Angus Kidman03 September 2008, 12:43 PM
Microsoft has demonstrated a version of its Live Mesh synchronisation platform for mobile devices, due out at the end of the year.
During a keynote presentation at Microsoft Australia's Tech Ed developer conference, Live Mesh general manager Amit Mital gave the first public demonstration of a version of Mesh running on a Windows Mobile device, using the phone to upload a photo taken on the phone and make it accessible to other Mesh-connected devices such as a PC.
"The support for mobile devices is one of the most exciting things in Mesh, because of the idea of your mobile phone being another [connected] device without having to do anything," Mital said, adding that the mobile version was not due to be officially announced for another couple of months. The PC-based version of Live Mesh has been in testing since April, and the beta was opened up to Australian users three weeks ago.
Live Mesh forms a key element in Microsoft's 'Software+Services' strategy, which it is spruiking as an alternative to pure cloud computing accessed.
"We aim to create a seamless experience between software running on your client and software running in the cloud," Mital said. "By bringing together the best of software and services, we maximise flexibility and choice. The combination is far superior to a software only or services only solution."
Cloud computing is widely viewed as a competitive threat to Microsoft's highly lucrative Windows and Office franchises. Mital obliquely acknowledged the competitive threat.
"The experience you get of running your software locally can't be matched by a services based solution. But despite the richness of the experience, people are still moving to applications in the cloud. The cost, the pain of acquiring and maintaining an application is so high. It is such a pain that people are just fed up. People are just giving up and saying 'This web application is good enough.'"