Microsoft’s Feeble Upgrade to Mobile UC

Microsoft’s OCS 2007 Release 2 was announced last week, and while it does include a number of new mobile unified communications features, those of us in the mobile UC space are less than impressed. For the moment, the best hope for a mobile OCS deployment is to find someone else’s mobile device and use it over someone else’s PBX.

Microsoft has been pushing their Office Communicator Mobile client for some time, but it only works on the ever-awkward Windows Mobile operating system. The need to endure the deficiencies of Windows Mobile is a major obstacle for any mobile application. Microsoft’s overburdened entre into the mobile O/S space has produced the classic jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none design that plagues many Microsoft products. While you might be able to get away with that when you have the processing power of a desktop to squander, that is not the case with a mobile device. Limited memory and a small screen make the awkward nature of the beast even more obvious.

The mobile UC announcement addresses Microsoft’s IP PBX offering as well as introducing some new mobile devices. On the IP PBX front, Microsoft will now support simultaneous ring/extension-to-cellular for single number reach, but that’s the price of admission to the mobile UC game. Mobile originated calls can now have 4-digit dialing along with the ability to route those calls through the Microsoft IP PBX. The ability to route outbound mobile calls through the PBX is an essential capability in controlling ownership of the business telephone numbers, and has long been available on other vendors’ IP PBX solutions.

In the battle for mobile devices, Microsoft is still lagging behind. To bolster the Win Mobile-based Office Communicator Mobile, they announced support for devices from Nokia, Motorola, and most importantly, RIM. When you read the fine print however, you find the Nokia support is for devices using the S/40 operating system; that’s the operating system Nokia uses on basic cell phones, not smartphones like the E- or N-Series. The Motorola addition is for the antiquated RAZR line- why bother? RIM’s Blackberry O/S is on the list, but that client doesn’t support single number reach. So to get the most desirable handset, you have to give up the most basic feature that makes mobile UC desirable.

Fortunately for Microsoft, there are still functional client and mobile device interfaces on other vendors IP PBXs that can link to OCS. RIM also makes their own OCS-capable client, which can be used with the extension-to-cellular feature on a number of IP PBXs. It appears that Microsoft’s mobile UC capabilities are catching up with the rest of the market at the same pace as their IP PBX. I can’t wait for Release 3!