Comment

Here's what Bill Gates didn't announce at the "Magneto" launch - email.

 He did talk about it, briefly; he told developers "there will be things like push email - work with us..." during his keynote in Las Vegas. That was it. Then he moved on to "near field communications" and developer techniques, and announced that Windows Mobile 5.0 was released to manufacture.

I don't think I've seen Microsoft go straight from "unmentionable skunkworks" to "release to manufacture" before.

All readers of this NewsWireless site will be pretty clear why this has happened - there's a legal cloud looming over Redmond, and until it's cleared up, they simply can't talk about "push email." They can't do it, either, until the update to Exchange Server is available - probably July. But even then, it's a forbidden subject.

There are good reasons why, if you want to equip your staff with mobile email toys, you would want to have a full, kosher RIM-like system. There are security issues with sending an SMS alert; most blue-chip companies won't accept that. There are practical issues with trying to stay "always on" even though GPRS data claims exactly that. Those claims are exactly that; just claims.

In one sense, it's a pity Microsoft couldn't go ahead; the subject needs to be debated, at an adult level. And in another sense, it's almost more important to focus on the new stuff; the definitely improved integration between Windows CE and Embedded XP and Windows Mobile, and all the new tools for developers - some of which are truly spectacular.

Windows Mobile has broken through from something which, a year ago, was hidden amongst all the other developer stuff at Tech Ed, into something which warrants its own major conference; and the new version of WM is better, in many ways, that most rival mobile operating systems. Symbian is facing a real threat.

But at the end of the day, the real problem isn't "should we do email?" or "Can someone please fix MMS?" or even "What are we going to do about the appalling 3G handsets?" - but "What is the real purpose of a mobile data network?"

Until we have some idea of what a network is for, we will see operators do the only real trick they know: to cut prices below that of their rivals. And they'll do this until they kill their own revenue streams.

Someone has to do something really creative, and quickly. Sending pictures isn't the answer.