Chris Barylick
March 25th, 2008, 10:04 AM
<img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/march08/mslogo.jpg" align="right"/> In spite of its sometimes-critical perspective on the handset, Microsoft seems to be examining the possibility of developing applications for the iPhone, including versions of its Microsoft Office applications. According to Fortune, Tom GIbbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Specialized Devices and Applications Group, stated the following:
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"It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.â€
Gibbons then stated that the company is still getting comfortable with Apple's recently-released iPhone software development kit. The article also notes that voice recognition unit TellMe, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2007, may be interested in building an iPhone application provided that the iPhone software development kit allows access to voice recording and location-based information.
“If the SDK supports these things,†said general manager Mike McCue, “we’re absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone.â€
Apple has suggested that location-based information would be accessible to iPhone software development kit developers, but has yet to offer any specifics regarding voice recording functionality on the handset.
[Via <a href="http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/25/microsoft-looks-to-cash-in-on-the-iphone/?source=yahoo_quote" target="_blank">Fortune</a>]
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"It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.â€
Gibbons then stated that the company is still getting comfortable with Apple's recently-released iPhone software development kit. The article also notes that voice recognition unit TellMe, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2007, may be interested in building an iPhone application provided that the iPhone software development kit allows access to voice recording and location-based information.
“If the SDK supports these things,†said general manager Mike McCue, “we’re absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone.â€
Apple has suggested that location-based information would be accessible to iPhone software development kit developers, but has yet to offer any specifics regarding voice recording functionality on the handset.
[Via <a href="http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/25/microsoft-looks-to-cash-in-on-the-iphone/?source=yahoo_quote" target="_blank">Fortune</a>]