewriting their software for the Mac intel platform. Now they are going to write for an entirely new platform? This may take a while, even if they could get apple to agree to let file access/storage work on the iphone. I'm pretty skeptical.
 
Having every possible option in terms of software on the iPhone can only benefit the iPhone. Being 100% compatible with every file format etc means just about everyone can't say "but it doesn't support feature x". The more iPhones that are out, the more Apps are sold. The more Apps are sold, the more devs (and serious development studios) will see the iPhone as a development platform, and will create even more solutions for out pleasure.

It can only help the iPhone in the long run.
 
It starts getting interesting. Add GPS to the next gen, and I'll go to france to buy an unlocked one.
 
This is standard the Microsoft MO with Apple. Become a developer, get the tools, learn all you can about the system, then release your own copy. That's exactly how Windows was developed in the 80s.
 
Letting Microsoft have iphone code is like letting Colonel Sanders in the hen house to do an inspection. Will Apple never learn? They gave Microsoft copies of the code to the Mac OS so Micro$haft could develop Multiplan and Word and all Micro$haft did was reverse engineer the code to develop Windows. Micro$hsaft is only interested in figuring out how to make a device to compete with the iphone on the Zune platform.
 
Damn I think you guys could be right. I'm getting scared now Microsoft is going to do this:eek: it be better if they don't give code that Microsoft could abuse, or just develop iWork, Pages and Numbers and be done for it.

chabig said:
This is standard the Microsoft MO with Apple. Become a developer, get the tools, learn all you can about the system, then release your own copy. That's exactly how Windows was developed in the 80s.
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stockscalper said:
Letting Microsoft have iphone code is like letting Colonel Sanders in the hen house to do an inspection. Will Apple never learn? They gave Microsoft copies of the code to the Mac OS so Micro$haft could develop Multiplan and Word and all Micro$haft did was reverse engineer the code to develop Windows. Micro$hsaft is only interested in figuring out how to make a device to compete with the iphone on the Zune platform.
Click to expand...
 
chabig said:
This is standard the Microsoft MO with Apple. Become a developer, get the tools, learn all you can about the system, then release your own copy. That's exactly how Windows was developed in the 80s.
Click to expand...

My worries exactly! Just omit these five words from this quote and...

""It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told Fortune on Monday."

...so you can soon see a Zune phone version in a candy bar design, color combo possibly silver and black, with a "home button", touchscreen, IE8, MS MarketPlace for downloadable music and third party apps, etc.

I just see that coming down the pike for some reason... :rolleyes:
 
mdntcallr said:
i guess this is ok, no idea on what we would need on iphone office wise.

but... opening and editing word docs and more would be nice. so would alot more stuff.
but... given microsoft's Windows Media Player support on mac, (DRM variant crippled), i would rather not have apple give them preferred access to iphone.
Click to expand...

For me, mostly Outlook for mail, word and excel, even powerpoint, for viewing and editing docs.

stockscalper said:
Letting Microsoft have iphone code is like letting Colonel Sanders in the hen house to do an inspection. Will Apple never learn? They gave Microsoft copies of the code to the Mac OS so Micro$haft could develop Multiplan and Word and all Micro$haft did was reverse engineer the code to develop Windows. Micro$hsaft is only interested in figuring out how to make a device to compete with the iphone on the Zune platform.
Click to expand...

If Microsoft were to reverse engineer the iPhone code for their own purposes, they wouldn't need a software developer's kit to do it. Relax.
 
TheSpecialist said:
Damn I think you guys could be right. I'm getting scared now Microsoft is going to do this:eek: it be better if they don't give code that Microsoft could abuse, or just develop iWork, Pages and Numbers and be done for it.
Click to expand...

The SDK is free and I'm sure they have many copies of it right now. I don't think MS will get any exclusive access to OS code.
 
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