13th Feb 2007 07:02
Vodafone Group Plc13 February 2007 MICROSOFT AND VODAFONE TO LAUNCH ENHANCED INSTANT MESSAGING SERVICE FOR PC AND MOBILE USE Barcelona, 13 February 2007: Vodafone and Microsoft today announced they areworking together to deliver an enhanced co-branded and seamless InstantMessaging (IM) service that can be accessed from both the PC and mobile phone.The world's biggest IM community and biggest Mobile Messaging community willtogether provide a next generation messaging service based on the Windows LiveMessenger platform. The new IM service will provide millions of customers with enhanced IMcommunication opportunities and will be launched in select European marketslater this year. The new service means that customers will be able to use the address bookfunctionality and see the "presence" of their Messenger contacts and exchangemessages when these contacts are either on their PC or mobile devices. The co-branded Instant Messenger experience will be available on a wide range ofVodafone consumer handsets, including those on the Windows Mobile platform,bringing together customers of other Mobile Network Operator IM networks,consistent with last year's 3GSM announcement (June 2006) on Personal IM . "Microsoft - through our Windows Live communication platform - and Vodafone areworking together to enhance messaging between mobile phones and PCs, ultimatelydelivering a richer experience to customers," said Brian Arbogast, corporatevice president of the Windows Live Developer and Communications Platform groupat Microsoft Corp. "By way of this launch, we are expanding our customers'ability to make smart communication choices and connect instantly via IM to thepeople they care about most whether they are on their phone or on their PC." "We have brought together two of the world's largest messaging communities witha co-branded seamless PC-to-mobile instant messaging service. Vodafone customerswill be able to communicate whenever and wherever they want, using IM and itsadditional service benefits, make the most of their time with mobile and PC, andfriends and family," said Frank H Rovekamp, Global Chief Marketing Officer forVodafone Group. He continued: "IM is a growing part of the increasingly important mobilemessaging market. By bringing our collective customers together, we'll delivermore options about how to stay in touch when messaging." In June 2005, Vodafone and Microsoft announced the signing of a strategicalliance agreement involving the interconnection of existing instant messagingservices from both companies. Today's announcement is of a new, co-branded andconverged instant messaging offering and underscores Vodafone and Microsoft'scommitment to collaborating to provide services that are even more innovative byaccelerating the convergence of telecommunications services, informationtechnology and multimedia. -ends- For Further Information: Vodafone Group Media RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664444 About Vodafone Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group withoperations in 25 countries across five continents and over 200 millionproportionate customers by the end of January 2007, as well as 36 partnernetworks. For further information, please visit www.vodafone.com About MSN and Windows Live MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. Withlocalized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is aworld leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences toconsumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. WindowsLive, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bringtogether in one place all the relationships, information and interests peoplecare about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC,devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each otheras complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early betaphase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com. MSN worldwidesites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software,services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their fullpotential. ######### Microsoft and MSN are either registered trademarks or trademarks of MicrosoftCorp. in the United States and/or other countries. VODAFONE, Vodafone Messenger and Vodafone logos are trademarks of the VodafoneGroup. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be thetrademarks of their respective owners. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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