Microsoft is making another move into the consumer electronics business. The company on Tuesday introduced the Microsoft Cordless Phone System, which uses voice recognition technology to manage calls by linking to PC address books.
"People have been talking about 'convergence' for quite a while now between PCs and TVs and telephones," said Scot Schulte, product manager for Microsoft's hardware group. "What we have here is one of the first true convergence products on the market."
The hardware group has already produced a speaker system and a universal remote for electronics devices.
The cordless phone base connects to a PC serial port and works with the Windows address book, which ships with the Windows 98 operating system or Internet Explorer version 4.0, said Schulte.
Users can also boss it around. They can export files from Microsoft's Outlook software to the address book, hit the "voice command" button, say "call," and a person's name. The phone looks up the number and dials, up to 40 different numbers. The phone can also link to caller ID to "tell" users who is calling. It can screen calls or respond to specific callers with personalized recorded messages, and check voice mail.
The Microsoft team considered incorporating Internet telephony into the phone, but "we didn't think Internet telephony was there yet," said Shulte.
Windows CE, Microsoft's operating system for handheld devices, is "being talked about" for future versions of the phones, to make them less reliant on the desktop computer. Microsoft has been approached by potential partners, and future partnerships are a possibility, Shulte said.
Tru-Tech Electronics of Malaysia will manufacture the phones, Shulte said.
"I think the reason [Microsoft] goes onto the consumer side is to drive demand for the [voice recognition] technology," said Steve Shepich, analyst with Olde Discount Corp. "They've always used that strategy."
