Stinger mobile phones – handsets based on software developed by Microsoft and designed to take advantage of the data capabilities offered by 3G mobile networks – are due to become available to English-speaking mobile phone owners in Europe within the first half of this year.
Aimed primarily at corporate users, the Stinger software, formally known as Microsoft Smartphone Software Solution, is based on the Windows CE 3.0 operating system. The idea of the Stinger phone is to combine the functions of a personal digital assistant with a mobile phone and to do this the software require less memory than other versions of Windows CE 3.0.
But the biggest sting with Stinger is longer battery life – an extension of days not hours. The handsets have a new PDA interface, which uses toggle buttons instead of stylus’s to input data and manage controls.
As with Windows on PCs, Stinger does not encompass all of the applications and services used by cell-phone subscribers. Microsoft is hoping that third-party developers and service providers will use Stinger as a standardised platform to produce their own mobile software tools.
Ltd
