This is big and rich: Microsoft announced today that they’ve licensed the Exchange ActiveSync protocol to palmOne for use in their new, officially-unannounced line of Treo smartphones (including the 650). I want one.
Why is this a big deal? Well, pick your reasons. First, it shows that the Exchange team is going to do the right thing for customers by providing a broad range of supported EAS devices, even though I bet the Windows Mobile folks are really torqued off about it. Second, it puts a stake in the ground: MS is not backing away from Exchange ActiveSync in the face of vigorous competition from RIM and Good Technologies; Good is already shipping GoodLink for Treo, and RIM announced BlackBerry software for Palm OS in December 2003.
Next, it broadens the reach of ActiveSync to embrace Palm OS devices. That’s good for Exchange, since many organizations have stuck with Palm as their standard mobile platform. Palm OS users can now have the crunchy Always Up-to-Date goodness formerly reserved for Windows Mobile devices.
IMHO the most significant impact of this deal has little to do with the specific technologies involved: if it is successful, it will validate Microsoft’s fairly new, and still somewhat untested, approach of licensing key networking/communications protocols to all comers. Overall, this is a very important approach for MS to embrace if they want to stay competitive against the many organizations that want to knock them off their pedestal.
Updated: added a link to the MS press release.
Updated: removed note about AUTD support, which isn’t in the first release.
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Time for a new phone? Outlook unclear
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