Microsoft working on Fone+ for developing countries
Quite remarkably, Microsoft has been working on an idea called Fone+ for a number of years already, and yet we are finding more info about it only now. It is said that this project went full speed from the time that Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, took over the company’s Unlimited Potential Group to focus on the developing world.
Fone+ is simply Microsoft’s idea of an affordable phone, which would be nothing more than a Windows Mobile based handset that can connect to a larger display for better viewing for users. In fact, this idea sounds so ridiculously simple, I’m surprised no one has come up with a similar solution to it yet, considering all the technology that we have now.
The idea, according to recent reports, is to “connect a low-to-mid-end smartphone based on the Windows Mobile OS to a TV via a docking station so data on the handset can be displayed on the TV screen. That way, people can use the computing power in the smartphone on a big screen.”
“It’s a lot cheaper than having to buy a whole separate computer,” said Mundie in an interview at Microsoft’s Government Leaders Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia last Thursday.
It’s a great idea, and when it finally comes to fruition, it’s certain to impact a lot more people than say, a UMPC or low-cost desktop. Simply because more people have cellphones. (Some people even have more than one phone.) When this finally happens, that’s the time to say that “portable computing” really exists.
Via PC World
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