MS smartphone manager coming in 2008

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 24 October 2007 03:38

Your IT - Mobility

Microsoft has announced a new product for the remote management of Windows Mobile smartphones.

System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 will provide a mechanism for the 'over the air' delivery of applications to devices, while also providing mobile users with a secure way of accessing critical information.

Mobile Device Manager will use Active Directory and group policy to simplify device management, with customisable rules to suit an organisation's specific requirements. It will be able to force on-phone encryption for potentially sensitive data including email, calendars, browser cache and the contents of My Documents, and device features such as Bluetooth and cameras can be disabled.

If a device is stolen or lost, administrators will be able to remotely wipe it via Mobile Device Manager.

Introduction is planned for the first half of 2008, and manufacturers including HP, HTC, i-mate, Intermec, Motorola, Palm and Samsung have announced they will provide support either in new phones or through updates for existing models.

"System Center Mobile Device Manager will enable our enterprise customers to manage their Windows Mobile HTC devices in the same way they manage PCs and laptops and, at the same time, be able to help their businesses use a greater variety of wireless applications more securely," said HTC's CEO Peter Chou.

"HTC will make a Mobile Device Manager software update available for the AT&T Tilt and HTC TyTN II starting in the second quarter of 2008 with additional device updates to follow so that customers in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region will be able to take advantage of all the capabilities their mobile phone has to offer."